Some people prefer a more linear, quantitative approach to making decisions. You can apply the concepts of multi-criteria decision analysis to the process of charting your career path. Here is a five-step process for making decisions involving a number of factors:

1. Identify the set of factors or attributes for evaluating your alternatives (e.g. your interests, skills, job outlook, financial situation, etc).
2. List all the career options you are considering (e.g. M.S. or Ph.D., full-time or part time, now or later?).
3. Assess or measure each alternative with respect to each factor.
4. Assign weights to the various factors or attributes to reflect their relative importance.
5. Considering your assessments and weights, come up with an overall rating for each alternative.
   
   
   
   Let's consider a simple application of this process. You can apply it to your own situation as we go.
   
   Step 1. Jot down all the possible factors that will contribute to your career and the satisfaction you'll find in it. Figure 1 lists some common criteria. You may have different criteria, such as freedom from stress, a love of the subject matter, chance for advancement, or opportunity to work with others.
   
   Step 2. List all the possibilities you are considering, for example: going to work in industry, pursuing a master's degree, or pursuing a doctorate.
   
   Step 3. Reflect on how each of the career tracks you are considering would impact you in terms of each factor. For example, teaching in higher education may provide a deep sense of satisfaction and contribution to society, but financial rewards may have to be deferred, or always be lower than with a job in industry. Consider each factor separately, rating it on scale of 1 to 5.
   
   Step 4. Rank the factors you selected: which ones are most important to you? Prioritize them. If you can't decide which factors are most important, you may find it helpful to consider them two at a time, and identify which of the pair is more important to you. For example, suppose that you are finding it difficult to decide whether status or promotional opportunities is more important to you. Ask yourself, "If I had to choose between a situation where I could have either status or promotional opportunities, but not both, which one would I choose?" If necessary, do this for all the factors, pairing them individually to develop your ranked list. Alternatively, you can do this graphically, as in the example shown in Figure 2.
   
   

Regardless of the method you use to research, assess and decide about graduate school and the particular path you would like to pursue, it is helpful to save the results of your decision-making process for future reference.