Grad School Goals

This summer, I’m working part-time at the Penn GSE Office of Admissions & Financial Aid and have been writing some posts for the GSE blog. Last week, I wrote a post examining advice for PhD students. I just published one about Brian Witte’s Time Magazine article, “3 Questions to Ask Before Applying to a Graduate School.” 

I could definitely relate to some of the points Witte made in the article, since factors such as “lost income and delayed entry to the salary ladder” definitely crossed my mind when I was debating between one-year and two-year programs. Still, as someone who wants to work in higher education administration, receiving a master’s degree is a necessary first step. As a result, the career path aspect of the piece didn’t resonate with me as much, even though the specific path I will take within higher education to hopefully achieve this goal is TBD.

However, one of Witte’s statements--which was definitely not one of the major takeaways of the article but rather something I found interesting--noted that for nursing students, for example, a post-graduate school career path is a little more obvious. I feel like before I knew what I wanted to do, I was always envious of my pre-med friends (extensive schooling and gigantic expenses aside) because they had a clear an end goal to achieve. In college, they were taking certain prerequisites and participating in specific extracurricular activities to prepare for the path ahead. I, on the other hand, chose my major because sociology interested me, not because I knew for sure how it would influence my future career—although now being in the education field, coming from this academic background is extremely relevant!

Of course, within higher education there are many paths one can take, but I, too, now feel as if I am on a path to achieve a specific end goal (although hopefully for me, no blood will be involved!).