How do I know If I want To Do A Masters?
Wondering whether or not you want to do a master’s degree is a pretty complex question many students have to face at some point in their life. For undergraduate students, this point is dangerously fast approaching. There are many factors you need to take into account when deciding if you want to do a Master’s. As a current postgraduate student, I made a short list of things you should consider, which might help you arrive at this difficult decision:
- Do you WANT to do it? Do you feel that education itself is important to you and you want to continue to pursue it? Many people decide to do a Master’s just to get a title; they end up wasting a year or two of their lives just to later realise they never really wanted or needed this title after all. If you genuinely want to continue your education, a Master’s is a great opportunity that will enable you to learn new things, acquire more skills and also meet more fantastic people interested in the same field as you, which for me is actually the best part about it!
- When it comes to my experience, postgraduate students are treated differently than undergrads. I mean in a good way – I feel like they are taken more seriously, since the teachers know they are here because they truly want to be. There’s definitely more mutual trust and respect between the students and the teachers and I can tell it makes a massive difference when it comes to studying.
- Your Master’s doesn’t have to be a continuation of you undergraduate programme – it can be something completely different. As long as you’re interested in the subject, it can totally work for you! I met many people in my programme that studied subjects absolutely unrelated to what they are studying now, and that’s what they find amazing! Don’t worry that you won’t be able to do a Master’s just because you had nothing to do with the programme before; there will be many people like you, and after all, it’s all about learning new things, isn’t it? Look at it this way: if you don’t really like what you’re currently studying, but you wouldn’t like to quit and start from scratch, a Master’s would enable you to study something that you might finally enjoy, without feeling like you gave up on your previous degree – isn’t that a pretty cool vision?
- Naturally, a Master’s is a pretty expensive adventure. If you don’t feel like paying thousands of pounds for it, remember there are lots of very good universities in Europe, and around the world, where it’s completely free to attend. It’s an amazing opportunity to study abroad for some time, I can definitely tell you that from my experience! But if you prefer to do your Master’s at home, you can easily get a student loan, which is actually not that difficult to pay off; student loan services let you pay as much or as little as you can until you have a full-time job. The world is full of possibilities, you just have to find out which one’s best for you!
- Doing a Master’s also means being a student for a bit longer. If you enjoy student life and don’t want to become a full adult (ugh, it sounds so ADULT) too soon, a Master’s would definitely guarantee you that (and to be honest, I LOVE this part about it)!
- In many countries, (e.g. in mine, Poland), it is considered a natural thing, even a necessity to do a Master’s – as if your studies wouldn’t be complete without it. Here it is not, which is a good thing – you can decide on your own and you don’t have to stay at university (which can be, as we all know, pretty stressful and exhausting sometimes) if you don’t want to. So, embrace it – think about all the pros and cons, about what you would like to study and IF you want to continue studying at all, consider going abroad and opening up to some amazing new opportunities. Just remember: this is your life and you can do anything you want with it. The world is yours, so just do you!
Source:
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