<p>I'm finishing undergrad soon. I think that I eventually want to go to graduate school, but not for a very long time. I want to get some experience (life, work, travel, foreign language) and then eventually apply to a program when I discover my passion. I don't foresee this for several years at least, maybe even five years.</p>
<p>Will my life/work experience be more important than my undergrad at this point? (I ask because I don't think I did as well as I could have.) I will also likely go into a completely different field than what I majored in.</p>
<p>I am a strong advocate of taking time off before graduate school, and I think that 3-5 years is the best amount of time as opposed to 1 or 2. I think that time off can solidify a desire to go to graduate school if the desire is true; for other students, they may discover their real passion or think about practical matters and change their mind or decide not to go at all. 5 years is a good amount of time to get some work experience, see the world, and really decide what you want to do - so I think that’s a great idea, personally. (And I say this as a person who went straight to grad school, and kind of wishes she didn’t.)</p>
<p>Whether your life and work experience will be more important than your undergrad depends on what you apply to. If you apply to professional master’s programs - MBAs, MPAs, MIAs, MPPs, MPHs, etc. - then yes, it will be. If you apply to traditional academic MA/MS programs or PhD programs, then no, it won’t be. Those programs won’t care if you spent 2 years in the Peace Corps unless those two years were spent doing something directly relevant to the mission of the program - like some kind of research or something close to that.</p>
<p>MD and JD programs will be in the middle. Your undergrad GPA and performance will be important, but what you have done in those 5 years is going to matter as well.</p>