Finances

Probably one of the best pieces of advice I can give to anybody considering going to graduate school would be to get out of debt first.  If you're going to be a graduate student, remember your life will revolve around your thesis or dissertation.  That doesn't leave much room for things like a job.  Sure you can have a job, and if you're lucky you'll get a teaching assistantship, but forget about taking extra hours.  If you do, your project will likely suffer for it.  Any time you take away from your project to make ends meet, just tacks on years at the end of your stay.

Luckily if you have student loans, you won't have to make payments on them while you're in school. That doesn't mean take out all the loans you can, but you might have to if you have regular payments that you need to keep up with.  If you have credit cards or a car payment, consider getting rid of them.  I wish I had.  The time we live in has such benefits as Uber, so you might not even need a car.  However, you most likely will if you live off campus, like me.  I have pets that I couldn't bring myself to rid of.  What that pretty much means is that what little income I have left goes to taking care of them.  This wasn't so bad when I made a decent living, but now that I'm a student again, they are definitely eating better than I am.

Have debt and don't want to live on campus?  Well, I hope you're not watching your sodium intake, because this is your future (ramen):