Questions about grad school, law school, etc. Help me!

[Zebo]

You need to pm micheal. He's a business big wig.. CFO I think someplace.

 

[Orsorum]

Originally posted by: Zebo
You need to pm micheal. He's a business big wig.. CFO I think someplace.

Thanks.

 

[Orsorum]

Any general thoughts about this?

 

[AndrewR]

I read your initial post and updates and scanned a few others. If I'm repetitive, you'll get all your money back.

I would highly recommend that you NOT go to graduate school immediately, especially if you are at all unsure of what you want to do. Education for education's sake sounds good, but the problem is that the educational debt stays with you for a long time and really can severely limit you in the future. If you MUST have at least $1,000 per month for loan payments, you are forced into certain jobs in order to make a certain level of income. If you've found what you want to do, that's not a problem. If, on the other hand, you are unsure or change your mind, your options are limited by the income requirements.

Regardless of the money issue, after having experienced it for myself and talking to others, I think it's wisest to take a break after graduating from college. Graduate schools do like receiving applications from people who have "life experience" after college because they know that those people are generally more dedicated and sure about what they're doing.

My recommendation would be to either sign up for ROTC and enter the military (they have 1 year ROTC programs, committment is four years), or graduate and find a job to get an idea of life "on the outside" of the academic world. You'll be able to make a much more informed decision about graduate school a few years down the road and know to a much greater certainty (probably!) what you want to do with your life.

 

[Orsorum]

Originally posted by: AndrewR
I read your initial post and updates and scanned a few others. If I'm repetitive, you'll get all your money back.

I would highly recommend that you NOT go to graduate school immediately, especially if you are at all unsure of what you want to do. Education for education's sake sounds good, but the problem is that the educational debt stays with you for a long time and really can severely limit you in the future. If you MUST have at least $1,000 per month for loan payments, you are forced into certain jobs in order to make a certain level of income. If you've found what you want to do, that's not a problem. If, on the other hand, you are unsure or change your mind, your options are limited by the income requirements.

Regardless of the money issue, after having experienced it for myself and talking to others, I think it's wisest to take a break after graduating from college. Graduate schools do like receiving applications from people who have "life experience" after college because they know that those people are generally more dedicated and sure about what they're doing.

My recommendation would be to either sign up for ROTC and enter the military (they have 1 year ROTC programs, committment is four years), or graduate and find a job to get an idea of life "on the outside" of the academic world. You'll be able to make a much more informed decision about graduate school a few years down the road and know to a much greater certainty (probably!) what you want to do with your life.

Thank you for your advice. I am talking with a few different advisers tomorrow, including the campus recruiting officer for the UW military program. Hopefully he will have some thoughts.

 

[Orsorum]

I should also clarify:

Assuming I get a housing position (RA, CA, GA, etc.) at whichever law/graduate school I attend, I can most likely get out of two/three years with little to no debt. I want to do the military no matter what, and a Masters program in Accounting (this is a certainty). The difficulty is that I don't know of any top-tier programs that will accept students right out of undergrad - I wouldn't stand a chance of getting in, especially not with my GPA.

I am also interested in studying law - however, this is probably the step I need to seek the most counsel on, which is probably fairly obvious by this point. Any way I look at it, an MBA/DBA program would be the last step (assuming I don't pursue an LL.M. afterwards, but I suppose that would come after I've been working for a while).

So my two choices right now are basically either law school or the military - or both. I really need to talk to a military adviser before I do anything else, because he'll be able to break my options for me. If I'm not a good candidate for OCS for whatever reason, then I'll probably do law school, then work for a while, then go back for the business degree.

*sigh* So many people to talk to.