Thinking about Grad School? Survey...

gthopeful
Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:37:53 +0000

I’m disappointed in the lack of slot for current high school students planning on attending graduate school after college.

“Plan”? Interests can change a lot during college. I don’t think very many people can reasonably claim they plan on going to graduate school while in high school. As a few examples:

I had a friend who, in high school, desperately want to become a doctor. She enrolled in college as a biology major and, come to find out, she’s afraid of blood. I think she changed her major to sociology after that and left with a BA.
Another friend wanted to do physics research and get a PhD. As it turns out, she failed Physics I. She changed her major to finance and left with a BA.
Yet another friend wanted to go to graduate school in engineering. Turns out, he failed Calc I so he changed his major to music. As far as I know, he’s still in school.

Most of the rest of my friends that matriculated to grad school decided in the last year or two of undergrad they were going after they realized they weren’t going to get the jobs they thought they were with their degree. I myself wasn’t planning on getting an MS, much less a PhD, but then by chance in my third year a professor offered me a spot in his lab and, two first author publications later in some of the highest impact journals in science, I decided to go for a PhD.

The point is, the future is too unpredictable 5 years out for you to say you “plan” on doing anything like that.