Youth vs. Graduate School

[kbui]

Greetings Gradcafe, I have a serious question.

 

I got into a really good graduate school program, and I also won a very nice fellowship to go abroad for a year, but after mapping out my five year plan (I know, I'm too organized for my own good), I am having some qualms about graduate school.

 

I'm currently 24, and I love enjoying my youth. Currently my plan is to spend a year abroad and then return to the U.S. to attend graduate school for two years. By the time I graduate I'll be 27. I'm afraid that if I throw myself into graduate school right away, I won't be able to enjoy the prime of my life. I feel like it'll be like when people retire and then go traveling instead of traveling when they're young and able to do random things and go enjoy things young folks enjoy.

 

But on the other hand, I would love to go to graduate school and learn more about something I love and to become a leader in my field. It would be nice to have extra credentials and a good name to go on my resume, but is it worth two years of the apex of my life?

 

Enjoying my youth, or graduate school: who should win in this battle?

[maelia8]

Like you'll be doing, I did a Fulbright ETAship for a year (plus another year teaching with a local government program in my host country), and I had a great time doing it and felt that there was plenty of time to enjoy my youth during two years abroad before settling down for graduate school. I'm now 25 and starting my Ph.D., so I'll be around 31-32 when I finish. I don't think grad school will prevent you from enjoying the prime of your life - although grad school means hard work, I see that as appropriate at that point in your life, and attending grad school doesn't mean that you can't still party and go out with friends occasionally as well as pursuing activities outside of school. In order to secure your future later in life, I think it's good to head to grad school in your mid-20s so that by the time you're in your mid-30s and are wanting to earn more money/have a more stable job with advancement opportunities, you'll be eminently qualified.

[juilletmercredi]

Take the ETA.  I am turning 28 this year, and I definitely don't feel like I wasted my youth in graduate school or something.  You'll still be alive, and you will still be young and able to do young folks things - besides, your life doesn't end when you turn 30 or something.  I dislike the idea that your mid-20s are the "prime of your life".  Every stage carries new challenges and new delights.  I, for one, am really looking forward to the end of the instability (both financially and emotionally) of my 20s and the professional career development and the family I plan to begin in my 30s.

 

But, I do regret not traveling for a few years before I began graduate school.  It was something I had always wanted to do (a Fulbright ETA, specifically) and in a few months, I'll no longer be eligible for the Fulbright program because I'll have a PhD.  Not only that, it's difficult to slip out of and back into a career - now that I'm finishing, I'm going to a postdoc.  But if I want a job in my field, I can't exactly take 2 years off to go teach abroad in Japan or Malaysia or what not.  So if you want to travel abroad for the ETA for a year, do that.  Defer the MS program.