Bad reasons to go to graduate school
- 1. Real life is scary
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There are a billion choices out there (which is good) and few of them are
tagged with a name that matches your degree. Graduate school can seem much
less frightening by comparison -- a set path, set course work -- you'll
know where you will be and what you will be doing for the next 5, 10, 15
years. However, you can only delay the complexity of choices, you can't
really avoid it -- believe me if you take a job at age 23 and wonder if
this is what you should be doing, you'll have plenty of support from your
friends and peers. The problem is that life is complex because people are
complex -- there are a million options because we are all different. You
might be the one in a million that can only be happy in an academic
career, but chances are low, and it represents a pretty narrow option.
- 2. Trying to prove that you're smart
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There are a lot of reasons why we feel we have to prove we are smart.
Graduate school has to be one of the dumbest ways to assuage that worry.
The problem is that you're self-selecting to hang out with some of the
brightest people around -- no matter how smart you are, in your program,
in your field, you are going to be working with certifiable geniuses. They
are great people to work with -- it's nice to have competent help. But the
company you keep in graduate school is not going to make you feel good by
comparison.
- 3. It's not only the clothing that is antiquated
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During graduation the faculty put on their academic regalia -- clothing
that originated in unheated German universities in 1200. When you are
struck by the charm of this long standing custom, it would be good to
remember there are many other things about graduate school that are mired
in the dark ages. This includes the cannon -- classes you take which are
almost completely irrelevant to the field, the fact that graduate-level
teachers and advisors distinguish themselves from their secondary
counterparts by having absolutely no qualifications or training to advise
or teach, and that with your thesis committee, much like the inquisition,
has no court of appeals. This list could go on but hold this thought -- if
you go to graduate school you will have to suffer through traditions more
pointless (and much less charming) than wearing floor-length black-velvet
robes on a 90 degree graduation day in May.
- 4. Who should be selective here?
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It is easy to get caught up in the application process for graduate school
(then postdocs, then faculty positions) with an eye on whether you will be
selected by an appropriately selective body. However this can shift the
burden of choices from you to the institutions you apply to. There's a
sense that the process is so selective, that if you can do it, of course
you should do it. After all, who would turn down a winning lottery ticket
or an opportunity to go into space? But is this what you should invest seven
years in between 23 and 30?
