Stretch Yourself: First Semester

The event I chose to attend for this Stretch Yourself assignment was the Cheers to Careers about going to graduate school. I decided to go to this event because I thought that it would be the most helpful in terms of expanding my horizons and focusing on what I want to do after undergraduate school. I am a psychology major, so going to graduate school for either a Master’s or PhD was something that I had been considering, but I wasn’t sure if it was right for me. I learned many things about graduate school, and by the end of the seminar I felt fairly certain that I would like to go for my PhD in psychology. I was able to gain a better understanding of what graduate school is all about. I learned how the education experience differs from that of undergraduate school, and though it does seem stressful to have much less structure, I like the idea of really being able to take my education and research into my own hands. I also had one of my biggest doubts about going to graduate school addressed, which was how to finance it. I was not aware that almost all good graduate schools will waive tuition for research and teaching a class to undergraduate students. Based on this experience, I do want to find more events that give advice on going to grad school, such as application tips or how to pick which school is right for me.

One of the things I have been worrying about is graduating early. I came into undergrad with so many credits that if I am full-time every semester I will graduate anywhere from a semester to a whole year early. I was not sure how this would affect going to graduate school, so I decided to ask the panelists what they thought. The answer I got wasn’t super reassuring, but it was realistic. They both said that I should not try to graduate early, as much of my research experience would come from my senior year. However, if I do end up graduating early anyway there are ways for me to get that field experience on my own. Also, they suggested that we should take some time between undergraduate school and graduate school to broaden our horizons and mature outside of college. Graduating early would give me the chance to take some time out of school without feeling as though I am falling behind.

This experience was very helpful to me and my future goals, so I am very glad I attended this Cheers to Careers.