The Review

Issue date: 10/12/07 Section: Editorial

As the days count down toward my impending exit from college, the question, "What am I going to do with the rest of my life?" becomes heavier and heavier.

I could always get a job right out of college and start my life like so many before me. There is always the option to travel and see the world before Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il decide to play their own real life version of Risk and see who can conquer the world faster.

Or, there is always the sensible choice of graduate school. At least that is what I used to tell myself.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to talk to my adviser in regards to how little I planned for my life outside of college and I brought up the old line, "Well, at least I can just go to graduate school."

About that time, I received one of the best pieces of advice I have ever been given.

He told me not to go to graduate school because I thought it was the next step - only go because I want to specialize in something. He said he can think of many kids who have gone on to become lawyers and hate it because they went into law school because they felt like there was no other option.

At first I was a little confused. I was not sure if I was happy someone narrowed my choices down or upset because, well, that was one less thing I could bank on. But, after spending a week or so thinking about it, I came to a realization - graduate school is not for everyone.

For our generation, graduate school has become the new college. It is that inevitable step everyone feels they need to do or else they are not going to get that great, high-paying job they dreamt about since they understood what money was.

But, it seems many students do not even think about what graduate school is supposed to be. This is not another two years to party and live like you have for the past four - it is not college.

Graduate school is a specialized environment where students go to concentrate in a particular field of study - whether it is to further studies in literature or being a medical or law school.

Maybe the attitude that graduate school is just another progressive step in life is more of a problem for many students coming from liberal arts backgrounds where we were given the opportunity to choose many of our own classes, at our own pace.

We have been given four years to risk taking classes we would have never tried before if not given the open doorway to walk in and see what it was like.

Another group of people who would be affected by jumping into graduate school are those who have had problems getting along with academic life through college - such as studying and grasping concepts for tests.

The people who could not focus and sit down and do their work through the first four years, then decide at the last minute they will attend graduate school "just because" - the only thing they are going to learn there is just how much they are the oil to academia's vinegar.

By no means am I saying graduate school is a bad thing. Many people attend graduate school and have a great time with many experiences and come away with ten times the information they went in with.

But at the same time, many people will leave college and be just as successful as they would have been without graduate school.

For those on the fence about what to do with their lives after college, myself included, take a step back and look at your options.

"Do I want to spend another two to four years with my head in a book going for a job that may or may not be what I really want?"

Life is full of choices and each one is just as important as the next for where your life is going to take you. Do not assume that any one decision can be something to "bank on." Make sure what you decide you want to do is one in the same, it will help make life that much more enjoyable and in 20 years you will not be sitting at home wondering what would have been.

For me, graduate school is something that can wait, at least while there are still the 42 territories still unconquered.


Jeff Ruoss is an editorial editor for The Review. His viewpoints do not necessarily represent those of The Review staff. Please send comments to jru@udel.edu.

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