Speaker 1: So you're thinking about whether you want to go to graduate school, and I want to commend you on thinking about your future, your career goals, and about advancing your education. In this video, I'll provide you with some information and also guide you through some questions that will help you make a decision about whether graduate school is right for you. Get ready to listen, learn, and reflect right after this quick intro. Welcome to Grad Life Grind. If you're new to this channel, thank you for checking it out. And if you're already a subscriber, thanks for being back again. My name is Arielle, and I'm a PhD student in clinical psychology. And in this channel, I bring you information about the mental health field and talk about my journey as a PhD student. So the first question you're going to want to ask yourself when you're making this decision is, what are my career goals? What's my dream job and where do I see myself in the future career wise? For me, I wanted to be a therapist, and that led me to pursuing a degree in clinical psychology. At first, I just wanted to be a therapist. And then after studying psychology as an undergraduate, I learned that there was a whole other world of psychology that included research. And then I decided that I wanted to do that too. And as I learned more about the field of psychology, I learned that there were so many other roles that I may want to be in. And because of that, I chose to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology because that is a degree that allows me the most flexibility to make changes in my career and also hold different roles within the field. If I just wanted to be a therapist alone, then I might have chosen a different degree like a master's in social work or a master's in family and marriage counseling. But I knew that I wanted to go all the way and get the highest degree possible in my field of study. And I knew that I wanted the flexibility to transition in my career. Sometimes I might want to do therapy. Sometimes I might want to do research. I also want an academic career and I want to be able to be a professor. And because of all the different things that I want to do, I chose a degree that fit those goals. So think about your dream job or your dream career. Think about what you want a typical day for you to look like or a typical week. Think about the kind of money you want to make and the kind of work that would make you happy or feel fulfilled. Whatever your career goals are, that's where you want to start when you're thinking about whether to pursue a graduate degree. And that's because you want to think of your end goal and then reverse engineer from there. So based on all the things that I want to do in the future, I knew that the way to get there was by getting a PhD. So you have to think about based on where you want to go, is a graduate degree part of that process? And is there any other way to get there other than a graduate degree? There may be other options for you. For example, if you want to open a business and you have an undergraduate degree in business or finance, you may be able to just open that business and be really successful without getting a master's in business administration or an MBA. But some people may feel like the industry that they're going into or the world that they want to be in, the job that they want to have may require that degree. So think about where do I want to go and what are the different pathways to getting there? And is graduate school part of that? So another related question is, is graduate school a necessary step to where I want to go? It may not be as I just explained, but it may very well be something that you can't do without a graduate degree. And if that's the case, then the decision is kind of made up for you. You need a graduate degree to get where you want to go. And so the next step you want to think about is how do I apply to graduate school? What kind of programs do I want to go to? If that's the case and you've already made a decision, then you can go ahead and watch one of my other videos about how to apply to graduate school. You can also access some of my free resources like the grad school application checklist and the grad school program list organization template. If you know that you're applying to graduate school, I have a bunch of free resources that would help you. But if you're still trying to figure out whether you should go to graduate school, then you can continue watching. Once you've determined whether graduate school is part of your plan or needs to be part of your plan, you want to think about a really important question, which is, am I competitive? Would I be a competitive applicant for the type of degree that I know I need to get? For PhD programs in clinical psychology, research experience, clinical experience, and work experience are some of the things that make us competitive applicants. So I knew going into my process that I was going to have to do all these things, gain all these experiences to make sure I was competitive. There's no point in applying to a program if you know that you aren't going to be competitive with the other applicants that are applying. It's a waste of time and money. And as I've said in previous videos, it's pretty expensive to apply to graduate school and to go to graduate school. So based on the degree that you know you need to get or want to get, think about what makes an applicant competitive and am I that? And you can find out if you're competitive in a number of ways. First, you can start looking at programs in your area of study. Look at their admissions websites, and you should be able to find a little bit of information about the average GPA of the people that they admit or the average standardized test scores of the students that they usually admit to their program. And that'll give you a little bit of a ballpark estimate so you can see, is my GPA in that range or are my standardized test scores in that range? And if they're not, how can I get there? So another way to find out if you're competitive is by talking to other people in the field, whether they're current graduate students in your area of interest or professionals in your area of interest. You can talk to professors and see whether your credentials or the experience that you already have is going to make you competitive. And if it's not, then you can make a plan for how to take a gap year or work for a few years and get the experience you need in order to be a competitive applicant. So far, you should have asked yourself, where do I want to go in my career? What is my goal? Is grad school part of that? And if so, am I a competitive applicant for graduate school? If I'm not, I need to make a plan. And if I am, then I can go ahead and start the application process. And you can find a bunch of my videos for information on how to go ahead and apply to graduate school. The next question that you might want to ask yourself is, OK, graduate school is part of my career plan or the pathway to get where I want to go. I also know that I am competitive or I know I can be competitive. But the next question to ask is, do you really want to go to graduate school? Are you committed to the idea of graduate school? Can you handle it with your current lifestyle? So this is an important question because different types of programs require different things. I'm in a Ph.D. program for clinical psychology. It's a five to seven year program. And it's full time. I cannot work while I'm in this program. So first of all, it's difficult to commit that amount of time. Five to seven years is a long time. And it's also difficult to commit financially to a program like this where I can't work full time. And it's also a ton of work. I spend about 50 hours a week doing Ph.D. related things. So you want to think about whether graduate school aligns with your goals and whether graduate school is attainable for you based on your credentials. But you also want to think about whether it works for you and your lifestyle. So one great example of this is I knew somebody who was really involved in the field of psychology and she was involved in research. She wanted to see clients for therapy. And by the time she graduated from undergrad, she was like, I don't know if I want to commit five to seven years to get my Ph.D. I want to start a family. And instead, she decided to get her master's in social work and become a licensed social worker. And she was able to do research, work as a clinical coordinator, also see clients for therapy, and do almost all the things that she wanted to do in her career. And also spend less time in school and be able to raise a family. So it's important to think about even if graduate school is part of the plan that you need to put in place to achieve your goals, is it realistic for you based on the other things that you want? Because your career is only a piece of the pie in your life. There might be other things that are really important to you, like time with your family, time with your children, or just flexibility to do other things that may not be compatible with certain graduate programs. A final and important question is more on the side of practicality. Do you have the means to apply to graduate school and attend graduate school? And means can be time, but it can also be money. As I've alluded to, applying to graduate school and going to graduate school can be really costly. There are some doctoral programs that are fully funded and you can get a stipend for living expenses, but there are some programs that do not offer that. Personally, my doctoral program is not fully funded and I do not get a stipend to live off of, so I use loans. And that might not be feasible for everyone. So it's important to think about, do I have the money to apply to graduate school? And if I don't, can I get fee waivers or can I get other types of assistance? And if I am admitted to a graduate program, do I have the means to either get funding, scholarships, fellowships, or can I get loans? How am I going to make this happen? And this is important to think about because even if you really, really want to pursue graduate study, there are certain barriers that you need to think about. And it's unfortunate that education isn't free, but at least in the U.S. this is the system that we're living in. So before you commit yourself to the idea that you're going to apply to graduate school and you are going to apply to 15 programs and you're going to pick the most prestigious institution and it's going to propel you towards your career goals, you have to think about what's realistic for you in terms of your lifestyle and what you want, but also in terms of your means and what you're able to do. So these were some of the important questions and areas that you have to think about when you're making a decision about whether graduate school is right for you. I hope that these questions helped you clarify where you think you are when it comes to applying to graduate school or attending grad school. And I hope that you found this video useful. If you did, please hit the like button and also subscribe to my channel for more tips on grad school life and grad school applications. I hope you'll also connect with me on other platforms. I'm at gradlifegrind on Instagram and TikTok. Thank you so much for watching. My name is Arielle. My goal is to inform you, to inspire you, to spark an interest in you and hopefully also entertain you. So I hope you'll check back in next time.