Mistakes In Undergrad That'll Haunt You In Grad School

By Elana Goodwin on May 13, 2016

This article is brought to you by Kaplan, the leader in test prep for over 90 standardized tests, including the GRE, GMAT, LSAT, and MCAT.

Many students while in their undergraduate years aren’t sure if they’ll continue their studies by going to grad school until towards the end of their junior or senior year. But once you do know you want to go to graduate school, there are some mistakes you’ll want to avoid making as they’ll have a long-lasting impact on you.

Here are some mistakes you may make in undergrad that will haunt you in grad school.

Photo Credit: postgradproblems.com

1. Picking a major you don’t really like and staying with it. If you ended up choosing a major in undergrad that you weren’t totally sure about or didn’t really like and then opted to go to grad school to build on that degree, that mistake will definitely haunt you in grad school. It’s important to if not love, then at least have some passion or interest in what you majored in and are going to grad school for.

Otherwise, grad school will really seem to drag for you and you’ll end up graduating from grad school not much better off than you did undergrad. Your career prospects are majorly impacted by your degree and if you chose a field of study because you weren’t sure what to pick and needed to make a decision, that may be a mistake that you carry with you into grad school and beyond.

2. Failing to set real goals. If you decided during undergrad that you wanted to go to grad school because you wanted to buy yourself some time before entering the real world, that’s a mistake. Grad school is a major commitment that will cost you time, money, and energy, so you need to be positive that you are making that commitment for the right reasons.

Make sure you have clear professional goals and know whether or not going to grad school will really help you achieve those goals. Some fields don’t require an advanced degree so be certain that a graduate degree is necessary and an asset for what you want to do and where you want to go.

3. Ditching classes. When it’s rainy or freezing out, I totally understand the inclination to just stay inside your room and skip a class or all your classes for the day. Or maybe a class doesn’t really require you showing up to be able to pass with a good grade. Regardless, ditching classes is a habit that will haunt you in grad school. While you may be able to get by and even excel in undergrad without going to some of your classes, you can’t ditch class whenever you feel like it in grad school.

Firstly, your class sizes will mostly be smaller than in undergrad, so your absence will be noticed because your grad classes won’t be 100+ student lectures in a big hall. Additionally, while some professors post PowerPoints and other materials online in undergrad to help students, you can’t count on that being done in all your grad school classes. Even if it’s tempting to ditch classes in undergrad, make sure it doesn’t become too much of a habit if you’re planning to go to grad school.

4. Blowing off your assigned readings. Again, in undergrad, you may realize you can fake doing the readings and still be able to understand lectures or participate in discussions. But it’s a bad habit that will follow you to grad school so start getting into the practice of actually doing your assigned readings in undergrad. Professors aren’t assigning you readings that they don’t think are relevant — so in some way, those readings should be giving you a better understanding of class material or offering some sort of different perspective.

You may think since you can get by without doing those readings that it’s fine to blow them off but by doing that, you’re not really getting effective time and project management skills to take with you to grad school since you’re not actually doing all the work you’re supposed to be doing in the time you have to do it. You’re not going to want or be able to blow off readings in grad school so getting used to doing your readings in your undergrad years is a good idea.

5. Not getting at least a part-time job. I know undergrad can be busy and just balancing schoolwork and a social life may be a challenge depending on your major. But not only will having a part-time job look good on your resume, it’ll be super good for your bank account, especially if you can save much of your salary. Having some extra money set aside can only help when you may be too busy in grad school to juggle having a part-time job. Plus, you’ll be able to somewhat grow out of the broke college student cliche to actually being a not-completely-broke grad student.

Now that you know some undergraduate mistakes that will haunt you in grad school, you can do your best to avoid making them so you won’t have to deal with their effects later!

Learn more about Kaplan’s test prep options and start building the confidence you need for Test Day.

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