What is Graduate School?

In basic terms, there are four levels of post-secondary degrees that you can earn in the United States: Associate's degree, Bachelor's degree, Master's degree and Doctoral degree. More broadly, undergraduate education includes the Associate's degree and Bachelor's degree whereas graduate education includes the Master's degree and Doctoral degree.

A Master's degree typically requires one to two years of full-time enrollment to complete (after completing your Bachelor's degree) with part-time enrollment requiring three or more years to complete. How does a Master's degree relate to a Bachelor's degree? Generally speaking, a Master's degree builds on the broad foundation of a Bachelor's degree, with a focused and deep study of a particular area. Essentially every academic major at the undergraduate level has a corresponding Master's degree program, such as Biology, Business Administration, Computer Information Systems, Public Health and so on.

What should you expect when enrolling in a Master's degree program? The primary word is: more. You can expect more reading than at the undergraduate level, more writing than at the undergraduate level, more content than at the undergraduate level. The cost of tuition is usually more as well though federal loans and grants tend to be less. 

A Doctoral degree typically requires three to six years of full-time enrollment to complete (after completing your Bachelor's degree), with part-time enrollment requiring up to ten years. A Doctoral degree is the highest degree that you can earn in a particular field. If you want to study law, you pursue a Juris Doctor degree (JD). If you want to study medicine, you pursue a Doctor of Medicine degree (MD). If you want to study the arts and sciences, you pursue a Doctor of Philosophy degree (PhD). There are also Doctorate degrees in Education (EDD), Physical Therapy (DPT) and many more. 

What should you expect in a Doctoral degree program? In a medical or law program, you will spend two to three years in intense study of specific knowledge followed by a period of supervised practice in the field. In a PhD program, expect to spend two to three years of deep study followed by a large independent research project (a dissertation). 

Why would a person want to attend graduate school? There are many reasons. A mid-career individual working in a field may want to upgrade his career and need a graduate degree to do so. A scholar may be incredibly interested in learning everything that she possibly can about an area of expertise. Some high-level careers require the specific knowledge and skills earned in Doctorate programs, such as a lawyer, medical doctor or scientific researcher. 

In the big picture, people with graduate degrees have the highest career earnings. However, a more nuanced view reveals that there are very large discrepancies between different career fields that depend significantly on the local and national job market. For example, medical practitioners of all sorts tend to be in high demand these days, including medical doctors. Other high-level job markets, however, are saturated with a large supply of candidates but relatively few job openings. For example, there are far more people with PhDs in the arts and humanities than there are tenure-track professor positions at colleges and universities. 

Is graduate school for you? This is a question that only you can answer. It depends on many variables, including your career goals, your level of success at the undergraduate level, your life commitments and the resources available to you. Maybe your answer is "yes," maybe it is "no," or maybe it is "probably but not now." It is worth your time and effort to answer this question. 

TRIO SSS participants explore graduate programs at Colorado State University.