Mastering the next step

Making the decision to apply to a Masters has been a long time coming. I have stood by while others have struggled through applications, considered funding, locations and courses. I thought I was going to be different; standing alone and doing it the hard way while everyone else took the shortcut route, and clung on to the hypnotic cycle of education. Oh how things have changed.

The course in question, the one that has lured me in against my will, annoyingly has many things going for it. It is in my home town (cheap accommodation with the parents), it will give me a set of hands-on skills I can use in the sector I would like to work in and, most tellingly, 100% of last year’s graduates from this course are now employed.

So why am I so averse to the idea? Well, partly money. Masters students are not eligible for government student loans, although you can take out an ordinary career-related bank loan if you so desire. But coming to the end of your degree reminds you of what you have tried to shrug off by claiming “we’re all the same” and “at least we’ve got it better than the poor 9k-ers”; it is an undeniably uncomfortable feeling to begin your life in debt. It is understandable to be hesitant about putting off earning it back for even longer.

Then there are the grad scheme applicants. The clambering mass of students desperate to get a place on a ‘Big Four’ graduate scheme in London is seemingly never-ending. And who can blame them? Three years of paid training in which you supplement your learning with a nice little income. It is the polar opposite to taking the scary step of a Masters, which requires you to live, eat, study for another year on sweet fat nothing. It is the curse of the humanities student who does not qualify (or want) to be in any sector which actually has a budget to fund trainees.

Scientists are in a similarly profitable position; a PhD in science, I recently found out, can often be the equivalent to a paid job for three or four years, doing interesting research in something you enjoy doing whilst being paid a salary. Or, alternatively, science can also attract enough funding to advertise bursaries and grants to the budding Masters student, which must surely help to make the decision easier.

That is not to say that you will only get your dream job if you complete a Masters. But strangely, you rarely hear of the option of simply applying for a job and seeing how it goes. Of course, this does happen but I can’t help but feel the emphasis is on the need, or perhaps the strong advantage of having some kind of post-grad qualification. We have been told for years that jobs are more and more competitive and you need something to set you apart. There is even the tenacious theory that without a 2:1 you are pretty much at the bottom of the pile already. But as the time to decide draws closer, I realise that I have been hoping that everyone has just been a bit pessimistic and with the right attitude and a fair amount of work experience, you can make your way in the world with a mere undergraduate degree and a good dose of perseverance. Sadly, this may not be quite true.

There is one more reason why I am hesitant to embrace a Masters as my next step in life. I can’t help but feel that by accepting the fact I need a post-grad qualification to take me further, it in some ways devalues my hard-earned English undergraduate degree. Some part of me wants to ask, why isn’t the money, the effort, and the grade enough?

There are, it must be reiterated, many options open to the newly graduated young person, and it certainly pays to take some time to survey all the possible next steps. Avoid a narrow approach to the next application or the next qualification available. For me, despite my misgivings, a Masters may soon be looming. Let’s just hope that one day we can stop aiming higher, ticking boxes and ultimately reach a point when we can say we’ve made it.