Q: How does graduate school work? (I know, you're only a freshman - but some of you were wondering...)

*Studious Samia

A: Thank you for writing, Samia, and thank you for contributing the most concise question of the year. The world of graduate study is vast and various, but I will try to give you a very basic atlas.

There are several kinds of graduate degrees, and they serve different purposes. A master's degree typically involves specialized study in an area you became interested in during or after college. If you study full time, it will take a year or two. A doctoral degree involves that sort of specialized study plus an extensive research project. It can take up to six years or more, so you have to really love what you're studying. If you go to medical school or law school, you'll be earning what is called a professional degree (because in the old days, the only official "professions" in the Western world were medicine, law, and the Church).

There are two types of people who pursue these programs: Some students enter them out of terror at leaving the safe, familiar halls of higher education and joining the "real world." But most students enter them in order to prepare for an exciting career in a particular area of interest - including as a professor. Unless you're independently wealthy, aim to be in the second group!

So how do you know if your dream job requires a graduate degree? This web site will help: www.bls.gov/oco  

From Other HEADS

WHEN CHOOSING A MAJOR, especially if you are planning to go to graduate school, remember that it's much better to get A's in a more prestigious major than in what some schools would term a "blow-off" major. Find the most challenging subject that you like and can do well in. I chose molecular cell biology because I've liked biology since high school. It's one of the more difficult majors at UC Berkeley, so I know that if I do really well in it, then any graduate school I apply to will say: here's someone who did exceptionally well in a subject that is really hard.

-- MICHAEL POWELL

UNIVERSTIY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

CHOOSE A MAJOR ON A SUBJECT you know something about. Choose something you love and something you want to expand your knowledge of. I am from Baghdad and I always liked the English language. I never had to study and I always did well. So when I graduated from high school in Baghdad, I just knew I wanted to study English. I majored in English in undergraduate school and now I am getting my master's degree in journalism.

-- OMAR FEKEIKI

ALTURATH UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, BAGHDAD

 Web Resources

www.gradschools.com