Try Before You Buy

Rethinking the Path to Graduate School

After my Peace Corps service in Romania, I worked in global payments, helping multinational organizations hedge their currency risk. I learned a lot, but living in the Washington, D.C., area, I struggled to find meaningful, creative work that also paid the bills. 

In a city where credentials open the first door, experience alone was not getting me through it. So, like many RPCVs seeking to level up my career with more purpose, I started researching graduate schools. 

My experience in the professional world had taught me the valuable lesson to not make big investments (of money, time, or identity) on assumption alone. Graduate school is one of the biggest investments many of us will make, but we often choose programs the way we chose a college at age eighteen: mostly on reputation and a gut feeling from a campus visit. 

I went about it differently. Over six years, I researched 54 schools before I ever set foot on a campus that felt right.

At first, I was looking at Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs to leverage my five years of experience in financial services. An MBA seemed like the logical next step in my career. I visited a dozen schools, including the University of Maryland, Northwestern, the University of Chicago, Georgetown, Harvard, and Columbia. I met with two dozen alumni from schools including Wharton, Babson, Johns Hopkins, UC Berkeley, George Washington University, and the University of Michigan. I started applications to eight programs.

My commitment to doing my due diligence led me to sit in on some actual classes, and it was the best decision I made for what it showed me. Many of the programs were strong, but what I saw in those classrooms did not align with the kind of career I wanted to build. By the end of my search, I was no longer looking for a traditional MBA but a more multidisciplinary program that integrated entrepreneurship, education, and service.

The campus that finally felt right was UMBC, in Catonsville, Md. I didn’t find it through my very structured research but through the Shriver Center, where I was participating in a community engagement event connected to the first director of the Peace Corps. The institution’s commitment to expanding access and practical impact resonated with me, as it matched the commitment I had carried since my Peace Corps service. UMBC’s rallying phrase at the time, “Exceptional by Example,” captured how I wanted to build my business after graduate school. 

But even then, confident that I had found a better fit than a Harvard MBA, I did not leap into a full degree. UMBC’s Instructional Systems Development (ISD) program (now called Learning and Performance Technology) was the only one I applied to, because its then-director, Dr. Greg Williams, gave me a piece of advice that I still pass along: take one class at a time, complete a graduate certificate, see if you like it, and then continue to a master’s degree. 

A certificate program is one of the most underused tools for testing the waters before you dive in. Graduate certificates let you upskill or reskill quickly, at a fraction of the cost and time of a full degree, and they signal something real to employers — not just interest, but demonstrated commitment. The payoff came faster than I expected. With just one graduate course completed, I had three job offers in my target industry.

I kept adding credentials along the way, earning several additional certificates while completing my master’s degree thanks to the advice of a dynamic female leader and mother of five, Julia Anderson, with whom I collaborated. She believed that anyone working in D.C. needed a master’s to show competence, and a new certificate or other credential every year or two to show currency and relevance. That standard shaped how I have managed my own professional development ever since.

With the certificates and the part-time study to earn a Master of Arts degree in ISD, I found I had all I needed to start a company, and I launched a learning and leadership consulting business that I have been happily growing for the past 13 years.

For prospective students weighing the leap, I can’t stress enough the importance of doing your due diligence. Don’t worry; it doesn’t have to take six years. Here’s some advice:

• Sit in on a class before applying. A course syllabus tells you what is taught, but the room tells you how people think. Sitting in on business school classes showed me, faster than any brochure could, that the programs I had been chasing did not align with my desired path. One class I observed at the University of Maryland’s Smith School redirected my entire search.
• Talk to alumni. Ask how the program shaped their careers and which resources they still use. My conversations with Wharton, Babson, and GW alumni helped me explore possible entrepreneurial career paths, even if I didn’t end up attending those schools.
• Start with a certificate or a single course. It’s the best way to test the fit before committing to a full degree. Certificate credits counted toward my master’s, so nothing was wasted; if you are committed to eventually getting that full master’s degree, confirm up front that your chosen program will accept those credits.

Graduate school is not a rite of passage. It is a significant decision, one worth testing before you fully commit, just as you would test any major investment before putting all your resources into it. Done right, it might just be the best decision of your professional life.

Catherine Zaranis, MA, NBC-HWC, is the founder and CEO of Perform-Link LLC and a returned Peace Corps Volunteer, Romania (1995–97).