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Graduate or professional school involves an intensive course of study and applied work, either research, medicine, etc. It can involve long hours of studying, writing, or waiting for an experiment to finish. That can be a problem if you have a disability.

You will need to be able to handle constructive criticism of your ideas and be able to discuss your interpretation of results. Science is about challenging people to think clearly without preconceived notions. That takes training.

Graduate work is about persevering; trying that experiment yet one more time with another variable tweaked to see if it will work or writing yet one more draft of a paper for your advisor to review.

However, to counteract all that, there is also that element of excitement when an experiment goes wrong and yet you realized you’ve discovered something new no one else has discovered. Or the thrill you get when you have that first paper accepted and you see your name in print for the first time. Or the heart-pounding experience of attending your first scientific meeting to present your research poster and people not only come but are really interested in your work. All that can make it worthwhile.

Graduate school is also about becoming an independent thinker, writer, and scientist. You will need to learn certain skills that will then let you establish your own research or teaching priorities and programs in the future.

Here are some other perspectives for you to consider:*

Careers in Science and Engineering:
A Student Planning Guide to Grad School and Beyond
National Academies

Considering Graduate School? Answer These Five Questions Before You Decide
Randall S. Hansen

Is Graduate School Right For You?
Department of Cell Biology, University of Alabama, Birmingham

Is Graduate School Right For You? Thoughts From a Biology Graduate Student
Neal Freedman (UCSF)

Notes on the PhD Degree
Computer Science Department, Purdue University

Re-envisioning the Ph.D.: Ph.D. Resources
University of Washington

Special Feature: Science Careers for Undergrads
Jim Austin, ScienceCareers.org, AAAS
July 2007

Why I Ended Up in Graduate School
Federico Bernal

Why Scientists Do Science: A Trek for Answers
Jennifer DeMichele (Cornell University)

Science and Disabilities
Series of articles by scientists with disabilities
Science Careers.org, AAAS
June 2003

*APS does not endorse or assume responsibility for the information posted on these web sites.