Anti-Climacus

SHOULD I GO TO GRAD SCHOOL?**: A few days ago, I had a conversation on this topic, specifically concerning someone to whom I had given some less-than-encouraging advice about grad school and its prospects. I do occasionally get asked about this by students as well. It occurred to me that my own particular answer is a little unusual: it's the best use I can get out of the abilities I have and, when it goes well, I could hardly imagine doing anything else. But it's not for everyone. It's not for most people. Even if you have abilities far beyond the norm for an undergraduate student, it still might not be for you. At some point very early on (I think winter break of my first year), I was talking to my aunt who had asked me about school, and said something like "it's very odd to think of what you love becoming your job." Like any job, there are some moments of intense misery, which it's sometimes easy to forget.

I looked up a few resources that were helpful to me when I was applying to grad schools:

* Tim Burke's Should I Go to Grad School?

* A Chronicle of Higher Ed article on Invisible Adjunct, who was still writing when I applied to grad school. Her site seems to be gone now, but perhaps the Wayback Machine can find it.

* For political theorists specifically, Jacob Levy's 20 Questions from the much-lamented Crescat Sententia (it's all interesting, but the most relevant question is #6)

Which will hopefully prove useful to those who come here by accident and not-quite accident.


**For the record, my standard answer to that question is "no," in the absence of a strong and clear vocation.