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One of the classic debates that many soon-to-be college graduates face is the decision to either continue with their education by moving directly on to graduate school, or to immediately join the workforce and worry about professional degrees after gaining some experience. It is a question, not unlike many other important choices we face, that doesn’t have one right answer and what’s good for one person may not be for another.

Recently, I was sent an article posted on FastWeb.com that discusses both sides of this issue, and thought I would share some of the advice with all of you as well as my own experience.

The article was written by Peter Vogt of Monster.com (where it originally appeared) and it chronicles the choices of two different women, Laurie Duffy and Carolyn Kaufman, who each made different decisions after graduation. Duffy decided to go straight to graduate school, while Kaufman spent some time in the workforce getting experience before she pursued a graduate degree.

“Graduate school is difficult and very much not the traditional college experience,” says Duffy, now an assistant account executive for the Winston-Salem, North Carolina, office of PR firm Mullen. The workload alone leaves little time for relationships or a career, she says. “So I chose to get my master’s right away, before I had a job I loved and couldn’t leave, or before I had a family to take care of.”

Duffy’s experience illustrates one of the most common arguments for pursuing graduate school sooner versus later. Other commitments can get into the way of furthering your education. And particularly once you start a family, it can be difficult to fit grad school into your life, says Nancy Stamp, dean of the graduate school at Binghamton University.

As you can see, there are some solid arguments for heading straight into graduate school so work or family obligations don’t sidetrack you. Additionally you are able to relocate easier if the school you want to attend doesn’t happen to be nearby to where you went to undergrad. However, there are numerous reasons why many people head straight into the workforce, like I did, and Ms. Kaufman outlines some of them in the article.

[Kaufman] intended to go to graduate school immediately after finishing her undergraduate degree in English and psychology in 1995 but put it off, because she couldn’t decide where to go.

“That was the best thing that could have happened,” says Kaufman, who teaches psychology full-time at Columbus State Community College and part-time at Otterbein College. “Developing my confidence and sense of competence, learning new skills and contemplating whether I really wanted to go back or continue what I was doing…was priceless and has helped me make better decisions after graduate school.”

My main reason for not going straight into graduate school was similar, in that I didn’t know what I wanted to do for a career so it didn’t make sense to me to spend more time and money on a degree I may not even use. I wanted to get some experience, try some different things out and see what interested me enough to pursue further. As career expert Anna Ivey, author of The Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions, says: “Grad school isn’t going anywhere. Take some time to figure out who you are outside of school.”

No matter which way you decide to go, make sure you are doing it for the right reasons and that you will be happy with your decision a few years down the road. If you are likely to have trouble getting back into the swing of things academically after a hiatus, maybe you should plow right on through to grad school. If you are unsure of what you want to do, or need more experience to fully flesh out your interests then perhaps getting your feet wet in the workforce is the right move for you. Either way, good luck to you all.

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