Why should I go to graduate school?
The question of whether to pursue a graduate degree is a difficult one. Many people do very well for themselves without a graduate degree. Many others credit their graduate work with providing them opportunities they would probably never have had otherwise.
When I first decided to pursue a doctorate, my committee chair asked me why I wanted to do it. “To teach” was my first reply. She reminded me that I could certainly teach at the community college level with my master’s degree. “To make a difference” I returned. She pointed out that people make a difference all the time by working for advocacy organizations, and don’t need a doctorate to do that. She was trying to get me to think very hard about why I wanted the degree.
If you are thinking about pursuing graduate work, you really need to know why you want to pursue the degree. The reason for this is that graduate school is a long, hard road that extracts (or can) the life from you if you are not passionate about what you are doing. There must be, at least for me, a purpose to the graduate degree, an end to which the degree is a means. The degree for the degree’s sake is not the best reason to pursue it, and may not get you through the program.
