Women's Leadership Blog

Graduate Studies or a Career? How Do Women Choose?

Guest post by Anna Miller

Not all of us know what we want to become early in life; in fact, there are stages we go through where we move from one ambition to another before we finally decide before or in college what we really wish to do with the rest of our lives. And even after we make this decision, there are other choices to make – do you need to continue with your education or are you ready to jump into a job? When you’re a woman, this decision becomes even more crucial considering that you have to weight your personal life against your professional one and try to balance the two equally.

Some women are happy being wives and full-time moms; they’re fulfilled by taking care of the home and looking after their families. Others need to achieve some level of professional success even before they can think of settling down. They usually take a break from work during their pregnancies and come back in a few months or when they feel their children are old enough to cope without them. And yet others prefer to immerse themselves in their profession without thinking too much about their personal lives; for these women, career success is an important life goal.

Grad school is a choice for those who are career oriented – if you want to become a doctor or a lawyer, you must apply for graduate studies and dedicate a good portion of your life to academia. But some aspiring professionals prefer to test the career waters before they go back to school to earn a graduate degree. For example, if you want to do an MBA or any other advanced business degree, it’s best to have some work experience under your belt.

Another deciding factor is money – it’s not cheap to earn an education these days. So if you’re struggling under a mountain of debt because of outstanding student loans, you’re likely to work for some time, pay off your loans, and earn enough to put yourself through grad school.

Also, women find that online education works well for them when they’re trying to juggle their personal and professional lives. Most of them don’t want to put their personal lives on hold just to pursue an education or a career – they prefer to do both simultaneously either because they’ve met the right man or because they feel their biological clocks ticking and want to start a family before it’s too late.

The choice of grad school or a job depends on:

• Your choice of career – some require you to apply for grad school immediately after your undergraduate degree while others allow you the freedom to work for a while before you decide to earn a master’s degree to further your career in terms of a promotion, raise, or both.
• Your personal preference – you may decide to stay in academia for a few more years rather than find a job.
• Your finances – you may be averse to taking out another loan to finance your graduate degree, so unless you’re able to find a scholarship, it’s best to start working so you can pay off your debt and start saving up for grad school.

This guest post is contributed by Anna Miller, who writes on the topic of online degree. She welcomes your comments at her email id: anna.miller009@gmail.com