Whether your senior year of college is coming to a close, or you graduated years ago, the question of whether or not you should attend graduate school may loom large in your mind. It’s not an easy question to answer, and you’ll need to spend some time really thinking about what your goals are, and whether or not graduate school may be able to help you reach those goals. Such a big life decision can seem overwhelming. Here are a few things to think about as you decide if graduate school is for you.
Identify Your (Career) Goals
First things first: you need to figure out what your long-term goals are, both professionally and personally. If you’re looking to eventually become a doctor, lawyer, or professor, there’s no question you’ll need to go to graduate school and obtain an advanced degree. If this is the case, start researching programs and schools that interest you, and figure out how to fit in graduate school with your personal life (which may have to be put on hold or altered slightly while you’re in school).
If your goal is to work in an industry like nonprofit or pharma, you may not need an advanced degree to do so. Take the time now to start researching various fields and career paths. Once you’ve narrowed those down, find specific companies where you would like to work and review their job postings. Learn the requirements of various positions and compare those requirements to your own experiences and skills. If they match up, great. If not, you may need to consider an advanced degree or more time in the workforce.
If you’re not sure what you want to do, then it’s definitely not time to go to graduate school. That’s OK too! Take some time to focus on you and learning more about yourself. Graduate school will always be there if you decide to go at a later date.
Understand How Graduate School Is Different from College
It’s easy to think that graduate school is just an extension of college, with large lectures, multiple tests, and long days. In reality, most graduate schools operate very differently from colleges. Graduate students tend to focus on one specific area of concentration, as opposed to college, where you’re oftentimes encouraged to explore multiple areas. Graduate school also tends to focus on higher-level, specialized work, with the thought being that you’ve already learned the basics in college, so now it’s time to dive deeper. If you’re someone who is truly excited about a particular area of research, graduate school may afford you the opportunity to do the deep dive you couldn’t in college.
Graduate school also comes in many different formats, with more online/blended learning opportunities and different class times. When I was a graduate student, all of my classes were at night, and in person. Other graduate programs are fully online, never requiring you to step foot in a classroom. This can be a very different experience than college, so you’ll need to take the type of graduate program into consideration as you think about your potential graduate school experience.
Money, Money, Money
There is a cost to graduate school and depending on whether or not you live on campus, need to travel to class, are a full-time or part-time student, or have other financial obligations outside of school, those costs can quickly add up. Take a long, hard look at your finances now, and over the next few years to determine whether or not you can afford graduate school. While many schools do provide scholarships or financial assistance, they may not cover things like books, travel if you have to commute, and living expenses if you need to relocate.
Many students coming out of undergrad are coming out with significant student loans, and go straight into a graduate degree program to defer paying those loans. This isn’t always the most economical or prudent move. Make sure that going straight to graduate school won’t put you in even larger financial debt. For those who are already working, your employer may offer tuition assistance for an advanced degree, significantly lessening your financial burden. Understanding your finances is imperative to making an informed decision about pursuing an advanced degree.
Talk to People
Don’t feel like you have to make the decision about graduate school in a bubble. Talk to your friends, family, advisors, and colleagues. Not only are they people who know you well, they have experiences and knowledge you don’t. They may know of programs that would be a good fit, or have contacts you can connect with. Reach out to the various programs you’re considering and ask for more information. Ask to be connected with current students or recent alums of the program, to get firsthand knowledge of what you might be able to expect.
Deciding if graduate school is right for you is a big decision, and one that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Make sure you give yourself enough time to think through all the pros and cons—how an advanced degree can help you, why you’re truly interested in going, whether or not you have the financial means, etc. There is no right time to go to graduate school, and there’s nothing that says you have to go. I was out of college for about seven years before I decided to go to graduate school. The best thing about graduate school is there’s no “one size fits all.” Whether you decide to go or not, go right after college or wait a few years, there’s no wrong answer; you do what’s best for you. No one can argue with that.
On Topic
Kyle Yoshida received his bachelor's degree in bioengineering with a minor in African studies at Harvard University in 2018. He is currently pursuing his PhD in mechanical engineering at Stanford University in the Collaborative Haptics and Robotics in Medicine Lab, where he focuses on soft robotics and wearable haptic device research. Kyle is Native Hawaiian and has been a member of AISES since 2016. He is also a graduate student equity and inclusion recruiter with the Stanford School of Engineering. In his free time, he likes to sing in the church choir, snorkel, and scuba dive.
When did you first become interested in graduate school?
As a rising senior, I participated in a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) at Johns Hopkins University, which gave me a taste of what graduate school would be like. For the first five weeks of the 10-week program, I struggled to finish my experiments — the coding and setup for the project didn’t seem to ever work. Eventually, I met with the previous researcher and found that I had been doing the experiments wrong. I felt foolish, but instead of giving up, I stayed in lab late at night and on weekends to get some results. At the end of summer, I presented my findings to my advisor, and out of the blue, he asked, “Have you considered any graduate programs?” I was pleasantly surprised. I didn’t expect he’d say that, since I had spent half the summer showing him meaningless results. I ended up working in lab a few weeks after the program ended and mentored a high school student to make more progress on the project. At the end of summer, I reflected on what my advisor told me and my life as a summer researcher, realizing that graduate school might be of interest.
Why did you decide to pursue a graduate degree?
During the application process, I talked to graduate students and professors to help me decide if I should go to graduate school. Through meeting people, I found that there is a wide spectrum of students ranging from students who can stay in a lab 24/7 to those who were ready to drop out after their master’s degree. I also learned that graduate degrees will open opportunities to become a professor or engineer in top companies. I settled on pursuing graduate school because I realized that it would be helpful for becoming a better mentor and creative thinker. I also realized that it is completely normal for people to leave graduate school, so I felt that it was okay for me to see if I could make it — there was nothing to lose.
How did you determine where to apply?
I started compiling my list of graduate programs based on the booths at the 2017 AISES National Conference (since most of the schools there offered fee waivers). At the conference, I talked to faculty and recruiters from almost every graduate school booth and attended workshops on how to write essays and fellowship applications. By talking to students and faculty at the booths, I could get a grasp on what life might be like, asking “what do you do on weekends?” or “what do you research?” After the conference, I looked at the websites for each graduate program, and checked if their research was related to my interests. After this, I had a final list of 14 graduate programs to which I applied.
What was the application process like?
The application process was very stressful and had the workload of a college class. Because I decided on applying to graduate school in September, I had about two months to write essays, take the GRE, apply to fellowships, narrow down my list of schools, and find recommenders. I set aside time every morning from midnight to 4 a.m. those two months to finish the applications. Interestingly, the 4 a.m. emails were very effective at getting quick responses from professors, since it’d be at the top of their mailbox in the morning! After all the applications were turned in at the beginning of December, there was a lot of anxiety, waiting to hear back from schools. While waiting, I decided to apply for industry jobs as a backup.
A few weeks after the applications were submitted, I started receiving fly-ins to some of my schools. During this stage, schools fly prospective students to their campus to meet the professors and other graduate students to see if it’s a good match. Although it was fun to stay at hotels around the country and meet people from all over the world, it was quite demanding as interviews and events could go from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. During these campus visits, I made sure to ask graduate students what they liked and didn’t like about their school and about their relationships with their advisors. I evaluated many things about each school ranging from the food and research, to the number of friends I made on the campus visit. After all the visits, I listed the pros and cons of each school, and sat down with friends, family, and other mentors I’ve had throughout undergrad to decide which school to attend.
How does the workload compare to your undergraduate studies?
In graduate school, I decided to pursue mechanical engineering, which is slightly different from my undergraduate training in bioengineering. I felt like I was playing catch-up for the first few months, but I soon realized that many other graduate students who took mechanical engineering for undergrad had already forgotten much of the material anyway. Because of this, I could easily find friends to work with on problem sets and to help me through new material. Overall, the graduate workload has been significantly less than my undergraduate studies. I still sometimes find myself in lab on weekends and late at night, but it’s just a personal preference to make more time for other campus events or longer vacations (I could choose to be at school from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and still finish all my work). I also enjoy making my own schedule in graduate school. I can work when I want, have lunch with friends, and not have to worry too much about a heavy course load, since the emphasis of school is now on research.
How did you go about funding your graduate studies?
Fortunately, when I applied to Stanford, I received the Stanford Graduate Fellowship in Science and Engineering and the Stanford Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education Doctoral Fellowship. These fellowships provided full tuition and stipends for my first three years of graduate school. I also found additional funding specific to my research from the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute’s Mind, Brain, Computation and Technology Training Program. I’d highly encourage prospective graduate students to ask schools about their internal funding sources and to seek external funding opportunities such as those from GEM, NSF, NIH, and AISES. I’d also like to note that most doctorate programs in science and engineering are fully funded, but programs in medicine, law, or business, generally have a cost associated with attendance
is there anything you would have done differently during your time in graduate school?
First, I would have taken courses outside my comfort area earlier. During my first year, I was nervous about taking certain courses, since I felt unprepared. But I now realize that there will always be someone to help, whether it be a friend, TA, or the professors, and I shouldn’t have felt so afraid. Second, I would have invested more time with my friends. I realize now that happy hours and lunches offer a great time to vent about all the troubles in graduate life. Now, I try to regularly meet up with my friends, some of whom I met all the way back at the campus visits.
What advice do you have for anyone considering graduate school?
I believe that my REU was one of the most helpful experiences in helping me decide if graduate school was right for me. In retrospect, I realize that the REU introduced me to many of the ups and downs I feel as a graduate student: failure from doing experiments wrong, tiredness from staying up late, joy from getting good data, and excitement from training a new student. Having that research experience helped me sample life as a graduate student and gauge whether I’d fit in, so I’d recommend that students interested in graduate school should participate in an REU. I’d also like to note that graduate school is not essential to success, and it isn’t for everyone. Life in graduate school can get tough at times, so it’s important to be able to rejoice in every success (no matter how small) and to find comfort in every failure.
Lastly, I’d suggest that students start their applications early and find peers and mentors to help during the process. Applying for graduate school is like taking another class. If you can spread that work throughout the summer, it’ll make the process much simpler. Finding peers who are applying to graduate school can be helpful so that you can edit essays together and comfort each other about the anxieties throughout the application cycle. Now, these people are some of my closest friends, and we keep up with each other even though we are spread throughout the country.
