Think long and hard when choosing graduate school

Cole Wolfson took a seat underneath the winding stairwell of Pitt’s Katz School of Business… Cole Wolfson took a seat underneath the winding stairwell of Pitt’s Katz School of Business building and pulled out his books to begin studying.

The 26-year-old graduate student, in his first year at the school, is studying to get his master’s in business administration.

But that wasn’t always his plan.

“Five years ago, I would have never believed I’d be here right now,” Wolfson said.

After receiving his bachelor’s degree in anthropology at the University of Maryland, he moved to Washington, D.C., to pursue a non-profit internship opportunity with Counterpart International that later escalated into a job.

After an unsuccessful attempt at a part-time George Washington University MBA program, Wolfson finally decided to take a dive into Pitt’s graduate program – but this time, he made sure he was ready.

As it turns out, Wolfson had the right idea.

Gaining experience in the working world after college gives students a better sense of self, according to Barbara Juliussen, associate director and career counselor of Pitt’s Career Services.

“Being out of [college] has definitely been a very helpful experience,” Wolfson said. “I didn’t necessarily learn quantitative skills that would help with my coursework in graduate school, but I gained insight. Experiences outside the school setting and just maturing a little bit are things that can’t be underestimated.”

Juliussen said that while some fields, like medicine and law, require obtaining a graduate degree, others do not.

“I always tell students to ask themselves, ‘Is it absolutely essential that I go to graduate school in order to get this job?'” Juliussen said. “Nine times out of 10, the answer’s no. So, I encourage the student to get experience.”

Pitt senior Alicia Smith said she also wants to take a break from school and move somewhere else to get a job to enhance her knowledge in her field.

“I think it’s a personal choice of a lot of students to work before grad school,” Smith, a marketing major, said. “But there are a lot of people who want to do it right after college and stay in school.”

Juliussen said that students sometimes plan to attend graduate school for the wrong reasons.

Years ago, she explained, the job market in Pittsburgh was so bad that many students went to graduate school because there was simply no other choice.

But now, the job market is better, and Juliussen said that the worst reasons to go to graduate school are to avoid the world of work or because of an uncertainty about career choices.

“Postponing thinking about a job until you’ve gone into debt from graduate school doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Peter Stokes, Ph.D., a senior associate director of Career Services at the University of Pennsylvania, said.

Stokes said students shouldn’t assume that any advanced degree has to be a good thing and, therefore, go on to graduate school before researching the fields in which they’re interested.

“I’m all in favor of education,” Stokes said in an e-mail, “but if you are going to spend a lot of time, effort and probably money getting an advanced degree, you should of course have a very good idea of what it is going to do for you.”

Darlene Massery, a human resources recruiter for a private equity firm in Boston, couldn’t agree more.

Massery received her law degree at Western New England College School of Law right after college and later landed a job with one of the Big Four accounting firms.

There, she went through a part-time MBA program at Suffolk University Sawyer School of Management and took night classes while working. Two and a half years later, her company signed off on her tuition reimbursement, leaving her debt-free for that graduate school experience.

The same goes for some Coca-Cola Enterprises employees, said Tim Atkins, employee relations manager in the Pittsburgh Market Unit for the company.

Atkins said that many of the company’s employees use the offered tuition reimbursement program.

The program is for non-union employees, with whom the company provides $2,000 a year for undergrad and $4,000 a year for graduate programs. As long as they pass the required courses, they are reimbursed for the cost, which covers tuition, books and other expenses.

Massery said that doing her two-year MBA program while working was a wise option that students can use to be reimbursed and still obtain their desired degree.

She said that while both experiences were a bonus on her resume, she never would have taken two years off just to attend graduate school.

“The money aspect is huge,” she said. “I’m still paying off my law school loans.”

Massery isn’t alone.

On average, medical school graduates who need to take out loans begin their residencies with a debt of $100,000 – not including college loans, according to the U.S. News ‘ World Report website.

Massery added that in the majority of positions she recruits for her company, a graduate degree is not always a deciding factor.

“All of our technical and analyst positions, for example, require a grad degree,” she said. “Sometimes the degree has a significant effect, but it really depends on the position and what we’re looking for.”

It could, however, result in a slight increase in a starting salary, but it varies among different companies, Massery added.

Wolfson said that ambition to earn more money down the road largely contributed to his decision to earn his MBA.

He added that working for large corporations didn’t appeal to him, but working with non-profit organizations – most likely his career path – won’t be financially generous without furthering his education.

“With an undergraduate degree and [working for a non-profit organization], you kind of max out at $45,000 in Washington,” Wolfson said, recalling his past experience. “And in Pittsburgh, who knows.”

Juliussen agreed that having a graduate degree certainly influences salary in the long run, so for students who are confident in their career choices, going to graduate school might be the most practical decision.

Graduate school options for some career paths, Juliussen said, are quite simple; potential doctors attend medical school as potential lawyers do law school.

But, for those going into other fields, there are more options that require time and major planning.

As a master’s candidate, according to The Princeton Review website, a student will spend about two years at graduate school, which is meant to give a “solid education in a specialized field of scholarship.”

The first year is spent fulfilling coursework requirements of a student’s particular degree, much like in college, but the second year allows for a more direct focus toward a specific concentration.

A doctoral candidate, the website said, spends up to five or six years at graduate school and will give “an extensive knowledge of your field; train you to do original and meaningful research; and prepare you to function as a member of a teaching faculty.”

The last three years of a doctoral program do not focus as much on coursework but instead on conceptualizing a student’s own doctoral dissertation, which, according to The Princeton Review website, “must constitute a new and meaningful contribution to knowledge in your field.”

Stokes said in order to enroll in these research programs, one must love research and not mind that in all likelihood, the pay will be low for quite some time.

But if it’s not the case, he said, don’t hurry into it.

“Taking time can provide valuable experience, and just give time to explore possible career options,” Stokes said. “Certainly it’s better to wait than to rush into a program without a clear idea of what it is likely to lead to, and that what it leads to is going to be a good, satisfying fit.”

Correction: Cole Wolfson was not enrolled in an MBA program at George Washington University. He was enrolled in a development anthropology program. The Pitt News regrets the error.