Reasons to Go
"I get all the benefits of being at a major university. Not just things like medical insurance and an email account, but opportunities to study overseas, greater ability to publish my work, and the chance (if I can find the time) to study things on the side, from astronomy to karate."

"Graduate school is the last refuge from the rat race. Half the people I went to college with are stuck behind desks doing jobs they don't like or learn from."

"The best thing about being a grad student isn't necessarily obvious. It's being intellectually awake, thinking all the time, learning and expanding your mind."

Reasons Not to Go
"Next year I'll be taking a teaching position in the last part of the country I want to live in. It's really in the middle of nowhere, but there are hundreds of people who would kill for this job."

"I should finish out my degree with excellent marks and no debt. It sounds like a no-lose situation, but right now there are five doctorates produced each year for every vacancy in my field."

"I plunged into the master's program here even though I got no aid. I love my work, but I'll finish up in a couple of months carrying $40,000 in loans. I'm only beginning to realize how long it's going to take me to pay that off."

The first step to avoiding such dilemmas is to learn about the most common difficulties associated with graduate school. Recognizing these pitfalls can help you avoid them, or at least spare you some unpleasant surprises. By talking with current grad students and professors, you'll find that people's objections to graduate school fall into two categories: the practical and the personal.

Practical Concerns
The practical reasons all relate to two things: the cost of school and the likelihood of getting a job afterward. Together, these two factors will determine whether graduate school makes sense for you in practical terms.

It's possible to land a job easily after earning an advanced degree and still struggle to pay back your loans. It's also possible to complete a graduate program with no debt and still have trouble finding work. Many people would find each of these scenarios unacceptable. Investigate these practical issues so that you don't find yourself confronted with an ugly situation when school is over.

To work through these practical issues, look beyond graduate school. You need to estimate the probable cost of your graduate program and study the state of the job market in your field. The most important aspects of the job market are the availability of positions and the salary range. Together, these pieces of information give you some idea of what your professional future (and loan-paying power) might look like. The more information you dig up, the better you'll be able to appraise the practical obstacles to graduate education.

Personal Concerns
The personal pitfalls of graduate school are a little more complicated. They depend on your likes and dislikes, and your powers of endurance. Many people begin graduate programs and never complete them. This is especially true for those pursuing doctorates: Some of these people quit for financial reasons, but many leave because they find that the life they're living is unacceptable.

Beginning a graduate program you never finish is the worst-case scenario. Investigating graduate programs should involve not only research into the broad academic outlines, but also research into what your daily life as a graduate student will be like.

In an informal survey of hundreds of graduate students, these are the top five lifestyle complaints students made:

• It's hard to make ends meet financially.
• There is little or no free time.
• There is not enough socializing in the department/school.
• There is nothing to do in the university community or surrounding area.
• Fellow graduate students are neurotically competitive.