My fellow Cougs, I congratulate you for completing another year with varying degrees of success.

Most of us have advanced years; some of us have advanced beyond university altogether. To our graduates, my heartfelt compliments: I commend you now to the wider world.

To those of you going on to graduate work, my sincerest condolences.

Now you may be thinking, “Tyler, why are you offering me condolences?” I shall elaborate, and hopefully in doing so, encourage those of you truly committed to graduate school and maybe offer those without seemingly anything better to do some responsible pause.

Let me begin this diatribe by saying that graduate school is profoundly bad for your health. On average I am victim to two illnesses a year – a spring and autumn sinus infection. This first year in graduate school I had two sinus infections in the fall with almost three straight weeks of illness, and for the first time in years contracted the flu despite getting a flu shot.

Moreover, seven hours of sleep becomes a luxury. A graduate student often works hard enough in the day that they cannot get settled at night. This was my experience, and so I spent nights reading or watching a movie just to let my brain calm down. If you think you were a caffeine addict as an undergrad, you have another thing coming.

Next, the student debt gets worse. Lucky for you, you spent your undergraduate years at a state institution. Especially those of us who are – or are trying to be – residents of the state of Washington, even having to fund an education here with loans is much less than at an Ivy League.

However, if you are going into a graduate degree, the expenses get much worse. The pithy sign on Birch & Barley saying, “Go forth and pay your student loans,” will become even more relevant for survivors of grad school.

For one, those of us who had to get a master’s first will find little to no institutional funding. Anecdotally, I learned this process began about a decade ago when graduate faculties began trying to make the master’s a halfway house for those who would go on to Ph.D. work and those who would not make the cut.

In hindsight, the number of people attempting to get graduate degrees makes such a policy reasonable in terms of allocating scarce institutional resources. However, it means master’s students often get financially impaled. I know I did.

In only two semesters I accrued almost $40,000 in student loans that are not even subsidized – that is, loans accruing interest even while I am in school.

Finally, graduate school courses are such that three or four courses feel like the equivalent of six undergrad courses. The late nights will pile up, not just because of homework but also grading papers or writing abstracts if you get an assistantship. You will work hard for your learning, and even then the perfect grades will not be forthcoming.

The moral of my story is this: graduate school is necessarily difficult, so if you are not fully committed to continuing the student life then I encourage a gap year for work or volunteering and rest. Join the Peace Corps or a religious volunteer corps, Teach for America or even go abroad to teach English courses.

Either way, graduate studies take commitment, and even with that commitment there will be days when you question why you have inflicted graduate studies on yourself.

For the stalwart of heart, you will find your mind stretched, molded and challenged like never before. You will find viewpoints changed, mental acuity improved and you will gain the ability to handle concepts that will make you an exceptional intellectual commodity.

Thus, when contemplating grad school, take a pause and truly consider if the sacrifices enumerated above are worth the advances you will have in life afterward. I made my choice, but that does not mean it is right for you.

For those of you already committed to graduate school, keep calm and carry on.

Tyler Laferriere is a graduate student pursuing his master’s in economics from Phoenix, Arizona. He can be contacted at 335-2290 or by [email protected]. The opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of the staff of The Daily Evergreen or those of The Office of Student Media.