Psy 301

Graduate School And You -- A Little Self-Assessment

As is the case with all career planning, before deciding whether to go to graduate school you need to take a careful look at yourself -- we call that "self-assessment." Before you can identify the graduate program that is right for you, it is first necessary to identify "you." This will help you make much better decisions about whether, when, where, and how you will pursue graduate work. What we mean by "identifying yourself" or "self-assessment" is taking a careful look at aspects of yourself that may have a bearing on graduate endeavors. To do this thoroughly, you can use another of our Career Center booklets, "Self-Directed Self-Assessment," and/or attend the Career Center workshop, "Finding a Career With Your Name On It: Self-Assessment." You also need to be able to answer the questions in Appendix A of this booklet under "A Little Self-Assessment." Basically, you need to identify your own strengths and weaknesses, as well as your present interests, skills, values, goals and objectives, and how all of those things relate to the possibility of going to graduate school.

It is particularly important to think about how graduate school will help you meet your career goals. If you aren't sure about that, you may need to think further about what your goals are. It isn't unusual for undergraduates to be somewhat unsure about "what do I want to do with my life?" Before investing a lot of time, energy, and money in graduate school, you need to be fairly clear about what you hope to accomplish with your life (at least for the next five years or so). Only if you know what your goals are can you determine whether or not graduate work is likely to help you meet those goals.

Should I Go To Graduate School?

As you self-assess, you will be focussing on questions having to do with why you should or shouldn't go to graduate school. When asked this question, the answers people give vary, depending on each person's particular goals. However, some common answers include:

Preparing for a Profession

Many people do enter graduate schools -- particularly professional schools -- to prepare themselves for specific types of professions. For example, if you wish to be a pediatrician or a surgeon, the only way to obtain the appropriate training and qualifications is to go to medical school. Similarly, if you wish to become a trial lawyer or a corporate attorney, you must complete a law degree. And, if you want to become a college or university professor, you will need at least a Master's degree, and more probably a Ph.D.

For many other career fields, however, a graduate degree is not necessarily required. Students often mistakenly assume that you "have to have" a graduate degree to engage in many professions, when the fact is that while such a degree might enhance your marketability and your salary, it may well not be necessary. The only way to find out is to do some serious career exploration, determine what kinds of career areas you wish to pursue, and what kinds of qualifications (including degrees) are required to do so.

Getting a Job

It is also important to realize that completing a graduate degree is not a guarantee of a particular job or career. While holding a Ph.D. will certainly enhance your chances of getting a job as a math professor, for example, and is more-or-less required if you wish to be a math professor at a liberal arts college like C.C., it does not guarantee that you will be able to obtain such employment. As another example, while you cannot legally practice law in the U.S. without completing appropriate legal training, simply having a law degree does not guarantee you a job as an attorney. Actually getting particular jobs depends on many things, including the state of the economy at the time you are job seeking, the number and qualifications of people with whom you are competing for positions, the number of positions available, and a variety of other factors.

Earning More

Similarly, if your goal in attending graduate school is only to enhance your future earning capability, you need to think again. People with graduate degrees do, on average, earn more than people who don't have such degrees, on average, but when you take into account the many other variables that are part of reality -- motivation, work experience, opportunities, realities of the market, etc. -- simply having a graduate degree does not guarantee you any higher earnings. So, if your goal in going to graduate school is to guarantee yourself a job upon graduation, and/or to guarantee higher earnings, those expectations may be unrealistic, and you need to determine whether your other goals are sufficiently motivating that you still wish to seek a graduate degree.

Personal Achievement

A final motivator for many people in going to graduate school has to do with gaining personal satisfaction. Many of us see ourselves as "life-long students," and are never happier than when we are in a setting that allows us to exercise our intellect and academic abilities. Generally, people who derive pleasure and satisfaction from academic pursuits, and who have a clear sense of their career goals and how graduate education meshes with those goals, are more likely to enjoy and be successful at their graduate studies.

From Colorado College Career Center.