Category — College To Grad School Transition

A recent Newsweek article asks an important question. How much longer will we live off our parents beef?

As you begin to exit grad school you may have assumed all your daily living costs, or your parents may still be footing the bill. Either way you should take a look at how to trim your finances and curb your debt. Especially if you are headed to rent heavy areas like the east coast where Rent Costs can eat up 80% of your salary. Ouch.

Being a recent college graduate but in grad school Ive often found that finding the perfect match for a job is something ive struggled at.

I´ve worked jobs online, Ive worked jobs at restaurants but nothing ever seems to really fit my schedule and my monetary needs.

Instead Ive settled for a job that is meaningful so Im working at an environmentally based company as well as maintaining a few freelance gigs online to help cater to my financial needs.

Looks like lots of other folks are doing the same thing as well.

JD, from Get Rich Slowly, recently wrote about the effect of money on friendships. A grad student is generally on a budget, while sometimes their friends have started their careers and are making enough to go out for fun.

Here are a few of JD’s suggestions:

Suggest low- or no-cost alternatives. Bike or run together. Go hiking. Kick a soccer ball around. Organize a picnic or a mother-daughter tea party. Play hearts or bridge or Settlers of Catan. A one-time investment in a board game or a deck of cards can be a cost-effective source of entertainment. If your friends want to go to a movie, suggest a matinee. If they want to dine out, name a restaurant you know you can afford. (Better yet, suggest a potluck.)

Budget for social spending. If your circle of friends makes a regular habit of a specific activity, consider building the expense into your budget so it won’t catch you by surprise. If your girlfriends go out for happy hour on the first Thursday of every month, for example, set aside $20 for the occasion. This may, of course, require sacrifices to other parts of your budget.

Check out the rest of the article here. He also includes links on the same topic.

If you have ever wondered what the journey through grad school applications was like, just ask Marc Dotson. The former University Journal Editor-in-Chief has been blogging his experiences on the Southern Utah University newspaper’s website since May 2007, and recently received acceptance letters to both the school he thought he wouldn’t make it into, and his safety school To read more about his adventures in applications, click here.

Recently my fiance got a letter in the mail from his high school history teacher. When he opened it, it was a letter to his future self that he had written as an assignment, and the teacher held onto it for 10 years, and then mailed it out. While it might seem silly for a teacher to hang onto something like that for you for so long, I thought it was really cool. You can define your goals that way, and then once you get to that point and open the letter, you can catch a glimpse of yourself at that time in your life, and see if you met your expectations. Grad school would also be a good time to write a letter like that, because you are finishing your education, about to start your career, and don’t know where you will be in 10 years.

FutureMe is a website that allows you to write an email to yourself, and you pick a date to be sent. What you say to yourself in ten years? Do you think that you would have accomplished everything you thought you would by then?

You’ve just spent 4 years (or more ) basically living in your own little world of classes, studying, writing papers, and taking tests. Now you’re about to be out on your own and you have no idea what to do next. Should you go to grad school, get a job, travel, do an internship? The array of choices is sometimes too much.

You may be at a point in your life where you’d like to try something different before settling into your “real life” future. You can do it–Imagine having adventure, freedom, money, and the satisfying feeling of giving back to humanity.

Join the Peace Corps or work with a volunteer agency that is trying to change something that you care about. Look into Americorps Vista, which is a program that works to fight poverty. Both the Peace Corps and Americorps offer a stipend, so you will be paid for your work, and there is usually a time commitment for service (one year for Americorps and I believe 2 years for the Peace Corps).

Both of these organizations LOVE college grads, and you’ll have the opportunity to see and change the world, all while gathering meaningful experiences that will help you after you return from service.

I wish I had done something like this when I first graduated. With no job or family or anything tying me down it would have been perfect. I can only imagine that the decision of what to do next with your life, whether it be grad school or the working world, might come easier after such a life changing experience.

Related posts:

What Should You Do After College? Get A Job
What Should You Do After College? Do An Internship
What Should You Do After College? See The World
What Should You Do After College? Dream BIG!

Photo .i want to change the world.

Listen to your elders, kids! They’ve been through trials and tribulations and you might as well learn from their experience.

Drew McLellan knows how awkward it can be for new college grads transitioning into post-graduate life. He’s gleaned some of the top minds in the business world and asked them to share advice for new college grads.

I know I was NOT looking forward to leaving school. This probably explains why I switched majors 3 or 4 times!

The most important thing I wish I had known when I was starting out is that you don’t have to make a lifelong decision and stick with it. You can try multiple professions, do one for a while and then switch when you’re ready for a new challenge. A great education gives you that leverage, and puts you in a position where you’re constantly versatile and able to learn new things.

You can download the free e-book at Drew’s blog and read all the wonderful advice, including some tidbits from Seth Godin plus a ton of other savvy folks.

If you’re about to graduate from college and still are unsure if you’d like to go to grad school, the best thing you could do to help the decision making process might be to get a job.

Yeah, I know it sounds harsh but it has to happen some time. If you can’t stand the thought of putting on a suit and tie, it might be worth it to just take some type of full time work situation.

This is what I did–after graduation I didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I held 4 part time jobs, all of them very different and interesting. A couple of jobs were in the Theater, one was at a book store, and another was as a secretary in a psychologist’s office. At the time I thought I might want to be a designer or painter in the Theater, or a psychologist, or an English professor. I didn’t know for sure which one, so I took jobs that had something to do with each potential career, and that helped me make my decision.

Taking a job in the real world will not only give you exposure to the fields you’re interested in, but the very experience of seeing what it’s like to work 9-5 may be the wakeup call you need to light the fire that makes you seek a higher education. I know that when I graduated from college, I thought “Oh, I’ll just work and life will be great.” I had the idea to go on to graduate school but I was burnt out from college and my mind could not face another 2 years of intensive study.

But after taking 2 years to work in the real world, I became convinced more than ever that I wanted to do something more with my life. I knew that I wanted a higher level job, one with more satisfaction, and that going to grad school was the next step. When that realization hits you, you will find a way to make it happen. You will discover a passion in yourself that might not have been there before, and you will then have the emotional and mental energy necessary to help you get your master’s degree.

Related posts:

What Should You Do After College? Change The World
What Should You Do After College? Do An Internship
What Should You Do After College? See The World
What Should You Do After College? Dream BIG!

I’ve done several internships, some of them paid and some unpaid, and I’ve never regretted doing any of them. An internship is an opportunity for you to work in an industry at an entry level (sometimes below entry level ).

The perk of this situation is that you get to see what it’s really like to work in that field. There is no pressure to get the corner office or impress anyone–you are the intern and you’re there to learn. While college was all about books and tests, an internship is learning in the real world without the commitment of having a “real job”.

Who knows–you may love it, and you may impress your supervisors enough that they offer you a position. If you like it, you may also find that going to grad school may be the logical next step for you. The worst case scenario is if you don’t like it you move on and take whatever life lessons you’ve accumulated with you.

Deciding what to do after college is a big step. It’s worth it to explore your options, and at the very least if you do end up going to grad school you’ll get a little mental break from student life while you’re doing your internship.

Related posts:

What Should You Do After College? Change The World
What Should You Do After College? Get A Job
What Should You Do After College? See The World
What Should You Do After College? Dream BIG!

After you graduate from college you may not be sure what the next step is–Should you go to graduate school? Should you get a real job? These are tough questions that have lifelong implications. Taking a step back and getting some perspective on your life and your place in the world will help you reach a decision that’s right for you. Travel is one thing that can help you get some insight into what you want to do with your life.

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” –- Henry Miller

When you don’t have a job or a family to support you are free to roam wherever you want. There is a beauty in that. If you have the money and the opportunity to see the world, then for Pete’s sake do it.

I have friends who saved their money and went on adventures in other countries (Australia, Italy, Peru, Guatemala), staying in youth hostels and sleeping on couches. A trip like that that exposes you to a different culture can help put your own life in perspective and help you figure out what your place on planet earth is.

This doesn’t have to be a 2 year journey across Africa –even a trip as short as a few weeks can shake up your viewpoint enough to help you make decisions on where to go next with your life. I very much wish that I had done this after I graduated from college and before I started graduate school. You get the chance to see that it’s a big wide world out there with limitless possibilities. When you return home you’ll find it easier to approach the transition from colllege to graduate school (or college to work) with more peace of mind.

What about you–have any of used travelled to help you decide what path to take after college?

Related posts:

What Should You Do After College? Change The World
What Should You Do After College? Do An Internship
What Should You Do After College? Get A Job
What Should You Do After College? Dream BIG!

Photo: High hopes, big dreams