By Caitlin Green
As May fast approaches, I realize how drastically different my life was just one year ago. Senior year of college was a blur, jam-packed with memories, and I was stationed in the middle, trying to savor every moment and make the most of what little time was left. The month of May sat juxtaposed to the whirlwind of senior year and posed the question on everyone’s mind: what are you doing after you graduate?
It began the summer before senior year, and the question was everywhere I turned. Distant relatives, friends of the family, even strangers in the grocery store all wanted to know what I was doing after graduation. At first, my friends and I would just shrug our shoulders; many of us didn’t know what we wanted to do. Grad school maybe? Get a job?
My college roommate was one of the fortunate ones. She had known since freshman year that she wanted to teach and couldn’t wait to graduate and have a classroom of her own. Another friend planned on moving to Connecticut with her boyfriend who was attending grad school and resolved to find a job upon arrival.
For the rest of us, we were bombarded with career fairs, resume workshops, and on-campus recruitment opportunities. But many of the opportunities were unappealing, and we all feared committing to something we would end up hating. What did I do? I applied to graduate school.
Luckily, I was accepted and was guaranteed at least another year and a half of freedom. If push came to shove, would I have gotten a real job? Sure, but here was an opportunity to continue learning and get a degree. This was the right move for me, and I don’t regret staying in school. Some classmates can’t wait to leave the tests, long papers, and group projects behind. Others just want to start making money (four years of being a poor college student will do that to you). So…what did I learn from all of this?
Lesson #1: Graduation is NOT doomsday. While it may be the end of the best four years of your life, there’s no rush to find and accept full-time employment just because that’s what you’re supposed to do.
Lesson #2: Explore all your options. If you want to travel, look at getting involved in the Peace Corps or see if you can work abroad for six months. There are many programs that provide employment opportunities abroad for recent grads. Utilize all your resources to find something that’s right for YOU.
Lesson #3: If you don’t know, DON’T panic. It’s OK if you’re sitting at graduation and still don’t know what you want to do with your life. Put yourself out there and get involved in opportunities that interest you; that’s the only way you’re going to find out what you like and what you don’t like.
Lesson #4: Be careful of burn out! You didn’t spend four years of your life partying every night. You studied and worked hard for your degree. Allow time for transition, and give your mind a rest.
Lesson #5: Enjoy what precious time is left. College is one of the best times in your life where you meet lifelong friends. Enjoy the remaining weeks, don’t spend them stressing about a job.
NEXT: The Grad School Gamble
As a marketing intern at Experience, Caitlin writes, assists with Exclusive Experiences, and picks up everyone’s dry cleaning. She is currently getting her masters at Emerson College and hopes that once she graduates, she’ll like being a grown-up.
17 comments:
This is pretty darn good...
Maybe, however, I wish I were lucky enough to get into grad school
Thanks for the insight!! What you wanna do with your life def doesn't come easy. I'm graduating this semester and then I'm off to graduate school. Hopefully I'll figure something out after that!!
Very interesting your story but unfortunately for some, grad school is very costly and some just have to resort to finding a good job that pays well. I think however that balancing out the two is a better choice since majority may not be as fortunate..Working and possible doing an online grad school will work....
I will have to disagree with this summation.
The current economic conditions are as such that people in Michigan are being forced out of school after only 2 years with the recent reduction of student loans.
Which in turn requires them to get jobs that are most likely to pay poorly because of lack of education in a degree soaked and failing US job market.
Eventually their student loans will be out of forbearance / deferment and will start taking chunks out of your already low wage.
Studies show the age of young adults leaving their parents homes to support themselves is growing.
The cost of living is increasing, and the wages are not reflecting this.
So working in a near minimum wage hell is a great possibility as the degree field is saturated, the job market shrinking, and quality jobs disappearing.
For many the doomsday scenario is a great possible.
If you think Grad school is very costly, the only real cost you may very well incur is the application fee, if you're applying to PhD Programs, that is. Most PhD programs pay your expenses because they want you to concentrate on school.
This is a great article for those traditional students. Do you have any advise for us non traditional students that have waited to go to college til later in life?
Myself. I figured out what I wanted to do before coming to school, now I am just waiting to finish school, but I am not sure all non-traditional students have it figured out.
I am also interested in Emerson College. Since you are there what do
you like best about it and the least of it.
I have a 7 year old and I live in brooklyn, traveling would be too much for me to do but, I have not found a program here in NY. What is the cost for one year? Is any of the programs offer flexible days and time?
Please let me know asap.
KR
Attending graduate school is !!!ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! appropriately viewed as extra "years of freedom." It's irresponsible to say so. Graduate work requires a student to devote much more time to studying than in undergrad. You can judge whether that's good or bad for yourself. Furthermore, if you go to law school, expect even MORE work than what you can possibly imagine.
this is pretty good info...lately I have been having anxiety attacks about the negative side of graduation.
I myself go to Emerson College, on the positive side it's a wonderful experiance to the person who asked about it. That being said it's a VERY costly one. It runs about 30,000+ a year. Don't rule it out though, there are options, and considering your current situation of being a parent there are continuing education type scholarships you can apply for. It's a wonderful school and I would have to say, worth going in debt for.
That being said. This article is perhaps one of the most helpless things on the internet. Thank you for your advice Ms. Green but it's hard to take you seriously when you already have this whole graduate school plan figured out. Bully for you, but that kind of takes away from your points. Of course you don't have to worry about the long run because you aren't having to worry about the "real world" right now.
I think the best advice is opposite of what you suggest in your last points. You need to be concerned with what will happen after you graduate. Yes, take advantage of the time you have left, but if you just sit back you miss out on many of the opportunities that your college or university may provide. In those last weeks you can get your resume fixed, you can talk to the career center about where to look, talk to the alumni association... all of these things will help you get a jump start while everyone who takes your advice leans back and says "worry about it later..." With that thought by the time we're all scrambling for jobs I guess we just have to wish and hope we are connected to someone, that everyone else followed your advice, or like you they got into grad school.
This sappy overly sweet depiction of all the "wonderful" things you can do isn't without any merit, it just seems more like the sugar to make the medicine go down. This is a time to take responsibility and find a place where you fit... not just flit around and hope for sunshine and rainbows to guide us.
I can definitely relate. Everytime I turn around, someone is asking me, "What are you going to do after you graduate?"
I get strange looks when I give the honest answer, "I don't know."
Very interesting your story but I seem to have a different perspective. Closing in on the last months of senior year I landed a job with a professional hockey league. Note, I landed the job, it did not land on me. I get the feeling that a lot of my classmates think they are somehow going to be found and then recruited to this 'hella-cool' fortune 500 company without any effort on their part. Sure, you still don't know where you see yourself in 10 years,.. but you have to accept that most people have to take a job doing the dirty work for a while to earn a experience and a reputation. So go ahead! Take another year off boozin with your friends, your job as a financial auditor in Belchertown,USA will be waiting.
I'm glad you are optimistic about graduating and then attending grad school but for those of us who choose to work after undergrad its a whole different story. Someone once told me that the first year out of college is the hardest, I didn't believe them at first but after a year has past since I graduated in May 07, it really has been tough to deal with the new responsibilities of budgeting, paying back loans and figuring out what to do next. The other issue--most entry level jobs are usually jobs most undergrads are over-qualified for and they do not make you feel like you've just graduated from a school that you paid $30,000 plus a year for. I hope to return to graduate school after a few years in the work world, experience really makes a difference and dealing with the realities of the real world really makes me appriciate the exams, papers, projects of my undergrad life and hopefully will motivate me to work harder and really get serious in my grad school work.
Fareen, we'd like to hear more of your side of the story. If you feel comfortable sharing it, please contact us at content@experience.com
I completely agree with Fareen. I am graduating on Saturday and have found myself in the exact same boat.
Reading your story has actually relief me from feeling somewhat frustrated, but in real life is not that simple as you put it in your fairy tale story.
Okay! We get the picture that life after graduation is a tough thing to figure out for most young adults. However, there are those of us "old folks" who have spent many years outside of school in the real world of working from paycheck to paycheck trying to make ends meet, that have decided to go back to college. Most of those of who like me make the decision to go back to college spend years figuring out our direction in life, so for the younger generation approaching graduation with little to no real life experience, I can understand just how daunting it may seem to you.
I am 46 and up until 2 years ago I had tried more ways than I care to count to make a place for myself in the world. Nothing I seemed to try worked out, at least for very long. Two years ago I came to a crisis point and finally after much soul-searching made the decision to go back to school. After so many years out of school you may only imagine some of the obstacles I faced, but long story short, I first (and I stress the word first) sat down and worked out a rough plan of exactly what I wanted to do with the remaining years of my working life, where I would go to get the education I needed to make that happen, and how I was going make it happen. Did I stress how important knowing what, where, and how are to anyone considering a college education or life after graduation for that matter? Knowing these three elements is, in my experience, essential to being successful during college and after graduation.
For those, like me who are about to graduate, don't panic too much. First take a breath, then sit down with no distractions, a pen and paper, and make a rough plan of action. List your goals first and foremost (this is a critical first step). Next, plan out how you are going to reach those goals (use the Internet for info). Finally, make your decisions clear and concise so there is no room for confusion or doubt later. Then execute your plan, effective immediately.
My conclusion to all this is simply, do not wait for later to figure things out. Act now, act with confidence, and above all act on your plan. College degrees, despite some of the naysayers, are still very relevant to higher paying jobs and take action to achieve both the degree and the job. Nothing is owed to you in life. Get away from the entitlement mentality and strive hard for what you want. It will rarely will land in your lap. So it is up to you to reach for what you get. Life is about continually growing, making decisions, and acting on those decisions.
The above is a shorter version of the advice I gave both my daughters when they wanted to pursue a college education. Yes, I know that most young adults don't think we of the older generation know very much. However, life experience over time lends the weight of wisdom that some of the younger generation don't yet have. Listen to some of your elders and if you can get them to share their life stories. You will be surprised at the wealth of knowledge and useful information you can learn from them.
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