<p>I would not go to graduate school right away. A lot of students have this impression that they have to rush into grad school immediately. What they don’t realize is that in grad school, unlike college, a big part of it is learning from your cohort. People share their experiences, learned usually from ON THE JOB, hands on, workforce experience, and discuss and debate in that way. They network in that way. They learn in that way. What you learn from your cohort is just as if not more important than the classroom work in grad school. </p>
<p>As a new college graduate, with little real world experience, you’ll be a marginalized part of your cohort at best. You’ll probably be younger than most of the others, you won’t have much to share when they’re discussing research they’ve done or experiences they’ve had on the job that apply to what you’re studying. You won’t learn as much and you won’t be able to give as much to the learning community. </p>
<p>Unless it’s a specialized program that you’re SURE you want now. Wait. Wait 2-3 years, get a job (there are jobs out there. Maybe not your dream job right away but there are jobs). Grad schools actually prefer that you do this, some even require it. It sounds like what you really need to do is expand your job search horizons a little bit, and try not to be so picky. Remember, you can build towards your dream job or even a job in your field. Start small and get some experience and something on the resume, get a feel for what kind of training will actually be useful for what you want to do, before you march off and take on more debt for grad school.</p>