My confusing journey to picking a grad school

[armstrongsubero]

@drfecore I meant for persons who want a PhD, it is the norm, well im my country at least. I'll draw an example with my life, in high schools locally there is something called CXC, in my high school which was semi-private, if you perform well during you first three years at high school, you are placed in the "science" class, which means you will be allowed to study and write chem, phys, bio, math, add math etc. for CXC. If your grades weren't as good, you are placed in the "modern studies" class, if your grades are very poor, you are placed in the "business class".

Once you are in the science class you are automatically assumed to pursue a career in medicine or engineering because science class has the most scholarship winners and even if you dint get one, to study engineering or medicine, you had to have grades II or higher in Chem, Phys and Bio. For med, it had to be perfect. Keep in mind there are only two major universities, and the others are UK schools that allow you to earn degrees through them studying here, and still there is like 8 at most.

I was in a High School class of 20 "science" students, of them 8 wanted to become engineers, 9 wanted to become medical doctors, 2 wanted to become dentists and 1 a pilot. The only one that isn't in their job today is me, I wanted to be an electrical engineer. The 11 who wanted to become doctors and dentists  went on to do their BMBS which leads to a whole lost of channels to becoming a doctor. and the dentists do an "undergraduate dental education program" that allows them to gain entry to study in the Doctor of Dental Surgery program. Today all of them are Doctors. The only ones who aren't doctors yet are 2 who after finishing there undergrad in electrical engineering, are doing research locally to earn PhDs and one is a pilot just as she wanted, and the others work in the petroleum industry. My younger sister who was in the science class a few years after me also has classmates that are pursuing similar routes, with she studying computer engineering.

So when I said "norm" I was looking at if from the perspective of persons who plan on getting a PhD, after their bachelors pursuing it directly. From high school you make up your mind if you're going to uni or not, if you are going straight up to a PhD or not. In my case I simply couldn't afford to study up to my PhD locally, despite government paying for tuition at undergrad, rent and food aren't free. Had I finished my undergrad, I would have been able to get a stipend and teach classes whist studying for a PhD.

As for the modern studies class, they are the ones who usually end up as teachers, police, fire, military, IT etc. and the business class well, anything can happen with them, though daddy's money helps most of them, it's ironic some of the wealthiest kids end up in business class, and they inherit family business. 

As for MBA's, its not looked upon as very prestigious here because many of the UK universities that have schools here, advertise the "6 month" and "1 year" MBA. Some of those programs allow people with CXC to enter once they are over 25 or have enough experience to enter. An MBA is a piece of paper you get to get a raise or if you are like in you 50's and have a lot of money and need something to hang on your wall you go get an MBA.

In the US, I don't know how it is, but some guys I can name who after undergrad went on to study PhDs, though they dint finish.

Elon Musk
Larry Page
Sergey Brin