Make up your mind with a grad school ‘internship’
Having trouble deciding what you want to be when you grow up? You’re not alone. Most college students will change majors at least once in the course of their academic careers. Change majors too often, though, and you risk delaying graduation — and adding to the cost of your education. Change your mind in a post-graduate field, where the costs of education increase markedly over undergraduate expenses, and the financial weight could turn staggering.
Enter the Intellectual Entrepreneurship Pre-Graduate School Internship program at the University of Texas at Austin. The for-credit program allows undergraduates at the school to work closely with faculty and graduate students to explore different academic opportunities — and the various careers associated with them — before investing time or money in entering an actual post-graduate program. In the words of one participant, the program “opened doors for me academically that I previously never knew existed.
While a recent Inside Higher Ed article has drawn wider attention to the pre-graduate school internship, few other such types of programs exist at colleges and universities. According to the UT program’s director, about half of all its participants are underrepresented minorities or first-generation college students — both groups which typically also define a large number of military students in higher education.
It would be great if more schools would take a cue from the UT-Austin program and begin offering pre-graduate school internships that allowed students to “sample the goods,” if you will, before committing to a post-graduate field of study. Unfortunately, in these tough economic times, extra funding for such programs is unlikely, which means you might have to get creative.
A year or two into an undergraduate program of study, you’ve likely developed at least a few close relationships with faculty or staff members. If you’ve been contemplating grad school but are uncertain that you want to commit the time or resources it takes to go that extra step, talk to a trusted adviser. See if there is some way you can shadow a faculty member or student pursuing the path you are considering.
Sitting down and talking to someone about his or her experiences for even an hour could be all it takes to help sway your own decision. And that’s a lot less commitment than the investment of time it takes to earn a post-graduate degree.
