[Calculusaurus]

I've gone through most of my college career with the unchallenged assumption that I would someday attend grad school. Well, I'm now a senior, which means that I now have to take the question more seriously. Grad school, or no?

The biggest mental block in this decision is that I don't know of many options other than grad school. Grad school is just the status quo, so for me it seems like the natural path. I haven't really stopped to think about all of the other possibilities.

Don't reply with "don't go to grad school, just start your own business because Steve says people who have jobs are suckers." That shallow reasoning won't work with me. I'm looking for people with at least some insight or experience, preferably people who have the life experience to answer with more than one sentence.

Keep in mind that I'm simply brainstorming here. Grad school is still a viable option for me since I get a high from learning love working my ass off in hard classes. I also think that science is a great way for me to make a contribution to the world. I'm currently looking at the field of computational neuroscience, a field that could potentially solve many problems of the brain -- simply, how it works, which is information that could be used to treat Alzheimer's, for example.

So, again, what have your experiences been in terms of grad school vs. no grad school? If you were in my situation, what would you consider to do in place of grad school?