My confusing journey to picking a grad school

[dfrecore]

@sagan I would disagree though, it's not premature because the norm is after you Bachelors, you start a PhD. I mean we are online so it doesn't work like that but you would normally finish a bachelors and help a prof work on research to do a PhD. so people choose to end their education with a masters, but if you are sure you want a PhD you start it after bachelors.

I have never heard anything about this being "the norm."  Ever.  As a matter of fact, though I know many people with masters degrees, including many MBA's, I don't know a single person who has a PhD in my real life.  I don't even know anyone who contemplated a PhD, let alone started one.  And certainly not after finishing their bachelor's degree.

With about 25-30% of American's having a BA, and less than 2% having a PhD, I don't think it could be considered "the norm."