One question on some graduating seniors’ minds is whether or not they should go on to grad school or get a job. The University of Memphis’ chapter of the Public Relations Society of America held a panel discussion on Oct. 29 to give undergraduates the pros and cons of attending graduate school. On panel were Joe Hayden, Kimberly Rogers, Lemmie Griggs and Lauren Turner.
According to the U of M graduate school webpage, over 4,000 graduate students were enrolled in more than 110 degree programs, many of which are ranked among the best in the nation.
Joe Hayden, U of M journalism professor and grad coordinator of the journalism department, explained 4 different criteria that undergraduates must meet before applying to graduate school.
“One is your undergraduate grades,” Hayden said. “We want students to do as well as possible while they are in college, before deciding whether we think they’ll make it as a grad student. Another one is a test score like the GRE, Graduate Record Examinations, or there’s also another test, the MAT, Miller Analogies Test.”
Hayden explained that most students take the GRE, which is similar to the SAT, a college admission test. There is a verbal portion, quantitative reasoning and an analytical writing section on the GRE test.
“We look at your level scores,” Hayden said. “We’re less concerned that you’re not a genius in math, but we do want to see that you are proficient in the language.”
The last two things listed on the criteria before entering into grad school is professional experience in the field and an essay that students write to explain why they are interested in grad school.
Lemmie Griggs, admission supervisor for the U of M graduate school, explained the financial side of going to grad school.
“An assistantship is the way to go, because graduate school is expensive, and there are no outside scholarships,” he said. “But as far as financial aid, we do FAFSA, which is only student loans, so it’s not any grants or any other funding.”
Griggs said if a student doesn’t get an assistantship, they will have to find outside funding, but students will normally get federal loans for graduate school.
Lauren Turner, current U of M journalism graduate, explained the coursework in the graduate program.
“It all depends on what you decide to do your emphasis in,” she said. “Mine is in public relations, so I take three classes per semester. However, this is my last semester as a graduate student, but I won’t graduate until May, because my thesis is taking longer than expected, so I will be taking a one hour thesis course next semester.”
Turner also explained that there are different ways for students who are going grad to stack their coursework.
“Certain classes are a lot more difficult than others, and you don’t want to take them all at once,” she said.
Turner said that going to grad school is nothing like being an undergrad.
“It’s a whole other beast,” she said. “You just have to be serious about it. It’s not like you’re going into your undergrad degree, and you’re just going to hang out and have fun and have a social life and go to school, because you’re not.”
Despite her warnings, Turner said that with a bit of organization, grad students can still carve out personal time.
“You can still have a little bit of a social life, but it is a lot more work, especially if you do get an assistantship, because that’s another stack of work that’s on your plate that you’re going to be doing,” Turner said.
Grad students must be enrolled in at least nine hours’ worth of courses to be considered full-time students. For financial aid assistance, a student must be enrolled in five hours.
Kimberly Rogers, a college media coordinator in the U of M College of Communication and Fine Arts, completed her undergraduate degree, but wanted to get professional experience before she returned to school.
“One of the courses that I’ve taken in grad school was statistics,” she said. “I took that one class while I was working at Baptist Memorial Hospital, but the job went through a round of layoffs, so when I was laid off, I was trying to figure out whether I wanted to go back to work, or go ahead and do the grad degree.”
Rogers said that the experience she gained from doing publication work in the medical field has helped her with her classes.
“There were times in the middle of classes where I had a professional experience that I could relate to the coursework and it helped me a lot,” she said. “I was glad that I had the experience before I did the M.A.”
The U of M is having a Graduate Student Recruitment Fair on Nov. 12, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., in the University Center Ballroom. For more details, visit http://www.memphis.edu/gradschool.
