The first time I considered going to graduate school, I was a senior studying communication at California State University, East Bay, and I still didn’t know what I was going to do after I graduated. I applied to internships and jobs with the hope of gaining the skills I needed to pursue a journalism career. Instead, I got rejections or worse — ghosted by companies.

Because I wasn’t hearing back from employers, I decided to investigate grad school. I thought it would not only help me develop my skills in photography and videography, but also would allow me to put off going into the real world for another year or two.

I researched two schools: UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication’s (SOJC) Multimedia Journalism Master’s (MMJ) program. Over spring break, I toured the University of Oregon’s Portland campus and met with Wes Pope, co-director of the MMJ program. I could see myself living in Portland, and the MMJ program offered me the chance to focus on all the areas of media production, not just one concentration. I could also work as I pursued my graduate degree. But I knew I wanted to explore different elements of photography and really think about whether graduate school was for me.

To gain more experience, I continued to work at my college newspaper, improving my writing and photography skills. Eventually, I accepted an unpaid internship with Portland Monthly magazine and moved to Portland. As my internship was ending, I began to think more about graduate school and if I was ready to apply or if I should get even more experience.

I saw getting laid off from my job as a barista during the pandemic as a sign and applied to the only graduate program that offered me everything I wanted: the SOJC’s MMJ program. After I received my acceptance letter, I knew I made the right decision. I was glad that I slowed down to really think about whether graduate school made sense for me, explore different avenues to a career and fully research potential schools.  

Deciding to complete a graduate degree is a decision that shouldn’t be taken lightly and should be seen as an investment in your career. By taking a couple of years off in between degrees, you will be able to try different things you might be interested in before deciding to go back to school to focus on one concentration.

Even if it takes you 20 years to decide to go back to school, it’s important to know why you are going to graduate school, what you want to get out of the program and if you know you can put 100 percent of your effort into your graduate studies. It’s also important to know if you are going to graduate school for the right reasons, because you might need to take out loans to cover your graduate studies. Graduate school is a lot of work — physically, mentally and financially.

Once you make your decision to take the next step in your career and educational journey, it’s important to find the program that fits your needs and to get ready for this new phase in your life.

—By Alli Weseman, class of ’22

Alli Weseman (she/her/hers) is a second-year student in the SOJC’s Multimedia Journalism Master’s program in Portland. She has freelanced for Portland Monthly Magazine and hopes to work in a newsroom one day.