7 common grad school myths - debunked!

When we’re making a big decision, many of us tend to focus on all the reasons why we shouldn’t do something.

When we’re making a big decision, many of us tend to focus on all the reasons why we shouldn’t do something. From an evolutionary perspective, this negativity bias kept our species alive, ensuring we stayed alert to potential threats. Today, it can cause us to overemphasize negative information and pay more heed to what can go wrong, rather than what can go right.

If you’re deciding whether to apply to a master’s or PhD program, you may have found yourself in a similar thought spiral, asking questions like: What if I can’t get a job after grad school? What if I can’t handle the pressure? What if I’m paying back student loans for the next decade?

The “what ifs” can feel overwhelming, and for all the good information out there about graduate school, there’s just as much misinformation. To make the right decision, you need a balanced perspective that’s based in facts — and we’re here to help.

We’ve rounded up the seven myths that we hear most often about graduate school, featuring real talk from Waterloo master’s and PhD students. Keep reading to set the record straight and strike a few misconceptions off your pros and cons list.

While there are advantages to studying at different schools for your undergraduate and graduate degrees, such as broadening your networks and, sometimes, pursuing a niche specialization, it can also mean navigating a great deal of change. Going to a new school can feel like starting from scratch when it comes to your professional and social connections. On top of packing up your life and moving to a new city, you also have to navigate a whole new set of systems at a different university. By staying at the same school, you can leverage your established routines and relationships, which can make the transition to grad studies less daunting. 

What about the idea that staying at the same institution for multiple degrees won’t look as good on a resume? That couldn’t be further from the truth. Not only can your existing networks open the door to new opportunities in graduate studies, but they can also help you get into your program of choice. Many students opt to stay on with the same supervisor from their undergraduate or master’s thesis or to work with a professor they studied with in the past. 

For Cameron Morgan, who completed both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Waterloo, staying on for his PhD was the obvious choice. Strong connections with faculty and graduate students solidified his decision to continue on an academic path and to situate his research at the Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics. There, he built connections with researchers investigating diverse topics — everything from cosmology to galaxies to black holes. And he’s been able to share his own passion for astrophysics, too, as a teaching assistant and volunteer at Waterloo’s Gustav Bakos Observatory.

The idea that graduate school — and, in particular, a doctorate — relegates you to academic life forever may have been true decades ago, but it’s simply not the case today. As companies face rising complexity and prepare for an uncertain future, the need for workers with advanced degrees has never been greater. 

Graduates of master’s and doctoral programs have both the transferable skills and discipline-specific knowledge that employers need. On top of being experts in their fields, master’s and PhD graduates have advanced critical thinking, problem solving, communication, leadership, collaboration and many other skills that are in high demand by employers thinking about the future of their workforce.

Waterloo doctoral graduate Madison van Dyk applied her mathematics research to an internship at Amazon where she worked on testing algorithms and improving delivery networks. Fighting the misconception that PhDs are confined to academia, Van Dyk says her research, which explores ways to make networks function better, helped address real-world challenges for one of the world’s largest companies. 

There are also professional graduate programs that prepare you for work in specific fields. These programs are developed in close consultation with industry professionals and taught by instructors who are experts in their field, which means you develop in-demand knowledge and skills that make you a more competitive job candidate.

For Natalie Majda, who studied in the Master of Arts in Planning program, the decision to pursue graduate studies was a career-focused one. But she also relished the opportunity to immerse herself in academics through research focused on restoring Indigenous voices and knowledge in heritage planning. Through the master’s, she deepened her skills and expertise, gained hands-on experience through an internship and tapped into Waterloo’s well-connected alumni network.

If you’re thinking about taking a break from school after your undergraduate degree to work, volunteer, travel or pursue other life experiences, you may be worried about how the hiatus will affect your ability to go to grad school. Will a pause take you off track or disrupt your momentum? While there’s nothing wrong with going straight into a master’s after your undergrad, you may be surprised to learn that a delayed start has its advantages. 

Students who return for graduate studies after a short (or long) break from school often find that the professional and personal experiences they gained since graduation enrich their learning. Not only do they draw on those experiences to deepen their understanding of new material and concepts, they also directly apply their learning to the real world. Studying as a mature student can also give you a clearer sense of your purpose and goals, as well as greater financial independence that eases the burden of tuition and living expenses.

There are countless success stories of Waterloo graduate students who decided to return to school after years spent in the professional world. Vega Kapoor, a Master of Mathematics graduate in actuarial science, had a successful career as an actuarial analyst at a global consulting firm in India before she decided to pursue her master's at Waterloo. Through her studies, she deepened her actuarial knowledge and rounded out her skill set, all with a goal of making a positive impact when she returned to her career in insurance.

For Augustine Osei, a PhD student in social and ecological sustainability, working in the field was an important precursor to his doctoral research. As an international student who studies soil science, all his farming knowledge was from Ghana. Osei felt it was important to “get Canadian experience before coming back to the classroom, so I could understand things in a more practical sense.” After working for three years as an agronomist for Prairie North Co-op in Saskatchewan, he felt ready to dive into PhD research at Waterloo.

After you start a graduate program, your research interests and questions may change, especially as you’re exposed to new concepts, theories and scholars. Fortunately, you don’t have to have it all figured out before you apply. It’s common for master’s and doctoral students to tweak and refine their research focus and, sometimes, change it entirely.

So, what should you know before you apply?

Van Dyk advises anyone interested in graduate studies to get to know their potential supervisor’s research and to chat with them in advance to make sure it’s a good match. When writing your application, you should have an idea of what you want to study, but that doesn’t mean writing a thesis before you even start grad school. 

While Van Dyk knew her PhD supervisor from working as an undergraduate research assistant and already had a research focus in mind, she says “not everything is set in stone. It’s good to know some background on the program and the department, but also know that your interests can and should evolve somewhat.”

If you’re not sold on a research topic, there are also plenty of options for a coursework-based master’s. Master’s graduate Karin Browne chose the coursework option for her degree in Recreation and Leisure Studies. As a former Olympic swimmer from Antigua and Barbuda, Browne’s work aims to increase access to aquatic programs for BIPOC populations. Studying in the coursework stream gave her access to a wide range of theoretical perspectives — critical theory, critical race theory and feminist theories — that have helped her better understand people and her own lived experiences.

Depending on the program you choose, graduate studies can be a significant investment. But that doesn’t mean you have to endure financial hardship to go to grad school. There are lots of funding opportunities available to help you finance your degree.

At Waterloo, all full-time PhD students, both domestic and international, as well as many full-time research-based master’s students, receive minimum funding through a combination of awards, scholarships, teaching assistantships and/or research assistantships.

For eligible PhD students, the minimum funding is $27,130 per year for up to four years, and for eligible master’s students, it’s typically $12,000 for one year. However, many departments and schools offer minimum funding that exceeds those amounts.

While course-based and professional master’s programs are typically self-funded, you may still be eligible for student loans that can help you manage the cost of graduate studies. Some full-time course-based programs also offer entrance awards of varying value based on academic achievement. Others have the option of paid co-op or internship opportunities that can help you earn a pay cheque while you study.

If your undergraduate degree was challenging and rigorous, that must mean graduate school is even more demanding, right? Not exactly — in fact, it’s difficult to compare the two. If you ever took an upper-year seminar or did an undergraduate thesis, those experiences offer a preview of what’s to come. 

For the most part, graduate school is challenging in different ways than undergraduate study. The bulk of your work is more self-directed and less structured. If you’re doing a research-based master’s, you have only a handful of courses and the rest of your time is spent working with your supervisor and conducting research independently. Even with a coursework-based master’s, you could be spending 20 to 30 hours a week reading, writing and studying on your own if you’re taking the program full-time.

Nikolai Burton, a doctoral student in chemical engineering, says he welcomed the change of pace from his undergraduate days, especially having more control over his time while working toward the end goal of a finished thesis. “In grad studies, you get a certain level of autonomy,” he says. “You have to be independent and responsible enough to get your research done, but you can also take breaks, take care of yourself.”

For Master of Science graduate Quinn Worthington, the format of a research-based master’s degree offered a new opportunity to immerse herself in a big research project. “I really wanted to pursue grad studies because it gave me the opportunity to do a whole project from start to finish,” Quinn says. “Do the background research, pick my field site, collect my own samples, process my own data, interpret it, put it all together, make a nice model and really understand the whole picture.”

Graduate studies can seem like the kind of challenge that’s all-consuming — one where, if you want to be successful, you have to set aside all your other priorities. But that’s simply not true. People of all ages and walks of life successfully complete master’s and doctoral degrees, and they do it on their own terms, whether that’s through a part-time, online course that they spread over several years or a full-time program that still gives them the flexibility to balance learning and life.

Humaira Shaoib, a PhD candidate in English, offers the perfect example of how graduate studies can complement a full life that includes family, community and learning. For the scholar and mother of three, her various commitments aren’t in competition — rather, they’re deeply intertwined and connected to the values of community and belonging that she prioritizes in her leadership and research.

Humaira’s dissertation explores the role of literature in challenging negative stereotypes about Muslim people, reclaiming stories and contributing to a more just society. With support from her spouse, professors and peers, she also stepped into a leadership role as co-president of the Student Association for Graduates in English (SAGE) where she’s focused on fostering a sense of belonging among grad students.

There’s a lot to consider when deciding if and when to go to graduate school. Separating fact from fiction will help you make the best decision for you.