Why not to go to graduate school

"...um, well, no." Here's why:

As the statistics go, you probably have many other equally good if not better things to do with your education than go to grad school. You may not have seen some of the other options for developing your life trajectory past Grinnell College.

Grad school is not for everyone, and the worst reason to do it is not knowing what else to do. Graduate school is not for wafflers, it is for self-directed, ambitious people who enjoy learning something even more than making the marginal thousands of dollars of earning potential in their early 20s.

In the extremely common, likely, healthy case you are not sure what you want to do:

I'm going to contingently say "No, don't apply to grad school right now."

And while we're at it, consider reflecting on what you do want out of life.

For all that, maybe you're curious why anyone should consider going to grad school after Grinnell College?

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