Should you apply to grad school? For undergraduate students with a strong academic record and passion for a particular subject, grad school may seem like an obvious choice. However, a graduate program can be financially perilous, can delay other career and life opportunities, and may not be the surest path to a gratifying job.
The good news is, there are many different graduate school options, including master’s and PhD programs. For reference, a master’s degree usually takes one to two years of full-time study to complete, whereas a doctoral degree will take between four and seven years—and sometimes even longer— depending on the program and whether you already have a master’s degree.
The following questions are intended to help clarify your priorities as you contemplate your path after undergrad. These questions are particularly relevant for students considering grad school in history but may be useful for students in the broader humanities and social sciences. (Please note: university education differs widely in different countries; the advice below is catered to US higher education but can be applied, in part, to other countries.)
1. What do I want to do (and what do I need to do it)?
If you want to teach bright, interested, high-achieving young people, you don’t necessarily need a subject-specific master’s (MA) or doctoral (PhD) degree. In fact, faculty jobs at universities are so scarce today that many recent PhDs never land full-time teaching jobs at universities. If teaching is your goal, a master’s may (or may not) be advantageous. Many community colleges require faculty to have a master’s but do not require a PhD. In addition, some states pay high school teachers more for each master’s degree they hold, while other states require a master’s degree for public school teachers. An MA in history, therefore, may be an excellent choice, opening doors to teaching at different levels and to further doctoral study.
Some undergraduate students think they don’t want to teach high school because they didn’t enjoy high school or didn’t have great teachers. That’s fair—who would want to return to a setting they were relieved to escape in the first place? Perhaps most of your social studies teachers were coaches first, teachers second, making it hard to see yourself in that role. But if your main goal is teaching, don’t dismiss high school education so quickly. First, consider that there are many different types of schools: rural, suburban, and urban; public, private (religious and not), and charter. There are also magnet schools, as well as schools that offer AP classes or International Baccalaureate diplomas. It’s possible that teaching at a high school could be extremely rewarding and it’s a matter of getting a job at the right school. Finding the right position for you can take time. You might start your teaching career at a school that isn’t a great fit and get your dream job three years later. (Keep in mind that if you embarked on a PhD, three years in, you might not even have started to write your dissertation!)
If teaching is your goal, research your options thoroughly.
- If you are a history major, what are your options for teaching after graduating? Is there a certification program (for students without an education degree) in your state or in a different state where you plan to move? In your state, do you need a master’s degree in education (which might be an MA, MS, or MEd) and experience student teaching, or will a master’s degree in history open the same doors?
- If you’re interested in the possibility of teaching high school but don’t want to forego teaching community college or doing a PhD, research master’s programs in history that offer funding.
If what you want is to play a role in the public’s understanding of history, you might want to consider a master’s degree in public history. Jobs working in museums, parks, and various levels of government typically don’t require a PhD in history (or public history) but may require a master’s in history, public history, or museum studies. Check out the National Council on Public History website, including their jobs page. Explore jobs that appeal to you and take note of their educational requirements. Then, talk to your professors (especially if there are professors in your department who teach courses with titles like “Public History,” “Digital History,” or “Archival Methods”) and search for master’s programs in public history, digital history, and museum studies.
If what you want is to study a particular issue with contemporary significance, does your subfield connect to job opportunities outside academia? For instance, if you are interested in the history of foreign relations, would you consider a career in the State Department? Think about your interests and how they connect to possible careers beyond academia, then do some research on job requirements. Will a master’s degree be beneficial to you in that field if you decide not to pursue an academic career? Will a PhD? Are all the jobs (and internships) in that subfield in one place? If so, are you willing to live there and are there programs nearby that you can apply to? Having this knowledge at the beginning of your grad school application journey will be extremely helpful as you weigh which programs to apply to and consider whether you need a master’s degree, a PhD, or a different credential.
If what you want is to be a professor, is there a field in which that might be easier? I have met academics who decided they wanted to be a professor before they knew which subject they wanted to study. If this is you, read carefully: Do. Not. Choose. History (or Art History or Philosophy). Choose an area in which there are more academic jobs, like business or the sciences or psychology. There’s no guarantee that these disciplines will continue to hire at a faster rate than most of the humanities, but there is no reason—no matter how smart and hardworking you are—to expect hiring in the humanities to improve in the near future. If being a professor is your goal, a PhD in the humanities is not your best path.
If what you want is to help people, can you do it outside of a professorial role? Some students are drawn to a career in academia because a professor was instrumental in some way in their lives. This is a beautiful thing. But you can “pay it forward” in a variety of ways. If you want to work with young people, teaching, social work, coaching, and counselling can be hugely meaningful and impactful. There are also numerous people at universities who connect with and help students but aren’t professors—including academic advisors, student life professionals, campus mental health counselors, and career center professionals. Some of these jobs, but not all, require graduate degrees.
There are many jobs outside of academia that allow you to make a difference. Talk to your professors and a campus career advisor about what you’re passionate about. In addition, remember that how you make a living can be separate from how you make the world a better place. Certain careers outside of academia can give you a better work-life balance, which might mean more time to volunteer, or give you more financial flexibility to donate to causes you care about. Finding meaning in your work is a privilege, but it is far from the only way to help people.
Here are some additional questions to consider as you weigh your education and career options.
2. What part of grad school/ academia is most attractive to me? What part is least attractive?
In particular, how do you feel about:
- living far from family? (This is a possibility for graduate school and a probability if you work in academia.)
- teaching? (Is this something you’re excited about or something you would dread? Teaching will likely be part of your grad school funding and is required in academic jobs.)
- conducting research (archival research for historians) and attending conferences? (If you’re thinking “I’ll hate this; I just want to teach history, scroll back to the teaching section in question 1.)
- other requirements in your field (such as a language requirement in most history PhD programs)?
Whether you know how you feel about all these questions or not, before you apply to grad school, do some of the job and see if you actually like it. Work with professors at your current institution to:
- attend a conference. (Check out our guide for presenting at your first undergraduate conference.)
- publish a book review in an undergraduate journal.
- conduct archival research for a thesis or upper-level class.
- apply for internships.
- volunteer at an archive or museum.
- see if you can get involved in research with a faculty member (including oral history research or digital history projects).
- apply for work-study jobs in your department.
- volunteer as a student representative on a faculty hiring committee.
If you aren’t sure where to start, talk to your professors, department chair, and internship coordinator.
Some more tough questions to consider:
3. Am I avoiding the workforce?
This might be the case if you have never had a full-time job or if you have had a full-time job and despised it. In either case, talk to your professors about your interests and what appeals to you about grad school, and see what career options they suggest.
4. Am I using grad school as a means to an end?
If what you want is to move away from your family, move to a specific city, state or country, or otherwise transform your life, you can do it without attending grad school.
5. Do I have the financial, emotional, and logistical support to attend grad school right now?
Grad school might be right for you, but the timing might be wrong. Don’t waste money and energy applying if you realistically can’t go to grad school right now. Instead, take the time you need to research programs (and reach out to faculty you might work with or graduate program directors), save money, and apply to programs that are a good fit.
6. What are my long-range financial goals and commitments?
How will 1–2 years for a master’s—or 7 (more more!) years for a PhD—shape your financial future? How will this investment (especially a PhD) shape other parts of your life (such as getting married, being close to family, having kids, and traveling)?
7. How will I feel about deciding to do a PhD if…
Let’s assume you apply, get admitted, start grad school, excel at coursework, pass your comprehensive exams with flying colors, conduct extensive research, write an outstanding dissertation, conduct a national job search… and after all this, you don’t get an academic job?
This is a brutal (but realistic) question to ask yourself. If this is the case, will you try to get a job teaching at a community college, in secondary education, or at a museum? Will you be glad you earned a master’s degree in history along the way, or would a different master’s degree open more doors?
And finally, for those who know grad school is for them, have done research on programs and careers, and have been admitted to a program, the one question you must still ask is:
8. Do I have funding?
Unless you are independently wealthy, you must have funding. Taking on student loans—especially for a PhD—is simply not a good bet. You are not going to earn lawyer- or medical doctor-dollars after your PhD. While advice is mixed on accepting partial funding or taking on student loans for a master’s degree, you should be very, very hesitant to commit to a PhD program that doesn’t offer you a tuition stipend and an assistantship.
Final advice
Talk to people. Talk to multiple professors at your current school and get a variety of perspectives. Reach out to current graduate students you may know or ask professors to put you in touch with grad students. Revisit assumptions you’ve made about grad school and the alternatives. And if you have ruled options out because of a passing comment someone made—that you wouldn’t like teaching or museum work or that you’d be crazy not to go to grad school—rethink your options. One of the most essential things you can do in this process is to make sure you have a solid sense of your own goals, and how your interests and work habits line up (or don’t) with different graduate programs and different career possibilities.
Clio and the Contemporary 