BOCCALINI: Getting schooled

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irst thing’s first: I am not here to talk about the financially exhausting aspects of higher education.  No matter how much we rant and rave about skyrocketing costs, we’re all here, so it must have worked out for us somehow. I’m writing this because of what a friend recently asked me: How about going to grad school in England?  My face reflected a myriad of emotions. Being a freshman, I was surprised that she was even mentioning grad school at all.

First, it seems as though the value of an undergraduate degree is diminishing with each passing year. The bachelor’s degree is coming close to ubiquity. “It’s all about grad school now,” one of my high school teachers would tell us.

If it is all about grad school, then there must be some good ones around here, right?  And there are.  But, as my friend pointed out, it only takes one year to get your master’s degree in England, and it’s a lot cheaper there, even for international students.  Most graduate degrees at University College London, one of England’s best schools, will cost an international student less than $31,000.  Compare this to the $40,808 a year it costs to obtain a master’s from BU, plus the mandatory fees and the cost of an apartment (UCL guarantees its grad students housing).

Other international schools are similar. Take the London School of Economics and Political Science: while a little more expensive (some degrees can cost about $34,000), LSE takes great care to ensure that students can afford their education. LSE residences are committed to the UUK (Universities of the United Kingdom) Code, which aims to provide a safe, welcoming and fair residential environment.

This is all sounding pretty good, right?  Yeah, I know.  But wait a second, you’re only a freshman!  You don’t need to worry about grad school!  Valid argument  (or is it a sound argument?  Argh, philosophy!).  In a way, you’re right.  I don’t need to worry about it.  But it can’t hurt to think about it.  We can’t all be Van Wilder, coasting through college without any thought as to what we’ll do later on, bearing the curse of Ryan Reynolds’ extreme good looks.

We’re planners.  We’ve developed the knack for running from club meeting to club meeting, weighing the pros and cons of different colleges, their programs and requirements, and whether they would cater to our insufferable need to repeat things out loud to ourselves in order to remember them.

Just the other day I sat at my desk and planned my course load for all four years here at BU.  I memorized my student ID number.  I procured a Charlie Card from Kenmore Station the day I got here.  I’m not one of those obsessive planners who is averse to moving an appointment because they’ve already color-coded it in their Gmail calendar.  I just like to think from the end, as my mom would say.

Of course, this doesn’t mean I’m now set on grad school.  Who knows, you may see me with my face painted, donning a ridiculous costume, doing one of those creepy doll or statue impressions on the streets of Boston.

But I hope not.  As my friend wisely put it, it’s all about motivation.  It’s about seeing where you want to go in life and working toward that destination.  Even if you don’t get there, even if you find yourself branching off in an entirely different direction, you’ve worked for something.

So in four years from now it will be the end of college.  I’ll have graduated with that now quite common undergraduate degree, and I’ll know where I’m going next.  It may not be UCL or LSE.  It may not even be grad school.  But, for now, to keep the panic at bay, it’s nice to have a plan.

Liz Boccalini is a freshman in the College of Communication and a weekly columnist for The Daily Free Press. She can be reached at lizboc@bu.edu.