Journey to a masters application

‘So, what are your plans for next year?’ 

The dreaded question. I’ve been asked it countless times in the last few months by almost everyone in my life: tutors, family members, and friends all want to know what’s coming next.

It’s a very simple question, but it can be such a difficult one to answer. In my experience of it, people tend to be either very sure about what job they want to go into, or they have absolutely no idea at all. Some people, like me, think they know what they want to do and then change their minds. 

I thought it could be helpful to share my experience of deciding what to do after my undergraduate degree ends. Whether or not you’re not sure about what you want to do, hopefully this will reassure you that it’s okay to change your mind. 

I knew that I loved my degree, and wanted to use the research and writing skills that I’ve gained from it in whatever I did next. During the Christmas break, I started to look at jobs in the policy sector – it fitted in with my skills, and the idea of having specific projects to work on really appealed to me. 

However, I didn’t quite feel sure that I was ready to leave university. That really surprised me – for some reason, I never really saw myself studying at university beyond my undergraduate degree. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that I wasn’t quite done with History yet.

I realised that it was my dissertation which was making me feel like that. My primary research was based on archival material, and I went to look at it for the first time towards the end of Term 1, and over the holiday I was doing some secondary reading to put what I’d found into context. That was a completely different approach to doing history than I had ever done when writing essays for my modules, and it had really caught my interest in a way that I wasn’t expecting. 

And so I decided to put the job applications on hold and apply to do a masters. It felt quite scary to change my mind about what I wanted to do, but the more time that passes, the more sure I am that it’s the right choice for me.

Of course, this is just my journey to choosing what to do after the end of the undergraduate degree. As I said before, most people that I’ve spoken to over the course of the degree have been very sure about whether they want to go into further study or work – I just wasn’t quite as sure as I thought I was. It is a cliche, but it does all work itself out in the end.

I hope that’s been helpful! If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a message!