<p>After you graduate do most of you go (or plan to go) straight to grad school or would you rather go out and get some job experience first? Are there any benefits/downsides to either option, or is it just a matter of preference?</p>
<p>I see nothing but benefits as far as working for a while before grad school goes. Especially with professional programs (medicine withstanding) and PhD programs. I have many many friends in many many different types of programs, and we've all basically agreed that people with work experience are more mature, focused, and generally interested in what they do at grad school.</p>
<p>What do you want to do, anyway?</p>
<p>I've almost served 5 years in the Army, after graduating from college. I had no intention of going to grad school prior to the Army, but the experiences I had while enlisted gave me focus for my greater interests.</p>
<p>In fact if I had joined the Army prior to college, I probably would've gained more from my later studies. Some of my Army friends came straight out of high school, and by the time they separate and go to school, I think they'll find their studies easy and productive.</p>
<p>Your experiences may vary. =)</p>
<p>If you think about it, working some first sounds really good.</p>
<p>I'm not sure how well it works in practice. </p>
<p>The people that I know who went back to grad school went back after very little time at work - more of a "my God, I'd rather DIE than do this the rest of my life" than anything else.</p>
<p>MBA's are different, of course.</p>
<p>One danger is that you will never go back. Much of the most interesting work in the sciences and engineering is segreagated to those with a PhD - it does not matter if you can do the work if you don't have the credentials.</p>
<p>I took two years off from college before I went to graduate school, here are the pros and cons I saw from it;</p>
<p>Pro:</p>
<p>You become more mature and you get a sense of what a working life entails. The extra savings is also a plus. If you still want to go back then now you really know you want to go back. For me, I was really ANXIOUS to go back. I missed school so much and that made me even hungrier to want to learn and do well. </p>
<p>Con:</p>
<p>My math was rusty and I feel like it is hindered me a bit. Your going to forget some stuff. If your not the super dedicated type then you might lose the motivation in going back.</p>
<p>Another thing to think about are the 5 year masters programs that a lot of schools offer. These programs provide you with the most efficient way to get a masters degree, so your time of work will be cut to a minimum. Usually if you have done well as an undergrad you can progress through this program in less than 5 years as well and get some funding for it.</p>
<p>Working can also help atone for past sins -- if, for example, you had a low GPA or poor research experience as an undergrad, it will be forgiven to some degree if your work record is solid.</p>
<p>One downside is that people sometimes have difficulty getting professor recommendations if they've been out of school for several years. More obviously, you end up being older when you get your degree. I will probably be 28 when I finish my PhD program, and I wasn't too keen on making that 29 or 30.</p>
<p>And, of course, an obvious downside in taking time off before grad school is that you can't do research while working (in general)!</p>
<p>Well, I am all for working. Just, like, as a general rule. </p>
<p>But, I think that if your course of study is humanities based, it will be easier to take a bit of time off to work more than it would be if your course of study is more clinical or tech based. </p>
<p>I figure that with science and the like, things can change really quickly with regards to research. Whereas with Literature and the like, things stay the same.</p>
<p>for clinical psych it is highly recommended to get work/research experience first</p>
<p>I think for many people, taking some time off to work can be helpful. But it depends on the situation and on the person.
I just started working on my master's degree, and most of my peers (who have also just started grad school) are in their early twenties, some straight out of undergrad. They seem motivated. One spend a year after undergrad working in a law firm, and is now considering doing a law degree after her M.S.
I am older by some years. After finishing my undergrad degree, I ran into some problems (health problems and other things) that came unexpectedly. I finally did work at a couple of jobs, but they were minimum wage jobs. (I'd also been involuntarily unemployed for a while.)
Now I finally am in grad school, mostly with people who are considerably younger than I. What makes it seem worse is that I don't have much to show for my years. I know that some people put grad school on the back burner for a while because they want to pursue a certain career/work experience first, or because they want to raise kids, or whatever. That wasn't the case with me. I had problems and obstacles I'd never asked for. Instead of feeling more motivated, I feel depressed. I can never get back the lost years. For me, going to grad school later was not a good thing. It's taking a lot of prayer and trying to motivate myself just to keep going.</p>
<p>Plot93 - </p>
<p>I'll be 54 when (if) I start grad school - if you had a couple years of illness, so what! And NOBODY ever asks for problems though sometimes our own choices make them inevitable. </p>
<p>If you're genuinely feeling depressed (in the clinical sense) get yourself over to your school's health services office and see a doctor. I ran into a trouble with exceptional work pressure while trying to learn Greek and take upper level Latin last year. I negotiated out of some of the office situation, dropped Greek (I'm nailing it this fall!) and for about 6 months took Lexapro, then tapered off. It is simply amazing what a small chemical imbalance in your brain can do to your thinking - and how easy it can be to fix.</p>
<p>Hey! You're in Grad School!</p>
<p>Hmmm, so if you choose to work before going to grad school, where's the point where you decide you're going to stop doing that and go back to academia?</p>
<p>....and for Volscio: what made you decide you wanted to go to grad school? How much did military life have to do with what you learned in school, and how did it expand your interests?</p>
<p>I think that point comes at different times for different people. For instance, it may come when you decide that you're in the wrong field and want to do something else, or when you face some roadblock at work (denied a promotion, licensure, raise, etc.), or just when you feel like you're at the right point where your finances, family, etc. are in the right place.</p>
<p>well, i'm surprised to read the posting from plot93, because I've never really heard anyone describe their time between UG and Graduate school as a
waist (yours def. was not a waist. you appeared to do what you had to do.)</p>
<p>Generally, most advisors have told me that if your not exactly sure what you want to do right out of UG, work a couple years. maybe travel. and find your passion. </p>
<p>personally, i am currently finding my time between UG and graduate school to be very valuable.</p>
<p>Caveat!</p>
<p>If you're in a field where your starting salary's going to be something fairly tasty, it may be difficult to go back to the fifty-cents-an-hour income of a destitute graduate student.</p>
<p>Hrm, a friend of mine says he's thinking of working and doing grad school at the same time. How would that go?</p>