For some students, the idea of actually working can send them into a spiral of depression, rebellion, sustained sloth or Britney-like bingeing. Have no fear. There is an alternative to shaving your head and getting a job: go to grad school.

It may be a way to avoid the job market – at least temporarily – but in actuality, it can improve your chances to get a higher paying job than students without graduate degrees.

“These days, a master’s degree is the gold seal standard for getting a good job,” says Suzette Vandeburg, assistant dean for graduate studies and director of graduate admissions.

With a title that long and a graduate degree herself, she should know. Vandeburg went back to school to get her master’s after she was married with kids and had a full-time job.

“I wanted to prove to everyone that I deserved my position,” Vandeburg said. “I broke through the glass ceiling and people stopped looking at me like I was just a secretary.”

But though she accomplished her goal, Vandeburg advises to go for your master’s while you’re young.

“It’s so much easier when you are fresh out of college than when you are older with a job and a family,” she says.

If you are considering graduate school, FAU may be a good place, especially for those interested in some unique programs like ocean engineering and cancer research. FAU’s faculty-student ratio is 12-1, which allows for more personal attention and specific areas of study. And if money is an issue (when isn’t it?), FAU offers an 80 percent tuition reimbursement in exchange for 20 hours a week as a teaching assistant.

I guess you might call that work, but it sure beats pounding the pavement. After all, being a student is a full-time job which could make you a candidate for a high-paying professorship. Then you can stay in school forever.