Is graduate school right for you?

Updated January 1, 2017 — My experience as a university professor and an academic advisor has taught me, time and time again, that a majority of students have serious misconceptions about what graduate school entails and at least some uncertainty about whether it is the right path for them.

If you are determined to pursue a Master’s or doctorate, you will have many important decisions to make and numerous essential steps to take in order to get into the right program for you. There are countless of sources of information related to grad school preparation. Any basic search on the topic will provide you with a countless list of grad school websites or so-called grad-school experts, both that provide rudimentary and very generic information and advice about how to apply to graduate school. Those sources and the limited insights they provide will not help you much with your preparation, or with putting together successful applications. In fact, following too closely the advice of  “experts” can be harmful to your chances of getting in. Not to mention that everyone else with whom you are competing will have the same generic information and limited insight into how it all works.

One of my primary aims with this blog is to give students who are thinking about graduate school deeper insights into how the process of getting accepted actually works. Once a prospective graduate student understands some of the important truths and widely-held misconceptions about graduate school, it is much easier to make good decisions and devise successful strategies.

I do not strive to glamorize graduate studies, nor to convince anyone to pursue a Master’s or doctorate degree. Going to graduate school or professional school following a bachelor’s degree is not a decision to be made taken lightly, and it is not the right path for everyone.