The International Student Blog

Whether you’ve just graduated with your bachelor’s degree or you’re debating on heading back to school years after you’ve obtained your bachelor’s degree, the option to pursue a graduate degree can be a tempting one when you’re wanting to find ways to leverage your career. However, there are a few items that might have you asking yourself the question “should you pursue a graduate degree?” If you’re considering pursuing your graduate degree, also known as a Master’s degree or Doctorates, here are a few questions to ask yourself to help you make that decision.

1. Are funds available?
   A great education comes at a great price- but many times the benefit can outweigh the cost. After figuring out the cost of obtaining your graduate degree it’s important to realistically look at if you’re able to afford it. This means looking at what financial aid opportunities are available whether that includes scholarships, loans or a sponsor.
2. Will the benefit outweigh the cost?
   As already mentioned, graduate school is not cheap. If you’re not able to have an employer or scholarships help fund your graduate studies you could be left with mountains of debt. Although obtaining a graduate degree will open the door to more positions that you’re qualified for, is the increase in pay for those positions versus those that only require a bachelor’s degree enough to cover the cost of the bills you might accrue during your graduate program? If not, the answer to finding a way to leverage your career beyond your bachelor’s degree might be to obtain experience within your industry.
3. Is it possible with your schedule?
   If you’ve just graduated with your undergraduate degree you might find that having the time to continue your education is a much simpler task than if you graduated with your bachelor’s degree a few years ago and now have a full time job and/or family that you potentially need to move to another country. However, in either event it’s important to understand that pursuing your graduate degree will be just as much of a time commitment (and maybe even more) as pursuing your undergraduate degree.
4. Are you able to pursue the program you need?
   A graduate degree involves pursuing a subject matter that has one key focus. This means finding and getting accepted into a program that’s able to cater to the specific area of focus you want to pursue. Instead of assuming you will get accepted into some type of program, research and evaluate if you will get accepted into the program you actually need.

If you’ve decided that pursuing a graduate degree is a good option for you then you can search for a college or university that has the program you’re after in our school search.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 30th, 2016 at 6:28 am and is filed under Back to School, International Student, Study in the USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Written by Bryanna Davis

Bryanna joined EIC in 2011 after returning to the United States from teaching English in China. Her interest in international education, sparked initially by her own study abroad experience in Wales, led her to the company. Bryanna is originally from Missouri and is a graduate from the University of Central Missouri.

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