Griping About Grad School

Right now I’m inclined to try to persuade you to avoid going to graduate school in the liberal arts if you can. I want to implore you to avoid spending all that money to write papers upon papers about 16th century printing techniques and the subaltern in post colonial Jamaica. What are you going to do with all of this knowledge? Teach? You could do that with your bachelor’s. Yeah, you’ll get more money with a Masters or Doctorate, but what is money, really? Can it buy back your sanity?

Also, apparently, going to grad school is the first step on the road to divorce.

That being said, you really shouldn’t listen to me, because my beseeching you to invoke the Rosie the Riveter within and strike out into the real world comes from my own frustration as a master’s student in the liberal arts. As I write this, I’ve been waiting two weeks for my adviser to email me back about the teaching assistantship that would pay my tuition. Everyday that she doesn’t write me back is another day that I am closer to having to take out another exorbitant loan. This is one of the many such hassles a grad student has to deal with in addition to the mountainous pile of intensely boring papers.

But I digress; if getting your master’s is your passion and you wish to teach post-secondarily like I do, then by all means go to grad school. If you really want to focus and hone your skills then perhaps a masters or doctorate program is right for you. Hell, maybe you are one of those crazy people that love diving into papers until the early morning hours and forgoing all semblances of a social life. At the end of the day, it’s a huge investment, both in time and money and it’s not something to undertake lightly.

After the end of the semester frustrations conclude, I know that I will probably be less militant in my views about grad school and pat you on the back when you decide that you shouldn’t listen to the crazy lady in the corner, mumbling something about wanting to consume coffee intravenously (that lady, of course, being me).

Are you thinking about going to grad school? Are you presently working on an advanced degree? Are you happy with your decision? Let us know!