Who /gradschool/ here? This board can't be ALL undergrads,

i am but i don't think it's much better than undergrads either way

Tell me, wiseguys, is grad school worth it?

>>9407998
For academia absolutely yes. For industry almost always no.

>>9407998
>if you get funding
Sure

>if no funding
Nope.

>>9407998
Do you wish to dive more deeply into a particular field of study?

Do you have a job in mind where demonstrated proof of additional expertise in a subject could get you ahead?

If you answered yes to either of those questions, grad school may be for you. It's not an instant job-getter, though.

>>9408009
>living in a country with non-free education
pleb

>>9407916
Here. Almost finished. Have job interviews lined up. Doing alright.

>>9407998
for STEM a master's is very much worth it

for humanities no

>>9407998
Depends on your priorities. Job market's abysmally bad for almost all Humanities/Social Science people. Even at the highest echelons now. Beyond horrible.

The real question is whether you love a subject enough to basically never care about money, and to gamble with being a fucking lumpenprole at age 35 if you get especially unlucky.

>>9408029
what field?

Not anymore. Defended my dissertation almost exactly three years ago now.

I miss grad school.

>>9407916
Im starting to get extremely depressed. Ive been working my ass off in grad school and simply cannot find a job. Like not even a low paying one. Absolutely nothing in my field. Does it get better? If im a fucking retail manager my whole like with a masters degree im going to be legitimately butt-blasted

>>9408059
I'm about to finish my master's degree in a STEM field and also have no job lined up despite having a high GPA. I'm thinking of joining the military.

>>9408045
English lit. WIll be defending my dissertation this summer. Hopefully will find teaching work.

>>9408034
It isn't. You either get PhD in sciences or stop at bachelor in engineering. Master's curriculum is not hard to do on your own and on the market your job experience and/or later (e)MBA will be much more relevant.

>>9408078
Nice. I'm in my second semester of grad school for English lit. Honestly, I'll teach if I have to, but I'd really rather do something that actually involves writing. Something in editorial work, somehow.

>>9408059
>>9408070
Do internships, fucking plebs. That's 50% of what matters for HR.

>>9407998
STEM lord here, biochem PhD (year 3). Getting to learn shit most days and being involved with the literature/scientific milieu is amazing. Being poor/losing money (I'm in an expensive city so the stipend doesn't quite cut it) as your friends start to add senior to their title is less amazing. If you love it it's worth, otherwise you'll suffer a lot and probably drop out.

I have a doctorate degree. It's my credential, not my identity.

Grad students are the vegans and crossfitters of the academic world. Sometimes for fun I go on Facebook and see how long it takes to find a post from someone in grad school that doesn't mention grad school. The only people worse are those who hold doctorate degrees in made up obscure fields from paper mill institutions. No one gives a shit about your online philosophy of nursing PhD that cost you 50k and 10 hours of online classes.

Academia sure is a joke.

>>9408170
A friend of mine finished his phd almost a year ago and has refused to just get on with life. He still haunts the department and stops by the visit almost daily. He's suddenly involved in the student union and is looking for work in administration. He's someone who did find his identity in his studies and seems like he can't find any footing now that the jobs are not suddenly appearing to him. Makes me sad.

>>9408100
A few people I studied with did that... there were opportunities with university papers and journals, getting their names on the rosters for academic journals, internships with local small presses and also local newspapers. Are you involved in anything like that? Volunteering? Freelancing?

>>9408183
I haven't had a chance to intern through my school yet. I haven't freelanced with them, either, but I actually do freelance on my own. I write, edit, proofread, and copywrite. I've had a few articles published here and there over the years, and I have another one I've pitched that I'm hoping to hook. I've had a few short stories published, too.

>>9407916

Got my BA from UCLA over a decade ago, but have been working ever since. Considered grad school when I was an undergrad and just out of school, but at this point I don't want to give up 3-5 years of earnings to get another degree when I'm already in a pretty good spot life- and career-wise.

>>9408170
It's true. The instant my friends got into grad schools, all of their posts on Facebook became
>Just grad school things XDDD
>Grad student diet ftw! Haha #GRADSCHOOL
>PHILOSOPHER KING here, IN GRAD SCHOOL!!!!!!
nonstop for years.

It can be all-consuming in a good way if you're really autistic and you go to an autistic institution and talk with autistic people. That's good shit. But most people are careerists who would just as easily have been lawyers (and many of them will later become lawyers anyway).

Almost done with muh MA in English lit. Probably going for a Ph. D in 18C

>>9407916
>wanted to pursue a career in academia
>get into grad school, get 2 master's degrees
>don't receive funding for a Phd, end up not doing it after all

Fuck this, how slim are my chances of becoming a tenured professor?