My Graduation and Future Profession - Admission/Application Essay Example

Graduate school seems like a great place to be during a weak economy. That’s what some recent graduates seem to feel these days. Many of my friendsare saying that they want to lay low for a few years in graduate school to see what happens with the job market. Besides, it keeps the student loan collectors at bay, right? While I do not feel there is anything sacrosanct about graduate school, I must assure you that I am not an individual that falls into the above category. Graduate school is more than a mere extension of undergraduate study. I feel that by embarking on graduate level coursework, an individual is making a commitment to themselves and to society that they are willing to dedicate time money and effort into refining their hard won knowledge from their undergraduate degree. It is a place of focus and labor. It is far from being a place to lay low for a few years. My feelings about graduate school may be so strong because I have needed to overcome so many obstacles to earn my B.S. in Business Administration. I am not only the first generation in my family to graduate from a university, but am one of the few that has earned a high school diploma. To say that there was no one to show me the way into higher education would be an understatement. My navigation of the world of college applications, student loans and settling into a dorm room was a solo flight. I expected no support from my family and received none. I realized at an early age that I was different from both of my parents and my siblings. Why anyone would want to waste time in school is beyond them. I, on the other hand, can’t sleep the night before classes start because I’m so excited. I love my family and I do not blame them for their lack of support of my educational endeavors. If anything, I feel that overcoming their lack of support has made me appreciate my education even more. I have taken responsibility for my own learning, my own finances and my own life. I learned a lot about living as an undergraduate that other students did not. I learned how to budget when my roommates could go to a magical ATM machine to tap into an endless supply of cash supplied by moms and dads. I realized very soon that if I didn’t put any money into my account, nothing came out. Working while going to school to supply that needed cash has created obstacles and provided opportunities for learning. I knew that ditching my shift to go to a party would be great fun. I also knew that it could cost me my job, my ability to provide for myself and ultimately my ability to get an education. As a result, my social like suffered a bit, but I can see that I am much more capable at handling life than many of the people I started with my freshman year. Once I learned how to be out on my own, I soon felt a desire to help other people that might be in a similar situation than me. I decided that I would volunteer to tutor some kids each day at a local middle school. I soon learned lots about myself that I don’t think I could have learned any other way. My family may have been indifferent, but they were never abusive. Many of the kids I tutored started to confide in me about their home lives. When I first started, I thought that they seemed like a pretty normal group of kids. Many of them were girls and noticed lots of heavily accented English being spoken so I assumed that many of them were recent immigrants to the country. Stories of psychological abuse were common. Sometimes kids would come in sullen because their moms had been beaten the night before. I gained an appreciation for teachers and school counselors during my time tutoring. But what I really gained was a greater appreciation for education. I realized that the girls and boys I was working with needed educational opportunities to establish their own lives free from the abusive homes they were living in. I entered the tutoring as something that might be fun to do because some friends were doing it. I soon realized that I was helping them to find a way out. I was helping them to find the tools so they could build a bright future. By the end of my third year of tutoring, I was the unofficial leader of the after school study group. Some of the kids had started meeting with me when they were 6th graders. It was their last year in middle school and it was my last year in college. I wanted to stay but realized that this would not be possible. So I did what all good leaders do when it was time to move on. I passed the torch to one of the more capable tutors that was coming in as a freshman. I have lost touch with the group, but I hope they are still touching the lives of kids at that middle school that needed guidance desperately on how to better their lives. In my studies for a B.S. in Business Administration, I was able to conduct research on many aspects of workplace discrimination. One project I found fascinating was a historical look at hiring practices at a major United States corporation. Obtaining hiring data was a challenge because this company started before World War II. It was interesting to see the changes in numbers of women and minorities hired after major legislative initiatives and other historical events. This research made me realize that we have indeed come a long way towards eliminating discrimination in the workplace. But when I think back to the girls I tutored at that middle school, I realize that much of the difficulties in their lives came from discrimination that still exists in our society. My continued studies in graduate school are very important. I want to better learn how I can work in our society so that discrimination can continue to wane. Working towards a graduate degree is much more than a way for me to spend the next few years to see what happens to the job market. It is in fact a new level of understanding how to apply my knowledge for the betterment of society. Read More