The responses I’ve been getting from people when I tell them I’m planning to graduate in December are interesting. By far the most common is “Why are you graduating early?” It’s a hard question for me to answer. Part of the reason is “Because I can.” I took 5 classes for three semesters, and I came in with a pretty good idea of what I wanted to major in (I thought biology or math, which morphed into neuroscience fairly easily.) For the record, I do not recommend taking 5 classes at a time for most students. I wouldn’t do it again if I had the choice, I was pretty stressed those semesters and didn’t spend as much time having fun and relaxing as I think I should have. But I did, so now I can graduate early. The other reason I’m leaving early is that I think I’m ready to. I will miss everyone here, and I will miss my classes, but as much as the real world terrifies me, I think that I’m up to the challenge of moving to the next stage of my life.

The second most common question I am asked is, “What are you doing next semester?” This is the question I dread. Although I have, what I feel, is a pretty solid plan, and I’m perfectly able to say, “I’m planning on finding a position as a lab tech for a few years before applying to grad school,” it feels like a long explanation compared to what many of my peers are doing. In some ways I’m jealous of my friends who can just say, “Oh, I’m applying to grad school in thus-and-such for next year” and proceed to commiserate with the questioner about how challenging application essays are or how much they are studying for the GRE’s. Even saying “Oh, I’m applying for a Watson and a Fulbright” seems easier than my plan. I know that not everyone from Scripps goes to grad school right away, in fact, it’s only about 20% of us who go straight to grad school, but it still feels like that is what is overwhelmingly discussed. Perhaps that’s because over half of us (66% to be exact) will end up in grad school within five years of graduating. Still, it feels like I’m an alien in a world full of pre-graduate and pre-medical students.

Of course, this isn’t true of the folks at CP&R, who are aware of and able to help with a huge variety of potential paths. Mostly I think that the uncertain nature of the job search process means that people are less willing to discuss their plans, simply because it is stressful. On the other hand, I think that if we were more open in discussing the job search, it would feel a lot more comfortable and we could get both support and suggestions from our peers. Ultimately, it seems that that is what this blog is about, I just wish that more of the people I encounter on a day-to-day basis seemed to be in the same boat as me.