IS GRAD SCHOOL RIGHT FOR YOU?
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It’s time to WEIGH YOUR OPTIONS: are you sure grad school will take you where you want to go? By: Kevin Nelson
So you’ve earned your degree, worn the square hat, and had your school library privileges revoked. Now what? For some people, this marks the start of their career, for others, it’s the green-light to start family planning. Then there are those who decide to pursue even higher education.
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I’ve had plenty of friends and family who’ve gone the post-grad route and it’s worked to their advantage. However, the post-grad decision will affect the rest of a person’s life. Before taking another trip up the ivory tower, maybe it’s time for some pre-post-grad pondering.
is it right school for you? Occupational hazards Some professions require a postgrad, making the decision a nobrainer. For everyone else, the job a person can obtain through pursuing advanced education will vary. Investigating the doors that will open to an MA or PhD is paramount, as is the availability of jobs in that field. The Canadian Association of Graduate Students issued a report in 2006 stating that, “Full-time employment opportunities for (bachelors and master’s graduates) are about the same for both levels of study, although it is slightly higher for master’s graduates.”
The domino effect When the job market starts to shrink, the conventional wisdom is to weather the rough economy in academia. The trouble is that everyone tends to think this way. With so many people returning to school to pursue higher education, maybe that master’s won’t make you stand out as much as you’d like. The old cliché “expe-
rience is the best teacher” might not always be true, but starting your career earlier means you’ll be earning money, paying off debt, and getting more hands-on training than your peers who’ll be knocking on the door, résumé in hand, in a few years time.
The elephant in the room Grad school is expensive! There are lots of financial paths to obtaining a master’s or PhD. scholarships and grants are a possibility, but due to the increased competition to get into grad school, it’s harder to qualify. “I’d love to apply for grants and funding, but I mostly wouldn’t get them because I don’t have straight As,” says Friesen. “If I were to go for my master’s, I’d have to apply for student loans.” Lots of students look for work as a teaching assistant. “I think you’re supposed to TA around 72 hours a semester and it works out to around $25 an hour,” says Friesen, who has investigated the possibility. “You’re only getting paid for time that you’re teaching seminars
and classes, and not for time spent marking first year students’ papers or reading articles so that you can facilitate a seminar.” That’s a lot of homework, and if you’re taking a full course load, working on the side, and still planning on eating and sleeping occasionally, worklife management becomes tricky. A 2009 report written by the Canadian Council on Learning shows the average university grad owes an average of $26,680. That’s nothing to sneeze at for a young adult, and the more debt a person has, the more likely they are to put off travel, starting a family or other worthwhile goals.
having completed master’s studies versus bachelor-level studies in terms of increasing income levels were in commerce, management and administration, and health professions. The advantage was marginal in engineering, applied sciences, mathematics and physical sciences, humanities and related fields.” For die-hard academics, none of these arguments will matter. The pursuit of higher education can be beneficial on multiple levels given the right circumstances. Just don’t make the leap head first.
The pay-off The argument for tackling a master’s and taking on more debt is that the rewards will make it worthwhile. That may be true of some fields, but not for others. The same report from the Canadian Association of Graduate Students offers the following tidbit: “2001 Census of Canada data shows that the greatest benefits of
165,789 students enrolled in Graduate school in 2008
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