Given the significant time and financial commitment graduate school requires, you need to be confident in the decision. That means evaluating your career and long-term goals and the overall return on investment.
Determine “whether a graduate degree is necessary or advantageous to your career advancement,” Courtney Hills McBeth, chief academic officer and provost at Western Governors University, wrote in an email. “In some fields, it’s essential, while in others, work experience or certifications may be more valuable.
Here’s what to know about graduate school and how it compares to earning an undergraduate degree.
Types of Graduate Programs
Graduate programs are “designed to meet different career and academic advancement goals,” Hills McBeth says.
Options vary from advanced certificates and master’s degrees to doctorate and professional degrees, such as in law and medicine.
“A key feature and benefit of graduate programs are the friends and connections you make,” Hills McBeth says. “Classes are typically smaller, particularly at the doctoral level. You can form a tight network that shares social capital, job and hiring possibilities, information exchanges and lifelong relationships. You also may form close relationships with faculty, who often become mentors.”
[Read: How Existing Student Loan Debt Affects Graduate School Prospects]
How Grad School Compares to Undergrad
Undergraduate and graduate school often have varying standards and requirements.
“Graduate programs are generally more rigorous and time-intensive, with a stronger emphasis on group discussions versus lectures, independent research, advanced writing, peer interaction and coursework closely aligned with the specific field or career path,” she says.
As part of a bachelor’s program, students are often required to complete general education classes. Graduate courses, on the other hand, are more specialized to your field of study.
“Graduate school is more like your undergraduate major,” says Joshua Brumberg, professor of biology and psychology and president of CUNY Graduate Center. “All your courses are relevant to whatever degree you’re going to get.”
Outside of class, both undergraduate and graduate students have opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities, but the options differ.
[Read: How Long Does it Take to Get a Ph.D. Degree and Should You Get One?]
“In graduate school, a lot of the cocurricular activities are about building network and around career advancement,” says Joy Jones, CEO of the Graduate Management Admission Council, which administers the Graduate Management Admission Test. “You see a little bit more around career services, employer connections and the like more deeply embedded in the experience and often playing a key role in the outcomes.”
Additionally, while not always the case, undergraduate students may have been “told by a loved one that they need to go get a college degree,” Brumberg says. But often in graduate school, “the students sitting in the classroom have made the conscious decision to come to that school for that program. I think that affects things differently.”
Should You Pursue Graduate School?
It might not be the right time — or pathway — if you’re unsure about your long-term goals, experts say.
“Most candidates in our space, especially ones who are pursuing some of the best global or national schools, have specific outcomes in mind — whether they’re trying to build certain skills or advancing their career paths,” Jones says. “If a student is looking out of general curiosity or just trying to figure out is it the right place to make the best purely financial returns, then I don’t think they’re going to get the full return on investment. Finance is important, but the knowledge, skills and experience, the network and the richness of the experience are all important returns on investment that someone will lose out on if they’re not clear about what they’re trying to accomplish.”
The cost of graduate school often deters many students. Sixty percent of current and prospective graduate students removed a program from their list because they felt it was too expensive, and the majority ranked price as their top factor in making an enrollment decision, according to a 2025 survey from EAB, an education firm that provides research, technology and advisory services.
Graduate school is a “major investment,” Jones says. “So if you are not in a position of financial readiness and don’t have a confident view in the outcome that you’re trying to pursue, then it’s risky to make that financial commitment on the front end. … Changes in the job market today — that should and does continue to shape the decision-making.”
However, even if you aren’t ready to make the financial investment or if you’re unclear about expected outcomes, that doesn’t necessarily mean graduate school should be ruled out altogether, she adds. It may just be “on your future horizon.”
While outcomes are important, it also helps to be passionate about a particular field. Graduate school often takes between two and seven years to complete, depending on the degree.
“You have to get up every morning excited about the area that you’re studying,” Brumberg says. “That’s what’s going to get you out of bed because there are many long nights in graduate school, whether writing a paper, doing an experiment or gathering data, depending on your field. And then you have to get up the next morning to continue that pursuit. And if you’re not excited by that pursuit, it’s really, really hard.”
[Read: How to Find Scholarships for Graduate School]
Steps to Take Before Applying
Before applying, prospective graduate students need to determine whether they plan to enroll part time or full time, and narrow down their programs of interest. This is similar to the process of finding an undergraduate institution. Some factors to consider include cost, location, research and internship opportunities, graduation rates, alumni network and career outcomes.
“You want to make sure that the program has connections to places that you want to go afterwards because grad school is a means to an end, not an end itself,” Brumberg says. Verify that the “curriculum matches your interest. What makes certainly doctoral programs unique is the dissertation, (so) making sure there are appropriate advisers of your dissertation who are working in areas that excite you.”
Graduate schools often host in-person or virtual open houses. In addition to attending these sessions, it’s also important to talk with program faculty and current students, experts say.
“They’re going to know best what the program is like from the student’s perspective,” Brumberg says. “And I think that’s really important for prospective students to hear from currently enrolled students — what made their decision and are they happy about the decision?”
Searching for a grad school? Get our complete rankingsof Best Graduate Schools.
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What Is Graduate School and Should You Apply? originally appeared on usnews.com