To go to grad school or not, that is the question!
The one word answer to this question (as Shakespeare himself would have said) is - NO! And a two word answer would be It depends. A lot of people go to graduate school for a lot of different reasons. I am not sure what particular type of insanity drives you towards it, but lets put out a few reasons you shouldn't go to grad school, shall we? As a current graduate student I am speaking to you the reader from the 'other side'. Before you young'uns finishing your undergraduate, take the plunge you should know a few facts of life about grad school.
Money Matters
You will be poorer than the unemployed. No seriously! You don't get paid enough because you are a student (and we all know students don't have to eat or pay rent), and you don't get the long vacations you used to, because you are an employee (RA). In short you get the worst of both worlds. But hey, with the economy as it is, you might as well get a graduate degree, enhance you skill set, and reap the rewards later. Not quite! The economic benefits are not that great. Factor in the amount of work you put in, and the years you spend, adjust for inflation and you are pretty much dead. Finally, it doesn't help when your college buddy who had joined an investment bank turns up in his BMW, with his (2nd) wife, and invites you to his 4 bedroom house for a party he is throwing for his dog's birthday. Trust me on this last one!
The significant other
Do you have a significant other right now? Then hold on to them tightly. And don't let them escape (they will try to at some point in your PhD). Not only they will provide you with moral support, but often humanitarian support too. If you are single, then you are likely to stay that way for a very long time, so get used to it. If you think I'm exaggerating, recall the TA from your last course (now you are nodding in agreement right). It turns out being poor, often overworked, and a certified nerd doesn't quite make you a babe magnet. And, ladies if you are indignant that this doesn't apply to you. All I have to say is "I entered grad school as a single", so go figure.
Now you may say - Hey, but I am poor now as well, and think about the cool looking machines I will work with! Actually..
The (nerdy) coolness
If your laboratory sessions during your junior/senior years have taught you anything, then you should know that these big machines cost money, real money. So you won't be allowed to get close to any lab until you have undergone extensive training, which will sap all your enthusiasm (and the will to live). Even if you get past the training, the lab equipments don't just work because people have learnt to operate them correctly. Oh no, you first have to pull out all your hair in frustration, curse the machine (and the gods of your choice for abandoning you), and finally sacrifice a lamb on a new moon night to the great Imhotep. The sequence is important, don't risk doing it backwards!
The fame
Lets be honest, your chances of winning a Nobel prize, curing cancer or AIDS, or (most disappointingly) invent awesome star trek machines, are minuscule. Now I'm not prejudging anyone, maybe you will go on to become a world famous scientist/engineer/CEO, and some of you will be. But statistically the chances are skewed towards you ending up like lots of your peers in a 9 to 5 job, and a mortgage. Moreover, you don't have to get a PhD to be any of those world famous people. Just look at the school dropouts like Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates.
If you are not running out of the room shrieking in terror at this this point, then welcome to grad school!
You see, when philosopher Jeremy Bentham said 'The question is not Can they reason?, nor Can they talk?, but Can they suffer?', he might as well have had graduate students in mind. Because, for being a graduate student it is not the academic abilities that are most important, it is the perseverance. The ability to dig in and not give up. The "horror" stories I have been telling till now, though true, should not matter to you in your pursuit.
So for all your determination and dedication what do you get from grad school? Here are a few I think are the most important.
A new confidence
The Aha! factor
The reason you are even considering graduate school is that you don't hate your subject enough. The reason most probably is at least during a few times during your undergraduate you had experienced the 'wow' moment in one of these subjects. During a lecture, a lab session, a project, you saw the elegant scientific principle, the neat engineering technique, the insightful philosophical argument. That moment which alcoholics call 'a moment of clarity' is what I am calling the Aha factor. This is one of the great joys of grad school that you won't find outside. Yes there will be silly presentations to make, irritating machines to operate and codes to compile, but every so often you will be able to understand one spec of reality very clearly, solve one every so small problem elegantly and try things no one has ever done before. This to me is the defining 'human' experience. As mammals we are forever the slave to our 'selfish gene'. And not being The Buddha, our nirvana is available in these short moments of clarity of thought, few precious seconds with the beauty of ideas.
