15 Tips to Help You Decide Whether Grad School Is Right For You

For those of us who are not going to be doctors or lawyers, the choice of whether or not to go to grad school is often a tough one. Parents are telling you one thing, the economy is telling you another and you are just caught in the middle of an epic battle royale. This is a huge decision that ‘s going to change the rest of your life; you are going to have to live with the consequences of whatever choice you make right now. Are you nervous yet? Don’t worry- we’re here to help you. Here are 15 tips to help you decide whether grad school is right for you.

1. Think about why the subject of grad school even came up. If your school’s career counselor suggests it, it might be a good idea. If you just want to stay in school longer for the sake of being in college, it might be a bad idea.

2. Don’t let your parents make this decision for you. You’re an adult now. Your parents aren’t going to be the ones doing your homework and research papers for you, so don’t let them boss you around.

3. Do some job searching first. Grad school should really be an option if you can’t get a career. Do some serious job searching in your career field for at least a year. If you are still unhappy, then consider grad school.

4. Think about your 20’s- which will be gone after you get out of grad school. Do you want to live most of your 20’s slaving away in front of a computer screen in a library? Do you want to be emotionally distraught at least 5 nights of the week? Both of those scenarios are definite possibilities at grad school.

5. What will you be learning? If you will be learning something that you can’t find in a book, then by all means go to grad school. If you can gain this knowledge in an MOOC or by doing research online, grad school is not for you. Look at the course offered for your degree and make sure that you will be practicing the things you’re being taught.

6. Think about the monetary impact long term. Are you willing to be in serious debt for a very long time? Will this degree help you make more money that you ever thought could be possible? Are you the only one paying for your education or will you receive help?

7. Do you really need this degree? This goes back to  #1 and #5. Do you need this degree in order to get your dream job or are you just going to grad school because you want to learn more?

8. Think about what life would be like without grad school. Most of your life will be dedicated to school, so it makes sense to think about how your time could be spent otherwise. If you don’t continue your education, would you like to travel? Would you start a family or a career?

9. Research which schools offer the best resources for your major. If you’re going to spend a lot of time and money on this degree, you want to get the most out of it. Find a school that not only offers the best library and professors, but also the school with the most successful alumni.

10. Are you willing to move anywhere to continue your education? If the school you chose from #9 is out of state, think about your housing, food, transportation and tuition costs.

11. Think about an internship and grad school at the same time. One of the best ways to get through grad school is to pick up an internship so you can practice your skills. It will give you industry contacts as well as real world knowledge. The best part is that the internship could turn into a career once you graduate!

12. Ask your employer to pay for grad school. If you already have a job and are thinking about grad school, the first thing you should be doing is asking your employer to pay for it. Your employers will love that you have a highly trained skill set that will benefit their company. You might even be asked to help train your fellow employees!

13. Talk to someone actually in grad school. The best way to figure out if grad school is right for you is to talk to someone actually in grad school. They can tell you why they chose it, how their experience is so far, and how their career will benefit from it. This is valuable knowledge that you need to hear before you make your decision.

14. Look for scholarships. Do you want to be in debt? My guess would be no. There are thousands of scholarships out there that can help you graduate debt free- which is a very, very rare thing. However, if you search hard enough, you can do it.

15. Think about the amount of caffeine you will consume per day. Don’t like coffee, tea or energy drinks? Grad school is not for you.

Grad school is a huge step for everyone. In some cases, the choice to go to grad school is more important than where you attended undergraduate college. Have you already started the internal grad school debate? Do you have any unanswered question? Ask them here!

Sunday Not-So-Funday

It’s Sunday afternoon and you’re just waking up from a very long Saturday night. You wake up just in time to eat breakfast at 1pm and then it’s time for some good old Sunday fun activities.

But wait- you just remembered you have that three page paper due tomorrow for art history! Your Sunday Funday plans with friends just got ruined. What are you going to do!?

Luckily you have a college veteran on your side.  I can walk you through exactly what you can do to if you should find yourself in this position.

Drink caffeine immediately. Normally, I wouldn’t suggest dehydrating your body after a long night of debauchery, but this is an exception. You need to get yourself in the paper-writing mood, and you can’t focus on your paper if you are tired or lazy. Caffeine is a great way to give you that extra boost of energy you need to get started on your schoolwork. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll be done. If you’re sensitive to caffeine, do something active for 10-15 minutes. Going on a quick run or even a walk in the sunshine is enough to shake you out of a slump.

Study Outside. The sun is finally coming out, the snow is melting, and it’s almost nice outside. If your friends are going to be rambunctious inside, then move your schoolwork outside! The fresh air is exactly what you need to clear your mind and focus on that paper. Grab some shades, a light jacket, and soak up some sun while you study in peace. If you don’t have a laptop, don’t have Wi-Fi, and don’t have a place right outside your house that you can study, then you have thought of every excuse in the book and can comment on this blog to share more of your fabulous excuses with the rest of us.

Don’t Complain. Seriously. You got yourself into this position; you can get yourself out of it. Keep your complaints to yourself and just do the paper. The more time you waste complaining to your friends about how you are “so tired” or how you hate your professor, the less time you will have to actually write the paper. The last thing your friends want to do is hang around with Buzz Killington. (This option of dealing with unexpected homework is not the most fun, but it is the most valuable to personal growth and becoming a mature adult.)

You have to do your homework at some time or another, and most of us like to procrastinate. This isn’t always a bad thing. (Some of my best papers were a result of intensive research done during a short period of time.) However, don’t make a habit of procrastinating and don’t put yourself in a position to choose between your friends and your schoolwork on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Most of the time, your friends will win and your grades will end up the loser.

4 Ways to Get a Job Using Social Media

Gone are the days where job searching meant scouring the newspapers and help wanted ads. Nowadays, job searching consists of searching the major hubs of job postings online. How do you know what’s a scam and what’s not? With hundreds of thousands of postings scattered across the web and scams everywhere, what’s a college student supposed to do? I’m glad you asked.

YouTube your resume. This is a great way for you to showcase your creativity to your future employer. Employers love watching video resumes because they can get a better feel for your personality and your attention to detail (not to mention the fact that they are probably tired of looking over hundreds of paper resumes). On the other hand, employers will be immediately turned off if they see a video of you reciting your resume or an unnecessarily long video. Some good examples: James the workaholic and Angelica the teacher.

Use Twitter to find out who is hiring. Most companies will tweet about positions they’re hiring for. With Twitter, you can peruse hundreds of companies at once. Use the search bar to type any key words associated with your ideal job position or field of expertise and watch the companies line up. There are also companies that take all the guesswork out of Twitter job searching. Their main objective is to find you a job through Twitter. My personal favorite one is The Creative Ham. They have a “forever incomplete list of agencies” and “irrelevant job listings” to make your job search easier.

Facebook is an easy way to expand your options in your job search. Figure out which companies are growing and hiring. Just like Twitter, Facebook is great for figuring out the status of a company. Look at the number of people who “like” the company and how many people feel passionately about it by looking at the comments left on the page. You can also easily see what companies “like” the company you’re looking at and how your company engages with consumers and competitors.

LinkedIn is the mother load of all job postings. If you’re not on LinkedIn, you need to be. Make a resume, join every group you can, and start looking at companies that you’re interested in. LinkedIn has a tab purely for job postings and companies that are expanding rapidly. Another great feature of LinkedIn is the ability to put a face to a name. Employers will want to see your face and you want to see who works for the company.

Arm yourself with all the knowledge that social media can give you. Knowledge is power.

Ask Dave Anything!

Hey everyone! Meet Dave- the COO and Co founder of Flashnotes.

Dave and Mike had only met twice before they started Flashnotes in 2009. Dave had experience with start up businesses prior to meeting Mike. When they met in 2009, they hit it off and decided to launch Flashnotes based out of Akron, Ohio. Dave compared their relationship to an airplane. “Mike is the engine and I am the rudder. Mike has all these creative ideas and I steer us in a certain direction”.

Some major improvements have been made since they started. The most notable change has been a shift from a tiered structure to a more open marketplace. Dave says that this places an emphasis on actual learning. He says, “Other business models are incentivized or subscription based: we’re not. We wanted to focus on becoming a service and tool for students rather than a schematic”.

We want to be as helpful and as insightful as possible here at Flashnotes, which is why Dave has agreed to answer questions about our company. Use the comment boxes below to ask Dave any questions you have about Flashnotes!

Brand Ambassador Spotlight- Heather

Want to know what dedication looks like? Take a good look at Heather.

This is Heather’s second semester as a Flashnotes Brand Ambassador on the Florida State University campus, and we love working with her. Her positive attitude and constant contact have made her a joy to work with and we think that deserves some recognition!

Heather decided to work for Flashnotes to expand her business network and further her academic career before she graduates. She seamlessly combines her goals of becoming a sports broadcaster with her Flashnotes job. Heather says that Flashnotes has given her experience with talking to strangers as well as networking on a national level, which is great for someone aspiring to work in the public eye.

“I am so thankful for the experience and opened doors that Flashnotes has opened for me”, she says. Well, Heather, we hope we can open a few more! Thanks for being awesome!

Has Flashnotes opened up any doors for you? Let us know!

It’s Spring Break!!

Here at Flashnotes, we love any excuse to shut our laptops down and enjoy some quality R and R. It looks as though you guys like to do the same! Here are some alternative spring break adventures.

Go somewhere warm and tropical.

You can build houses for habitat for humanity in Latin American countries or rehab native plant species in Florida. Get that warm, fuzzy feeling inside knowing that you actually did something productive and selfless with your spare time. You can even meet new friends that share the common interest of being a productive citizen. We love what Northeastern University’s students are doing!

Find yourself a summer internship.

We cannot emphasize this enough: internships earn you jobs after college. Internships are the best way to prove to future employers that you have real world experience as opposed to book knowledge. Our favorite internship website is Internmatch. While finding a great summer internship shouldn’t take you all of spring break to do, it’s definitely worth it to spend some quality time networking and securing that internship.

Head for the mountains.

Winter can be cold, long, and boring. Sometime around March people just get fed up with the snow and decide that it should be summer already. Hold your horses, everyone! Did we all forget the joys of snow in the mountains? Being stuck in the snow in a city can give you cabin fever, but being in the snow in the great outdoors gives you a sense of

Yours truly hanging out at Lake Tahoe

adventure. Snow mobiling, snow shoeing, snowboarding, hiking, sledding- all of these are great outdoor activities that can help get your blood pumping. Have you ever hiked up a mountain and then snowboarded down it? Let me be the first to tell you that it’s an unreal feeling!

If you need to make a quick getaway, Jet Blue and Student Universe have great deals to get you out of your college town. We wish you all a happy spring break. We’ll be here for you when you get back!