Graduate School?

Hey Gamingforce,
So I'm rapidly approaching my final year of undergrad, and going to grad school is one of the options that has been put on the table for afterwards. Or at least it would be if I knew where to start.

Because frankly, I have no idea. I based my undergrad search on an online search form based on campus statistics and available programs of study, which was not the smartest thing to do in retrospect, but it actually worked out pretty well for me.

So for those of you in grad. school, how did you go about discovering/deciding where you wanted to go? What kind of criteria is important to keep in mind/look for?

I don't know if this'll help, but if I do grad school, I'm hoping to study general East Asian Culture with a focus on Japan, China, and South Korea. Any suggestions about some schools to check out for this?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Thanks for the advice so far folks.

RacinReaver, you make a good point about funding, because that does figure into my decision. Actually, one of the things that I've heard that makes me concerned about waiting for grad school is that it makes it more difficult to get federal and grant funding if you don't do it immediately after undergrad. Whether or not this is a myth, I don't know. But it's been something that's been in the back of my mind for a while. Anyone who might be able to shine some light on that?

I'm in no way disparaging real life experience. I agree that's important to develop the resume and spend at least a few years just working to get a feel for life out of college. However, one of the things that concerns me about just dropping into a job out of college is the fact that I'm just going to have a B.A. in Liberal Arts, with a Japanese language and culture concentration at that, which I feel doesn't seem to carry a lot of weight down the line.

The problem is despite the fact that I spent three years developing my Japanese studies, I've discovered this year that I have a large interest in expanding those studies into China and Korea as well, particularly in terms of concepts of foreignness both in and outside the cultures. Due to having a limited amount of time in college though, I've sort of been forced to focus my attention on Japan, but I wanted to explore outside of it while still in a structured classroom environment.

Am I limiting myself? I know a lot of people might say go to the countries to learn about the culture, (which is what I'm doing in Japan for a semester this fall) but I think there's definitely a tangible benefit to developing some background before jumping right in and trying to interpret things you know nothing about.

There's nowhere I can't reach.