Guide
The Grad School Decision Workbook
Why You Want to Go — Honestly
Before the application — the question the application will not ask you.
For the professionals seriously considering graduate school who are not sure whether they want to go or not sure why, and who need to think it through honestly before spending the time and money.
The Name It First Experience
Most people who consider grad school think about what it will give them. Fewer think honestly about why they want to go, whether grad school is the right vehicle for that goal, and what the decision costs in terms of opportunity, debt, and timeline. This prep sheet walks you through the honest version: what you are hoping to get, whether grad school is the path to that, and what the decision looks like when you see it clearly. The output is not an application essay. It is The Grad School Decision Agreement.
You can opt into 30-, 60-, and 90-day check-ins from your account. We recommend you do — the point is to see what changed.
Sample questions
- Who do you want to become through this process — and is that worth what it's going to cost?
- What do you need grad school to give you that you can't get any other way?
- What is the cost — financial, personal, professional — and are you willing to pay it?
- What would you do if grad school were not an option — and what does that tell you?
Research basis
Cruess & Cruess (professional identity formation) / Deci & Ryan (self-determination theory/autonomous motivation) / Schlossberg (transition theory) / Eccles (expectancy-value theory) / Ibarra (professional identity exploration)
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Every format asks the same questions and produces the same document.
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Listen to each question and speak your answer. We capture it. You never touch a keyboard.
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The Essential path takes you to your finished document by the questions that matter most. The Full-depth path walks every question, every scenario, every angle. Both produce the same signed document — one just goes deeper on the way there.
Essential path
Shorter sessions. The questions that go directly to the document.
Full depth
Every question. Every scenario, every angle.
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