As a senior in her last few weeks of undergrad, I’m well acquainted with the rabbit hole of post-grad “what ifs” that leave me questioning every choice I’ve made in college. There are so many options for what to do post-grad that it can become horribly overwhelming, and hearing what all of your friends are planning only tends to widen those possibilities instead of guiding you to a plan.
As I’ve gotten closer to my graduation date, I’ve been able to figure out what’s best for me amidst all of the post-grad buzz and the never-ending, ever-dreaded question: “What are you going to do after you graduate?”
While it certainly wasn’t easy to figure out what I wanted to do with so many opinions flooding towards me from all directions, I do have a few tips that helped me reach a conclusion.
- Try a Pros and Cons List
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Knowing it was a tried and true way of helping people make decisions, I turned to making a pros and cons list multiple times while I was sorting through my options. Something about seeing all of the information laid out in front of you, where you can visualize how many great qualities and downfalls belong to each plan, makes it much easier to weigh your options.
When making my pros and cons lists, I made sure I did a deep dive into all my options. If I heard about a new opportunity I thought might work for me, I didn’t hesitate to go back through everything I had already looked at to compare.
Making the lists might end up being a lot of work, but it really allowed me to understand the reality of all of my options, and it helped me keep an open mind when sorting through my choices because I felt less overwhelmed than when I was trying to compare every path inside my head.
I looked at everything from grad school to a gap year at home to relocating to a new city for a full-time job, and I don’t think I could’ve gotten an idea of my life in each scenario without these lists.
While I wouldn’t base all of my decisions on tallying up the amount of good and bad qualities of every option — there’s something to be said for doing what feels right, too — I do think it can make the influx of information a lot less overwhelming. The pros and cons list can work for everything from weighing different programs to trying to figure out if you want to take a gap year or not.
When a pros and cons list doesn’t feel right, I’ve also found it helpful to simply write out the details of all of your options. When looking at graduate programs, I put all of the details of each program I was interested in in one document, giving me one place to look at all of the options I was going through. It didn’t include reasons I liked or disliked each school, but it did give me a single place to look at all of the information I was trying to cram into my head.
- Don’t Compare Your Plans To Others’
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I know, I really do, that this next step is so much easier said than done, but the best thing I think someone could do for themselves when making a big life choice is to disconnect from all the noise. Senior year is filled with everyone, and I mean everyone, from family members to professors to friends, asking you what you’ll be doing post-grad or telling you what their plans are.
Even someone fifty years older than you will take the opportunity to tell you about how their grandchild just got a six-figure job and is moving to New York, immediately tanking your self-esteem. In these moments, I try to remember it’s truly okay not to know exactly what you want to do with the rest of your life, and I’ve found that when I really have honest conversations with my friends, most of us are equally unsure of whether the next planned step is the right one.
Hearing all of those plans constantly can become super overwhelming, and it can make you feel like you’re making the wrong choice, even when you know there’s no such thing as a “right way” to go about your life.
There are so many vastly different options, and while some may seem more popular or socially acceptable, you have to find what is uniquely right for you. Making sure you take the time to separate your thoughts and goals from everyone else’s is so integral to choosing what you want to do after you get your diploma.
- Remember: You Can Always Change Your Mind
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The other memo people like to throw out during post-grad conversations is “you can always change your mind,” and while it’s incredibly cliché, I’ll also admit that it is very true. This time of life can really make you feel as though every decision you make will affect your entire future, and while they’re in no way small choices, it is very important to remember that you do have the ability to change your mind and completely switch paths.
There are so many huge life changes on the horizon, whether that’s starting a job, moving to a new city for grad school, taking time to travel, or moving back to your hometown and leaving the campus you’ve called home for four years. I think having the mental safety net of knowing you can try something else if the choice you end up making doesn’t suit you makes the decision much less stressful.
While I definitely don’t have all the answers to figuring out my post-grad plans, I do know that reminding myself to do these things has made it much easier to arrive at my current plan and has kept a few back-up options open. Now it’s just a matter of soaking up my last few weeks of undergrad and keeping an open mind to what the future holds!
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