Should I go to grad school?

Should I Go to Grad School?

Short answer: no.

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Just don't try graduate school in an academic subject with the same spirit of carefree experimention. Medical school, sure. Law school, no problem. But a Ph.D in an academic field? Forget it. If you take one step down that path, I promise you, it'll hurt like blazes to get off, even if you're sure that you want to quit after only one year.

Two years in, and quitting will be like gnawing your own leg off.

Past that, and you're talking therapy and life-long bitterness.

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If you decide in your first year that it is not for you--indeed, suppose you conclude that you're better than all of this, a broader, richer thinker who can't be constrained by the ivory tower--you will still have to deal with the nagging fear that somehow, some way, you just weren't good enough, that you couldn't cut the mustard. That fear will almost certainly be wrong. Perseverance can get most students through graduate school. You should feel good about how well you know yourself if you decide to quit. But academia is a total culture. It changes your standards for what is good and what is bad, what is smart and what is dumb.

Independently evaluating academic life from within its confines is a near-impossibility.

I've more or less already decided not to go to grad school, at least not immediately after graduation. Many factors contributed to this decision, but basically I realized that I am nowhere near ready for such a big leap into the academic life.

This article only serves to further strengthen my decision. After graduation, I'll hopefully be able to find a job balancing free time with decent compensation, and take time off from the academic life for a while. If I find that I miss it enough, who knows, I may eventually return.