Tell me what to do with my life!

[NinjaChick]

Because I have no idea, and I'm graduating in a year. Who better to ask than a bunch of random Internet People?

In a nutshell, next year I will be graduating with the following: A degree in 'Liberal Arts' (no, seriously. And please stop laughing), a remarkably mediocre academic record, plenty experience in 'a trained monkey can do it' jobs, and a huge amount (over 50k) of student debt. In the course of getting my stunningly useless degree, I will have taken four years of math, three of lab science, two years each of ancient Greek and French, one of music, and four years of literature/philosophy. For a far more elegant explanation, click here (http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/academic/main.shtml). It's been fun, I'm learning a lot, and it's spectacularly useless for anything outside of academia.

The deferment period on all of my loans has been used up, because I took a year off mid-way. I will owe lots of money. My parents will help some, but their generosity is limited, both by choice and by reality.

So, that's where I will be next year. Here's what I want to do with my life:
1. 'Make a difference', 'help people', and all that bleeding-heart liberal commie pinko stuff (because I fit that description well). I would prefer to work internationally (ie, helping people in the Middle East or Latin America). Think Amnesty or the AFSC (http://www.afsc.org/) for the general type of work I'd like to get into, though I'm open to a lot of possibilities.
2. Equally important: make enough money to pay off my loans at least on-time and not starve to death. I'm not looking to make millions, but enough to pay the bills.
3. Not teach. Kids are not my thing, and I would be a horrendous teacher.
4. If possible, travel.

So, in the interest of getting honest opinions, I'm going to leave it there for now and not yet say what I think my options with pros/cons are. Given all of the above, what would you suggest I start looking at as my next step?

Disclaimer: Yes, I know, I have created the problem, and I'll probably spend the next twenty years or so living on rice and canned fruit. I freely acknowledge this and take full responsibility for going down the road I've gone down. But that's where I am, and given the choice between 'high paying job I don't like' and 'Dole canned fruit salad again for dinner', I'll take the Dole. I'm stupidly stubborn that way.

[Sunspace]

Are there any chances of a semi-high-paying job that you can grit your teeth at for a year, while living on rice and beans and paying off a chunk of that debt and saving a bit of money to cover emergencies? In other posts, I've followed Dave Ramsey's advice of paying minimums on debt while building up savings of about a thousand dollars so you don't have to borrow more when something prangs.

Hmm. Overseas teaching is out, as per your OP. I'm trying to think sideways here.

Have your university studies taught you critical thinking, how to analyse propaganda, use logic to make an argument, use language to stir the emotions, all that stuff? (ISTR that 'poetics' and 'rhetoric' in the ancient time covered that sort of thing.) These days, all those skills might be turned to marketing or political speechwriting.

Marketing.... were any of your previous jobs in retail? Were there any parts of that where you like the products and customers even if the working conditions weren't great?

Are there any political causes you already support? I'm thinking of very specific stuff like 'Push for a light-rail line to the northern suburbs' or 'Provide a contact centre with phones and secretary so the homeless have a way to be contacted when they're looking for a job': causes that have established teams and people.

Can you wrangle a spreadsheet? Writing and doing numbers for such a cause might be a foot in the door.

Are you willing to do physical labour and get dirty?

Can you speak a language other than English semi-fluently? That improves the chances of an overseas job greatly (depending on the language). I know that two years of French wasn't enough to easily buy a bus ticket in Montreal, but YMMV. Any family connections overseas?

[Spectre of Pithecanthropus]

The amount of math and science you've had to take seems quite impressive for a major outside either of those fields. If you're looking for anything to help you get a foot in a door, I would emphasize this.

It's too bad the name of your major is liberal arts, because I think it really gives the wrong idea. Although to be pedantic about it, I think the curriculum you describe is what Liberal Arts is really supposed to be, rather than just another name for the humanities.

[Buckler of Swashing]

*shnippy*... and it's spectacularly useless for anything outside of academia.

Granted you are in a different country to me so the situation may be different, but I know of universities that offer some paid tutoring positions for a specific subject (or 'lab' positions for some subjects at my uni) to graduates with a good amount of that subject under their academic belt - and sometimes professors etc take on former students as research assistants or whatnot. Could you look into that? If you could get a position like that it could be something to get you by while you try to pay off some debt and look for something you really want to do - I believe the positions are intended to be for one or two years only and then they cycle graduates. Long term positions like that are given to postgrads doing research, I think.

If not that (or possibly as well as that if you're looking to further your debt-paying off options) then maybe you could advertise as a private tutor for the subjects you are good at? This by itself would probably not bring in enough cash, but alongside something else it may be good.

Is there someone in the arts department at your uni you could ask? Again, at mine, there are several people within each discipline who are designated 'go-to' people when you're wondering what the hell you're gonna do with your degree. But any professor would probably have a good grasp of the employment options offered by their subject. You may want to talk to them.

All advice should be taken with a handful of salt. I am an undergrad myself.

[Paul in Qatar]

Live your life so people will come to your funeral. Even if it rains.

I would presume few people would regret a few years in the military. If you want to see the world, and change a bit of it, it is a good place to start. I think they have programs to deal with your student loans. (But don't ask me for details.)

International teaching is not as exciting as it sounds and attracts nothing but oddballs.

[Manda JO]

Is there recruiting at St. John's? Big companies sometimes come into the good liberal arts schools and recruit people for management training type positions, some of which can be extremely lucrative. It won't be saving the world, but you will be able to do a lot more good in the world if you get your debt paid down and have some steady income. Talk to the career placement office, and I wouldn't reject anything out of hand: learn some skills and pay your debt first, and then you can go take those same skills to a non-profit or something.

[China Guy]

Sales. Become a shit hot derivatives sales person on Wall Street. Pay off student loans with the first paltry bonus.

In a year, the markets might have even bottomed.

[Busy Scissors]

Train driver? Quite well paid, ticks helping people / altruism box as you're performing a critical public service, transporting Americans across the country to their destinations. Zen-like qualities as the rail-tracks zip by beneath your feet, filling you with calm purpose and providing a crystal clear sense of direction. Your train is on track, the passengers are happy because they are on track, your life is on track and you will pay off those student loans.

[Athena]

Join the US Foreign Service (http://www.careers.state.gov/hiring.html). That's what I'd do if I had no husband, dogs, or house.

[msmith537]

Well, clearly many college students have trouble deciding what they want to do when they graduate. Many of them also suffer from delusions and ignorance where they think that "high paying" (usually anything above $45,000 a year) must necessarily equate to "boring tedious cubicle corporate job". It's not corporations specifically. Any organization has tedious politics and beurocracies. From what I've heard from people who work there, hospitals and social service organizations sound like some of the most frustratingly tedious places to work for (possibly because they are run by stubbornly stupid liberal arts majors with medicore grades who "just want to help people" and not MBAs and other sensible business minded people.)

Forget about "helping people" or "making a difference" whatever that means. There are all kinds of ways of doing that - being a fireman, working for UNICEF, public defender, financial advisior, whatever. What do you actually want to DO day in and day out? Do you like accounting? Digging ditches and working with your hands? Selling to people? Public speaking. First figure out what you actually like doing and then look for places that will pay you to do it.








Sales. Become a shit hot derivatives sales person on Wall Street. Pay off student loans with the first paltry bonus.

NinjaChick is not likely to find any job on Wall Street in this market with mediocre grades in liberal arts from an nth tier school and no internships. Besides, she would most likely be using that bonus to pay for a $2500 a month studio apartment.




I would presume few people would regret a few years in the military. If you want to see the world, and change a bit of it, it is a good place to start.

I would presume that quite a large number of people probably regret choosing the military right now. Plus there's that whole war thing going on.

[NightRabbit]

Have you looked into the Peace Corps? Sounds like it might be up your alley. There are a bunch of international-based initiatives that you could join up with in a volunteer capacity, and many will defer your student loans for you while you're doing such.

[Richard Parker]

Join the US Foreign Service (http://www.careers.state.gov/hiring.html). That's what I'd do if I had no husband, dogs, or house.

Seconded. You don't need any particular job experience or stellar grades. All you gotta do is pass a couple of exams, for which your educational background has prepared you quite well (the Foreign Service Exam is basically one long game of trivial pursuit with a few more econ questions than normal).

You may not be overly excited about being a mouthpiece for US foreign policy, but that policy might be changing quite radically in the near-term and in your first few years you'll just be resolving consular issues anyway. It would be good training for NGO international work (though if you want to work for Amnesty, you need to make sure they will still hire you if you've worked for the US gov't, some NGOs have policies against this to prevent spying).

Another thought is to try to work for someone like MercyCorps (http://www.mercycorps.org/). They hire college grads and it would be moving in the right direction toward international non-profit work.

There's always more school!

[KneadToKnow]

My car could really use a wash, you could start there.

[NinjaChick]

Hm, some interesting suggestions (I admit I certainly had not considered being a train driver). Here, for the sake of comparison, is the list I've come up with on my own of possibilities (in no particular order), with your suggestions added in:
1. Peace Corps. Pros: Go and travel, do actual, personal-level work, immersion in another culture, further defer student loan repayments. Cons: They give you enough money to live in a third-world country, which financially, lands me back in the exact same place once my two years are up. Also, you need to live in a third-world country.
2. Foreign Service. Pros: Decent chance of getting a job. Decent paycheck. Much better chance of a decent-ish living situation. Cons: As stated, mouthpiece for the federal government. I've worked a (extremely) low-level job for the feds before, and it served as a good introduction to the insane bureaucracy.
3. Further education, either law school or a master's in international relations or public policy. Pros: Law school would be fantastic. Education is both useful and, generally speaking for me, fun. Would increase the chances of getting a job I really want. Cons: Expensive. Assistance positions are harder to get in humanities fields rather than science/math. Unless I manage to get a degree in one year, I'll be nearly 25 by the time I get started on a career.
4. Sales/Marketing: Pros: Would probably be easy to get. Would probably pay well, and could serve as a springboard to get some real work on my resume. Cons: Would bore the crap out of me.
5. Political speechwriting. Pros: I could probably get it (I'm a decent writer). I think I would enjoy it, to a certain extent. Cons: Same as for any government job, I'd imagine.
6. Military. I actually commented recently to a friend: "I wish there was something like the military, in that they'd train me in a job and give me a position in that field for a year or two, during which I wouldn't have to repay my loans, but that it didn't have the moral and political complications of the military. And also, I could quit when I wanted. And also didn't have things that I'm pretty sure physically disqualify me. And also didn't have the whole 'gay people are bad' thing." Also, I'm pretty sure if I joined the military, I'd be a file clerk (since I'm a woman who doesn't want to be an aviator, engineer, or nurse.)
7. Train driver. Pros: Interesting idea. Cons: Not really what I'm looking to do; I'm thinking more policy or law-based advocacy type work.
8. Wash KneadToKnow's car. Nice try, but if I take that route, my parent's cars get first dibs.

I might be missing some, but that's what's at the top of my mind. Looking at the balances of pros/cons, and just what speaks to me, my inclination is that the foreign service would probably be my best immediate option: work for a few years, then possibly get a higher degree, then try to make the switch to the non-profit sector. I wasn't familiar with MercyCorps, but I'll definitely look into that, too.

I am planning on taking the GREs in the fall, and how I do on that should also help me narrow down my options (if I do poorly, grad school will at least wait).

[Lamar Mundane]

The good news is that you're just like 50% of college graduates nationwide, and almost all of them will end up doing just fine. The bad news is that your ambitions are pretty common ones and a lot of the people who share them have no debt, went to Ivy League schools, and can have Mom and Dad carry them while they work for pennies. Washington, D.C. (where most of those kind of jobs originate) is a huge summer camp for trust fund babies. And they have connections.

Your best bet would be to volunteer on a political campaign and make as many contacts as you can, so you can hit them up if their candidate makes it to the Capitol.

My brother joined the Foreign Service a few years ago. He passed the test on his first try, and before he got an interview he earned a PhD, published two books, and worked on the staff of a major national newspaper. It took him nearly 15 years to get in. It is very difficult. Your (anyone's) odds are better to become a Wall Street bond trader.

[Richard Parker]

My brother joined the Foreign Service a few years ago. He passed the test on his first try, and before he got an interview he earned a PhD, published two books, and worked on the staff of a major national newspaper. It took him nearly 15 years to get in. It is very difficult. Your (anyone's) odds are better to become a Wall Street bond trader.

It depends on a lot of factors. The way the system works is that there is a written test, and then an oral examination. If you pass both, and pass a background check, you are placed on an eligibility list. Hiring from that list depends on how many points you have (for foreign language skills, work experience, etc.).

Among the more important factors is which career track you select. You choose which track you want to enter as an FSO. Some tracks are notoriously difficult, and people languish on the hiring lists for years. Other tracks are much easier, and many people go straight through the process and are immediately hired. As of five years ago, the political track was closer to the former, and the consular affairs track was closer to the latter.

It's far from a sure thing for even the strongest candidate. But it is a much higher probability strategy than, say, going to law school and finding work in public international law.

[ZipperJJ]

Your curriculum looks a lot similar to what I had to take to get a BS in journalism from Kent State (minus the journalism classes).

Have you considered doing some sort of foreign correspondent type work for a news agency, or a writer for an international charity? You could help people by bringing their stories to people in other countries.

[cowgirl]

Instead of thinking about what to do next year, you should think about what you want to do in ten years, and work backwards. It sounds obvious but it took me a while to catch on ... From the sounds of it my background and interests are something like yours (i.e. I was having this exact conversation with myself when I graduated with my Bachelor of Arts degree).

3. Further education, either law school or a master's in international relations or public policy. Pros: Law school would be fantastic. Education is both useful and, generally speaking for me, fun. Would increase the chances of getting a job I really want. Cons: Expensive. Assistance positions are harder to get in humanities fields rather than science/math. Unless I manage to get a degree in one year, I'll be nearly 25 by the time I get started on a career.
I was 30 before I started my "career" and I couldn't be happier with it. (By "career" I mean, full-time, decently-paid job in a field I chose.) It's rare for people to have a single job throughout their career these days; with a very few exceptions, everyone in my peer group has had at least two different employers since starting their careers.

The ten years before that were taken up with travel (you can get a working holiday visa after you graduate, that allows you to work for a limited amount of time in the relevant country - look up BUNAC (http://www.bunac.org/) for more info), grad school (more on this momentarily), and a string of temp and part-time jobs which paid very poorly and generally sucked, but which (by random chance) proved to be very valuable experience for my eventual "career" job, even though I didn't recognize it as such at the time.

I can't imagine how much I could have accomplished if I'd been thinking about this job (or really, any job) when entering grad school (let alone when taking any of those crappy jobs). I could have sought out more specific experiences, and made better uses of the ones I had. (For example, it's much easier to learn a concept if you have a real-world example of how it works, which you can get either by working, or by having a specific job/field in mind. If you're just aimlessly doing something because you can't think of anything else to do, it's much hard to learn.)

I am lucky that my Masters degree was useful for this job. Pure dumb luck, honestly. Many of my grad school friends are underemployed, or well employed in jobs they could have got without a masters degree. So if you do decide to pursue grad school, make damn sure that it will be directly useful for what you want to do. Also, if you're a reasonable student, grad school funding is pretty easy to get.

Re bureaucracy: You will find it everywhere you go. I have a businessman friend who hates what he calls "corporate bureaucracy" (i.e. what you'd find in a big corporation) as much as government bureaucracy. But it does have benefits: transparency (you know HOW things get done, even if you don't know why); accountability (you know who makes the decisions, and likewise who makes the mistakes; this makes life substantially easier); smooth day-to-day business (I have worked in organizations with no functioning bureaucracy and it was total hell - I couldn't just do my job, I had to do figure out how to do my job (Which of my colleagues do I ask this question? Who makes this decision? What is our policy on XXX? Who sent out this letter last week? I've finished this task, what do I do with it? Where is that information I need, it was here a minute ago ... and so on).

Less bureaucracy generally means more chaos and disorganization. People who work for non-profits complain about that structure. People who work for small businesses complain about those too. Every organizational structure has problems, and within every organization there are very good people and very bad people. So please don't write off government/politics just because you don't like bureaucracy.

Also please note that political jobs (i.e. for a candidate or an elected representative) are quite different from government jobs (i.e. for a ministry or department or or government agency or some such). Political jobs would have much less bureaucracy (but correspondingly more chaos and disorganization, as well as a lack of transparency and accountability; plus you wouldn't be serving "the public," you'd be serving the interests of somebody to get elected).

[ultrafilter]

msmith537 has a really good point that I'd like to expand on. Your career goals really have two components: your long term goals (i.e., what you want to do with your life), and your short term goals (i.e., what you want to do right now). It sounds like you're in a similar situation to that of most other soon-to-be-finished undergrads, in that you've got a pretty good idea about the first part and no real clue about the second. That's fine; that's a normal conundrum to have at your stage in life. There are a couple questions to think about that might help you narrow down your choices:

What are your skills and talents? There's a lot to be said for taking a job that you'll be good at.
What can you not stand doing? There's also a lot to be said for not taking a job that you hate.

Once you have that list, come up with some jobs that match, and start thinking about how they can help you come closer to realizing your long term goals. Take advantage of all the resources your college offers, and the cumulative experience we have here.

That said, let's talk about grad school a little bit:
Education is both useful and, generally speaking for me, fun.next year I will be graduating with...a remarkably mediocre academic record
Assuming that a remarkably mediocre academic record translates to something below a 3.0, I'm having a lot of trouble reconciling these two statements, and I expect anyone on the admissions committee of a postgraduate program is going to have the same trouble. There are a lot of good reasons to go on for higher degrees, but you need to be aware that the programs are as difficult compared to college as college is compared to high school. If you're struggling as an undergrad and don't have a pretty good reason, why do you think you'll succeed in a significantly harder program? I'm not saying you can't, but you really need to have a good answer for that question if you're going to be applying for these programs, or you might as well just burn the money you were going to spend on the application fees.

If you're serious about considering a postgrad program, talk to the professors at your school. They'll have insight into your specific situation and the fields you're looking at going into, and can offer you better advice than we names on the screen.

[msmith537]

3. Further education, either law school or a master's in international relations or public policy. Pros: Law school would be fantastic. Education is both useful and, generally speaking for me, fun. Would increase the chances of getting a job I really want. Cons: Expensive. Assistance positions are harder to get in humanities fields rather than science/math. Unless I manage to get a degree in one year, I'll be nearly 25 by the time I get started on a career.


Just so you know, there are a shitload of lawyers out there. Unless you feel you have the ability and drive to get into a top 25 law school and/or be in the top 10% of your class, you might want to rethink.

Really my advice to you, since you don't really know what you want to do, is apply to just about anything that interests you.



Assuming that a remarkably mediocre academic record translates to something below a 3.0, I'm having a lot of trouble reconciling these two statements, and I expect anyone on the admissions committee of a postgraduate program is going to have the same trouble.


It's not impossible though. I had very low grades in college but I got into a good business school. But it was also a top 50 University and I ended up in a fairly prestigeous consulting firm through some luck, hard work and personal connections. And my GMAT scores were pretty good too.

Also it's not that easy to just walk into a job as a social worker or whatever it is you want to do. My friend's wife has a masters from Columbia in her field and she still finds herself working for some half-wit imbecile in a food bank from time to time.

[Tabula Rasa]

Use the alumni network!!! A surprisingly high percentage of Johnnies manage, after wandering around for five years saying "Wah! I'm confused and possibly useless and I just want to be back in college" -- after that -- we/they manage through unduplicatable circumstances to fall buttfirst into fabulous and fulfilling careers. With alumni assistance, you may be able to skip forward by five years. I'll be on campus early next week. Let me know if I can help with specifics.

[Tabula Rasa]

I've even edited my profile, so that the email address now works.

[NajaNivea]

Start some sort of international non-profit foundation for whatever kind of charity work you get all het up about: health care, adult literacy, agriculture, technology, so on. Learn to schmooze for funds and apply for grants. Travel and do good in places where the world needs it.

[Magiver]

Train driver? Quite well paid, ticks helping people / altruism box as you're performing a critical public service, transporting Americans across the country to their destinations. Zen-like qualities as the rail-tracks zip by beneath your feet, filling you with calm purpose and providing a crystal clear sense of direction. Your train is on track, the passengers are happy because they are on track, your life is on track and you will pay off those student loans. On that same train of thought (sorry) you could work on a river barge. The advantage is that you will be living at your job for a month at a time so there would be no living expenses. If you could manage to work a year straight you could probably pay your loan off and be done with it.

Advantages, see the world as you boat past it.

Disadvantages, you're working a month at a time straight.

[ignis_glaciesque]

Hm, some interesting suggestions (I admit I certainly had not considered being a train driver). Here, for the sake of comparison, is the list I've come up with on my own of possibilities (in no particular order), with your suggestions added in:
1. Peace Corps. Pros: Go and travel, do actual, personal-level work, immersion in another culture, further defer student loan repayments. Cons: They give you enough money to live in a third-world country, which financially, lands me back in the exact same place once my two years are up. Also, you need to live in a third-world country.


Au contraire. They give you a bit over $6,000 'readjustment allowance'. I know, it's a drop in the bucket in the light of over $50,000 student debt, but hey, it can certainly keep you in rice and beans until you land that high-paying job. Also, returned volunteers are very well networked with one another; you might be able to land a decent job through them. Trust me on that one. I know a bunch of returned volunteers, and they're like their own little clique.

But, yes, sorry, you have to live in a third-world country. But at the very worst, it looks really awesome on a résumé...

[Enginerd]

If the third world country bit gets you down on the Peace Corps, you might consider the domestic Americorps (http://www.americorps.gov) program. They do one year commitments instead of two, and you stay in the United States. It doesn't pay much (I think something like $12,000/year), but your loans will be deferred and you get a ~$5,000 education award after completing the year.

There are a variety of different programs you can choose from based all over the United States, and you can almost certainly find something you're passionate about. It's also a pretty good way to get a taste of the working environment in the field you end up choosing - you can see if it's something you think you might want to do more of, and you'll come out of it with some more experience and connections you can bring to your next job.

[Randy Seltzer]

3. Further education, either law school or a master's in international relations or public policy.Don't go to law school. There are only a couple good reasons to go to law school and many many bad reasons. I get the sense that your reason is not in the good category. I'm there right now, and half my classmates hate their lives, and will continue to hate their lives for the next 20 years, because they chose law school for the wrong reason.

Wrong reasons include: Your parents are pressuring you into it.
It seems like it'll be lucrative.
You don't want to quit going to school. (<--You?)
You want to be a "doctor-or-lawyer" but you don't have the science for med school.
You like arguing and consider yourself very persuasive.
Wow. Google "bad reasons" "law school" and check about a hundred pages with much better lists than this. Read them, and think to yourself: "Whoa, that's me."Right reasons are: You already understand the practice of law and you already have a real passion for it.
That's about it.Your job out of law school is heavily influenced by your grades in law school, so if you're not the high-grades type, your results will be unsatisfactory.

My advice? Go to Israel! Then wait tables or something for a couple of years to get some good life experience, then go back to school and get a graduate degree in international relations. Go to work in a US embassy in some obscure country. Spend 10 years working your way up until you are a big wig diplomat. Travel around the world mending relations between various belligerent nations while quietly cosying up to one of the two major American political parties. Eventually use your political connections to get a job with the US Secretary of State. When he becomes president, have him appoint you the new Secretary of State. (You think I'm kidding, but somebody has to be Secretary of State in 2032-2040: why not you? What do you think the 2032 SoS is doing right now, in 2008?) Enjoy that post for eight years, then run for President. Lose narrowly, then retire and write your memoirs. Also, take up bowling.

[Scribble]

In one of your posts, you raise the possibility of going to grad school. There are only two good reasons to go to grad school. Those are:

1. You have a deep, passionate, and abiding drive to devote your life to a particular field or project, and
2. You really need the accreditation for advancement or greater opportunities in a particular career you've already started.

Bad reasons for going to grad school include:

1. It looks like more fun or would give you more hipster bragging rights than getting a "real" job.
2. The job market is bad, and further education will pay off someday, even though you don't know how.
3. You don't know what you want to do with your life, and going to grad school would help you put off that decision for a few more years.
4. Any reason other than the two good reasons I've mentioned above.

Grad school can be pretty isolating, ego-crushing, and stressful. Not only that, but the opportunity costs are high. If you have no idea what you want to do after you graduate from college, choose something--anything--other than going to grad school.

[msmith537]

Don't go to law school. There are only a couple good reasons to go to law school and many many bad reasons. I get the sense that your reason is not in the good category. I'm there right now, and half my classmates hate their lives, and will continue to hate their lives for the next 20 years, because they chose law school for the wrong reason.



As someone who works with lawyers professionally on a regular basis, I should also point out that most of them are douchebags. They may have started out as perfectly normal, nice people, but the constant pressure to succeed makes most of them bitter, stressed out, arrogant and neurotic.

[burundi]

Grad school can be pretty isolating, ego-crushing, and stressful. Not only that, but the opportunity costs are high. If you have no idea what you want to do after you graduate from college, choose something--anything--other than going to grad school.
Listen to Scribble. Scribble is wise. Nobody in their right mind goes to grad school just for kicks.

[NinjaChick]

Does no one go to grad school because they truly feel passionate about something and just want to learn more about it? Because that would be one of my two primary reasons (the other, of course, being that my undergrad degree is kind of a degree in nothing).

[burundi]

Does no one go to grad school because they truly feel passionate about something and just want to learn more about it? Because that would be one of my two primary reasons (the other, of course, being that my undergrad degree is kind of a degree in nothing).
If you don't have to earn a living, go for it. Otherwise, going to grad school without a specific plan is a great way to rack up more debt, kill your social life for several years, and ensure that you're over-qualified for a lot of jobs. There are a ton of blogs out there written by bitter, bitter folks who lived on Ramen for years, sweated blood over their dissertation, and now feel doomed to a life of adjunct-dom.

Note, though, that my advice applies to grad school in the humanities. Getting an MS in chemistry is probably a whole 'nother ballpark.

If you want to keep going to school, I recommend going to community college and getting training in something practical, rather than heading straight for grad school. If you're interested in science, you could check into getting certified to do some kind of lab work in the medical field. Or, hell, become a welder for a couple of years. Earn good money, pay down your debts, and figure out where you want to head with your life.

[even sven]

My vote is for Peace Corps.

Yeah, you don't make a ton of money, but you do get the 5k and honestly most people don't manage to save 5k in their first couple years out of college even when they have "real" jobs. The standard of living is a little rustic, but it's comfortable enough and most volunteers here even manage to save a bit. For example, I was able to buy a plane ticket from Cameroon to Mali using my Peace Corps living allowance.

Peace Corps is a good starting point for people who have vague "working internationally helping people" ambitions. It gives you a chance to explore exactly what that entails and decide what parts interest you. It gives you the entry level experience you'll need to get a job with an NGO, and most importantly it hooks you up into an amazing contact network. There are a lot of returned Peace Corps volunteers in international development, and they are usually pretty eager to hire other returned Peace Corps volunteers. You also have a lot of chance to make contacts with various internation development groups and NGOs while in country.

Finally, if you do decide to go to grad school after, you may find an interesting Fellows USA program that provides some pretty good benefits to returned volunteers.

Anyway, it's the adventure of a life time, and I wish I had done it right after college instead of kicking around wasting time years on end trying to figure out what to do.

[Yllaria]

You could do what a couple of my kids did and take a job in Tech Support. It will apparently give you a great deal of perspective on what is desirable in a job and will motivate you to focus on a good job search.

[ultrafilter]

Does no one go to grad school because they truly feel passionate about something and just want to learn more about it?
That's really the only reason to go for an advanced degree in most subjects--after all, it's not like a PhD in history is a particularly valuable credential in industry. But it really can't be overstated how hard grad school is. My estimate--and others can comment on this--is that the first two years of a graduate program cover about as much material as the entire four years of an undergrad program. You can't get through something like that unless you really can't see any other options for yourself.

I want to be perfectly clear here: I'm a grad student, and I'm a fan of higher education in general. If it's really the right thing for you to do, then you shouldn't even hesitate to go for it. But you need to absolutely certain about that, or you're going to be completely miserable for as long as you stay.

[Anne Neville]

it really can't be overstated how hard grad school is.

It is hard, and it's not terribly similar to undergrad. If you're going because you enjoyed college and want more of the same, you'll be disappointed.

Does no one go to grad school because they truly feel passionate about something and just want to learn more about it?

In astronomy, people do go to grad school because they love it, but it's uncommon for an astronomy grad student to pay his/her own way through grad school (I've never heard of anyone doing it). You almost always get an offer of a fellowship (they give you money for sitting on your ass), a TAship (they give you money for being a TA) or an RAship (they give you money for being a research assistant). These stipends almost always include tuition and fees. Astronomy grad students don't make as much money as they could if they left school and got a regular job, but they're not racking up student loan debt, either.

[Tabula Rasa]

It is hard, and it's not terribly similar to undergrad. If you're going because you enjoyed college and want more of the same, you'll be disappointed.

This is _so_ true.

[pepperlandgirl]

Add me to the chorus of voices telling you not to go to grad school unless you have a really really good reason, and "the love of learning" is not it. I don't know what I learned in my program. Oh wait, yes I do. Last night I finished a film theory paper that I was really proud of...I realized I was proud of it and thought, "Oh shit, I did it wrong." Because that's what I've learned in grad school...I've done it wrong, do it wrong, and will probably continue to do it wrong. And now I have an MA in British and American Lit (well, I will next week) and I don't know what the hell to do with it.

Though in my small, small defense, I planned to get a PhD and continue in academia for the rest of my life. I really thought I wanted to be a literature professor. Grad school took that desire, dragged it down a dark alley, beat the fuck out of it, left it for dead, came back the next morning, beat the fuck out of it again, dragged it to the hospital, nursed it back to health, just so it could get the pleasure of stabbing it a hundred times with a rusty knife.

I should have listened when people told me not to go. Though it hasn't all been bad. I did enjoy my TAship, for the most part, and met some interesting people, and now I know what I don't want to do. So I guess that's narrowed things down for me.

Grad school may be right for you one day. There were lots of older people in my program who came back to school for whatever reason. But it doesn't sound like it's right for you right now.

[Spectre of Pithecanthropus]

Does no one go to grad school because they truly feel passionate about something and just want to learn more about it? Because that would be one of my two primary reasons (the other, of course, being that my undergrad degree is kind of a degree in nothing).
I still say your degree doesn't sound like 'nothing', but a lot of 'something'. I wish I'd done something like that for my undergraduate degree.

Can you give some details about the math and science that you took?

[monstro]

Grad school can also be hell if you don't have the right personality. If you're not assertive, self-directing, confident to the point of arrogant, or tolerate of other people's craziness, then you'll struggle in a graduate program. Of course, you can pick these things up along the way, but not everyone's good at adapting. And there's a less forgiving attitude when you mess up in graduate school, especially if you're working under a hard-ass advisor.

Also, grad school is free from some of the stress of undergrad, but if you have any depressive/anxiety issues (like I do), then they will only be magnified under the rigors.

Of course, plenty of people go to graduate school because they are passionate and want to continue learning. (I'd like to think this was me, but I fell more into the "I don't want to be a doctor or a lawyer, so might as well get a Ph.D" category). But the thing is, only rich people can really afford to be so self-indulgent. Supposedly, you went to undergrad and majored in liberal arts because you were already passionate and wanted to continue learning for the sake of learning. So you've gotten plenty of this experience. IMHO, the desire to experience even MORE passionate learning isn't a real good reason to go to grad school. I honestly think you come out of grad school feeling more stupid than you did when you entered, but maybe that's just me.

Do you feel grown up yet? How are you with speaking off the cuff and in public? How confident are you when people ask you questions? How are your people skills? How willing are you to break out of your comfort zone? Before worrying about the debt thing (which is important, to be sure, but you're not the only one in that situation), just try to get a good skill set together. You're aiming to enter the world of social activism, which is admirable, but this line of work almost requires you to be a "people person". It's not enough for you to know stuff; you've also got to be able to relate to folks. So in looking for jobs, look for something that taps into the extraverted side of your personality. Volunteer for a non-profit even if they don't have any paying positions available.

(I'd just like to say, I remember when you started posting here as a high school student. Man, does time fly! Little Ninja's all growed up! :sniff:

[Tabula Rasa]

Oh, I meant to say: Once you have your diploma, the main place in life where "a remarkably mediocre academic record" can count against you is grad. school. For employment, a checkmark in the BA/BS degree box is all you will need, especially if you avoid the Johnny Bad Habit of elaborately explaining, glorifying, and apologizing for the degree. One of my classmates says "My St. John's degree never got me a job, but it is responsible for every promotion I've ever received."