It’s here. Graduation day. Maybe you’re a parent watching your child graduate. Perhaps you’re actually graduating. You might be the guy who takes tickets.
No matter who you are, congratulations for getting to this point in your life. For all those graduates celebrating today, however, I urge you to do one thing: Do not go to grad school.
I’m not against graduate school entirely. I just believe that when deciding to dive into your next educational journey, it’s best to head out into the real world first.
Your priorities may change. We all wanted something coming into college, whether it was new friends, discovering the purpose of life or learning to chug a few beers. But we all wanted to grow. What you want to study in grad school may change after having a few years of real world experience. What is interesting or beneficial to you will most likely change after experiencing something new.
Most grad students become teaching assistants, or TAs, either as a requirement of their department or just to make money. I assume most grad students do not want to pursue teaching for their entire career. If they do, I’m pretty worried about the quality of teachers coming out of grad schools.
Though there are a few exceptions, the resounding response I’ve received from fellow students and friends is that most TAs are awkward, nervous and boring. But I can’t blame them. They’re not in school to teach and engage a group of hungover college students on a Friday morning. They’re in school to learn, just like us undergrads.
The power is all yours. Rather than listening to what a professor tells you and taking their word for it, you have the power to confidently make your own decisions with the information you are given. There’s no speculation involved. With a few years of real world experience, you’ll know how people in your field think and what they really care about. This not only allows you to form educated thoughts from new material, but to focus on areas you may not have otherwise thought to study.
It’s not a guaranteed win. The job market is pretty barren these days – having a graduate degree is not going to guarantee you a job, or even help in getting one. According to The Economist, “Graduate courses are so specialized that university careers offices struggle to assist graduates looking for jobs, and supervisors tend to have little interest in students who are leaving academia.” There’s a common misconception that more education will put you above the rest, but it’s not just about the degree—it’s about experience.
We’ve been in school for 17 years. Isn’t it time for a break?
Thomas Benton of The Chronicle of Higher Education agrees. “Don’t be in such a hurry to re-institutionalize yourself. Throw your mortarboard in the air. Consider yourself free for the first time in your life.”
So congratulations, graduates. Don’t go back to school. Turn to something new, something exciting. Head on out into the world and show ‘em what you’ve got.