<p>Probably 80% of incoming freshman say they are planning on going to graduate school. I can see that on this forum where tons of parents are talking about how their kids are going to do it, and also on the engineering forums where 3/4 of the posters (who haven't started college yet) say they want to go to grad school.</p>
<p>If you are in a major that requires grad school, fine.
If you haven't grown up yet and still want to spend time living the college lifestyle, fine.
If you want to go into academia, fine.
If you're unemployed and want to go to school while waiting for the economy to come back, fine.</p>
<p>But for all others - a bachelors degree will do you just fine and it's time to get in the real world and start earning money! Go to grad school parttime while working full time if you must.....but it's ok to decide not to be a student and to be a worker.</p>
<p>I work full-time and go to grad school part-time, so I’m okay by your standards, but I resent the implication that full-time grad students are not doing real work in the real world, or that they have not grown up. In most cases they are teaching and/or working for their PI as a junior researcher. That is real work. And, at least in the sciences and engineering, if it’s a decent program, they are probably making money, albeit not a tremendous amount of money. I have a friend, a poster on C-C, who, in her first year of grad school, was supporting both herself and her husband (who was still an undergrad) from her grad school pay, and was still able to save money on top of that.</p>
<p>News flash, being a student doesn’t mean that you are not an adult. And there’s no single “college lifestyle”.</p>
<p>As to the large number of people wanting to go to grad school as frosh…whatever. When I was an incoming frosh I wanted to go to med school. That lasted…roughly through freshman year. A lot of these people will change their minds on their own.</p>
<p>Some young people prefer to go to graduate school full-time, rather than tackling part-time graduate school on top of career and family responsibilities. This is not necessarily a bad decision, whether they do it immediately after graduation (as is common in some fields) or after a period of work experience (as is expected for those who aspire to an MBA).</p>
<p>I think that the choice of full-time graduate school while one is still in one’s twenties is especially appealing to women, many of whom will take on heavy family responsibilities in their thirties.</p>
<p>Most people who are going to grad school are going for the reasons you listed as being “fine.” For many careers, grad school is needed or helpful. </p>
<p>I don’t know anyone who went to grad school “just because” or as something to do or to avoid working. They went to grad school in order to be able to do something else afterward that they might not have been able to do without grad school. </p>
<p>For one of my D’s, grad school is necessary for her to go into her field of interest. For my other D, she earned a professional degree as an undergrad and so grad school is not necessary for her field. She is now working (she is 21). And even when my grad school D is not in school, she works. During full time study, she doesn’t. Also, we pay for our kids while in school full time. In the summers and as soon as they finish whatever level of schooling they finish, they must work and support themselves. I don’t consider full time grad school as a way to avoid working.</p>
<p>I’m really intending my post for high school seniors…on the engineering subform, 9 out of 10 high school seniors announce they are going to go to grad school and must get a 3.8 gpa in undergraduate engineering otherwise they can’t go.</p>
<p>If somebody is a senior and decides they want to do grad school, that’s great whatever their reason. (Most will go for the reasons above). But high school seniors think they have to go to grad school to be a good engineer or scientist or whatever, and that’s far from the truth (except for a few fields).</p>
<p>Can’t say about engineering for sure, but in the physical sciences, generally one can obtain a much better and also higher-paying position in industry with a Ph.D. as opposed to a B.S. So grad school is not just for those who want to go into academia.</p>
<p>I had a student a while ago who joined the workforce after receiving a B.S. After two or three years, she contacted me for a letter of recommendation for grad school. She said that she had grown tired of working for people who weren’t as smart as she was.</p>
<p>Just noticed post #5–for the most part, students in engineering who think
a) a 3.8 is needed for grad school
b) they can average a 3.8 in engineering
are delusional.
A student could definitely get into grad school at many large public research universities with a 3.5 or even a 3.2 and strong letters of recommendation.</p>
<p>in some fields, discussing grad school is necessary in choosing an under grad program. My DD is interested in architecture. If getting a Masters were not an option, she would have had to focus only on accredited B Arch programs. Instead she can look at a much wider range of undergrad experiences, with the knowledge she can still get an M Arch, if she continues on that path.</p>
<p>Son is taking grad courses in his junior year and is finding them pretty easy. In his area, the undergrad degree only scratches the surface - a graduate degree produces a more well-rounded person.</p>
<p>It also seems like half the applicants posting on CC have 2100+ SATs and 3.85+ GPAs, but I don’t think CC posters are a fair sample of incoming freshmen. You do raise a good point though: that one need not achieve the highest levels of education (ivy league, grad school) to be productive, successful, and happy in life.</p>
<p>Are we reading the same forums? I would say MOST applicants posting on CC have upwards of 2250 SATs and 4.0 unweighted GPA. 2250 would get a “Should I retake” thread. (Believe it all…or not)</p>
<p>I’ve always wondered why almost everyone here is planning on graduate school, even the engineering, accounting and business majors. I must be missing something.</p>
<p>My concern is that so many kids in HS talk about the desire for grad school with absolutely no idea what it is, what it involves, or why it is necessary. </p>
<p>My sense is they have been groomed into overachievers in the college admissions race, so this desire for grad school is just part of the competitive “more is better” mindset…get into the ‘most selective’ summer program (who cares if an unselective summer program is more valuable to you personally!), take as many APs as you can (forget about what interests you!), get into the “highest ranked” school by a magazine (who cares about fit!), get the ‘highest’ sounding degree, and go for prestige and/or money (forget about my particular strengths or passion!). So its medicine and investment banking, and grad school…what sound like the best bet for this mindset. </p>
<p>Hopefully most will mature out of it as they go through college. But I wonder if its unique to this generation, in which case we grad school admissions people will be flooded with entirely the wrong type of applicant in a few years to come. We are actually looking for those who have a passion for research in a particular area, and are good at it…something that emerges in college, and rarely HS; we aren’t interested in hardworking grinders who can jump through hoops but are doing it for the wrong reasons.</p>
<p>As a side point to the above, however, I would like to add that I think there is value in thinking through one’s potential plans to carve a path at the outset, so long as one knows it is very subject to change. Why not keep doors open? So if one is going into a major without a clear occupation path at the end of it- say history or say physics compared to engineering or business- it is easier to do so if one can envision the career possibilities (and choosing a school that enables greater grad school possibilities is part of that).</p>
<p>Maybe it’s because for many high school students on CC, their parents, parents’ friends, and teachers went to grad school, so that’s their model of what people do when learning a profession.</p>
<p>You also summed up my feelings on grad school very well…yes, high school students are groomed to be overachievers. It almost seems that high school students feel a constant need to differentiate themselves as being overachievers.</p>
<p>The thing about it - 1/2 of students who enroll in college don’t graduate. And 2 out of 3 (roughly) engineering students who start don’t finish. It’s a huge achievement simply to finish college. In fact, may of the students who are trying to figure out what they need to achieve to get into grad school probably won’t even finish undergraduate work! </p>
<p>I just think that grad school is the wrong goal, unless you decide on that around your junior or senior year. Continuing education is one of many different paths that your life can take, and the alternatives are equally good.</p>
<p>(By the way, I am a grad student right now. I’m doing it while working full time as an engineer and consider grad school to be my “hobby”.)</p>
<p>“In fact, many of the students who are trying to figure out what they need to achieve to get into grad school probably won’t even finish undergraduate work!”</p>
<p>While this may be true of the general population of high schools grads entering college, I don’t think that is the case with the average CC poster. CC is rarefied air.</p>
<p>I guess for engineering, this may be the wrong first idea. </p>
<p>Personally, my father had always made it seem like getting his MBA was what got him taken seriously in business- at least for the high paying jobs he wanted. To me, it was prefectly smart to get ahead.</p>
<p>Every other career I’ve seriously considered really shows preference to those who hold at least an MA.</p>
I would say MOST applicants posting on CC have upwards of 2250 SATs and 4.0 unweighted GPA. 2250 would get a “Should I retake” thread. (Believe it all…or not)</p>