Graduate students views of related taking graduate education

Students completing undergraduate studies apply to graduate programs by providing necessary conditions with various goals and expectations. In this process, as the students need to develop themselves continuously, they focus on research intensively, become occasionally sleepless, restless and even detached from society and environment. In this research it was investigated why the students want to participate in this intensive and long process instead of being relaxed with less work. The case study, one of qualitative research methods, was used to answer research questions. 10 master and PhD students are included in the sample. The sample was chosen by maximum variation sampling method, one of the purposive sampling methods. Data was collected with structured interview form consisting of five questions. The data was analyzed by content analysis. According to the findings, most of the students prefer the graduate education for an academic career. Their expectations have been identified as being competent and effective in their areas and gaining respect in the community. Lastly, some recommendations have been proposed for future studies.