A former student of mine was debating going to grad school and asked for my advice. In her mind, she saw it as useful to go out and get a little life experience before school, she’s indicated she was tired of school, said she wasn’t really interested in grinding her way through school right now, and after researching, she felt like school wasn’t necessary to pursue her choice of career (at least the entry level jobs).
I wanted to share my response, and then I have some thoughts on going from undergrad straight into student affairs.
“You’re talking to someone who took 3 years off between undergrad and grad school. I think you can guess my opinion just based on that alone.
However, my advice to most people is don’t do grad school until you’re ready and 100% sure that it’s the field you want to be in. IF you feel that way on both counts, then definitely do grad school as I think it’s more of a “separator” than most people realize. Grad school has a way of making you reconsider your hopes and dreams, so I think you need to be committed to it before you go.”
As for student affairs, in particular, if you go straight from undergrad to grad school, you’ll be working with students who are literally months younger than you in some cases. Personally, I don’t think this is a good thing. I took 3 years off between grad school in student affairs and undergrad. In between I gained some life experience, tried out some fields that were of interest to me, and just had some fun being a young person that was making a little (very little) money. I think these three years served me well, made me more committed, and gave me some time to mature and get out of academia for a little while. I don’t want to make mass generalizations, but I’m going to anyway – I think the folks that went straight out of undergrad to grad school, in many cases, could have used some time away from the academic world and in the “real world” instead of going straight from undergrad to grad school in student affairs.
I’m curious to hear some other people’s thoughts in the comments.
I went straight from undergrad to grad, and I have always been one of the youngest “in my class.”
Because I knew exactly what I wanted to do (work in higher education), I knew that I needed a degree to do that (in the vast majority of cases), it didn’t make any sense to take time off. Yes, navigating being only slightly older (and in some cases, younger!) than my students was an occasional challenge, but I’ve also always been mature for my age, so most of the time, people didn’t even realize I was younger than them.
I think grad school shouldn’t be used as an “I can’t find anything else” stop, or because it’s what you’re “supposed to do” next – but if you truly know what it is you want to do, and getting that additional degree is a crucial ingredient, then go.
good points Sarah. In my opinion, even if you’ve loved being a student leader/RA (the normal track for SA pros), I still think it’s a great idea for people to get away from higher ed after undergrad if they plan on going into student affairs. I think the college experience is lived in such a cocoon for most people that working a “real world” job after undergrad and before grad school will either get confirmation that student affairs is for them or be drawn in another direction. Neither is a bad thing.
I have hopes and dreams of grad school someday, but at 6 years post-undergrad, it still hasn’t been right for me. I struggled through most of my undergrad, for a number of reasons, and I just haven’t found the right time, place and mental state to go back yet. With that said, I am trying to take full advantage of the professional development opportunities offered to me through my current job in Student Affairs, so if/when I do make it back to school, I have something to go on and am not just coming off a very long break.
I know you’re at a CC in NJ and thus the opportunities for those grad programs are a little more difficult than they might be even in other schools in other states! I don’t understand why more colleges when those “professional devleopment” opportunities are listed don’t include benefits for ANY SA degree program in the country, like many businesses do for employees pursuing degrees in their field of study. For example, at TCNJ, we don’t have an SA program, so I would have to look at another school. Rutgers has some similar degrees but they cost $300/credit hour, and I can only get reimbursed at half of that cost. One course would cost you $450 out of pocket. Add in the cost of textbooks, commuting and what not and that starts to become expensive. Not to mention, the difficulty of making it work time-wise.
In my dream fantasy land, I would like to think our student affairs departments would bend over backwards to make sure we know our stuff.
I also went straight from undergrad to grad. For me, I changed my mind from what I thought I wanted to do (teach high school math) during my senior year in college to what I am now doing (working in higher ed). I had spent 4 years preparing for one path and not really thinking with purpose about the one I ended up on, so grad school seemed like a good path. After working some of the summer jobs that I did, I knew that I was supposed to work in some type of educational field; plus, I have always really liked learning! Grad school was a totally different college experience for me, both in terms of the institution and the types of classes I was taking. I also knew that, for the types of positions I would prefer in higher ed, a master’s degree was generally required, even for entry-level positions. And like the first Sarah commented, I have always been relatively mature for my age, so it hasn’t really been a problem. Even now with 2 years of professional experience, I am 4 years older (in most cases) than all of the students I advise. I do think it depends on the person, but I don’t see a problem with going directly from undergrad to grad school.
Thanks for visiting Sarah! Good thoughts.