RESOURCE MATERIALS

Do some research of your own on Graduate Schools in standard references such as Peterson's Guide to Graduate Programs. The Peterson's Guides come in several volumes: Humanities and Social Sciences, Biological and Agricultural Sciences; Physical Sciences and Mathematics; Engineering and Applied Sciences; and Business, Education, Health, and Law. Entries on each field of study for each university describe the size of the faculty, number of applicants in the most recent year, and sometimes (but not always) the percent of applicants accepted, and the number enrolled in M.A. and Ph.D. programs (full and part time). Peterson's Guide will list the application deadlines (not to be trusted absolutely as the Guide may not have the most current information), whether both the General and Subject Graduate Record Exams are required, and foreign language requirements for the M.A. and Ph.D. Peterson's Guides do not rank graduate programs or make qualitative judgments about them.

Another reference work you might wish to consult is The Gourman Report on Graduate and Professional Schools, which ranks Graduate Programs based on questionnaires completed by university presidents and graduate faculty. Many faculty distrust this kind of ranking because they feel it is too simplistic and misleading, especially when graduate programs change over time with regards to faculty, entrance competitiveness, and financial resources. So do not limit your search to the forty or so schools The Gourman Report will list in each field. (Some faculty regard The Gourman Report as "absolutely unreliable" and do not believe it should be consulted at all.)

U.S. News and World Report also publishes an annual ranking of graduate programs.  The url for their  web site is www.usnews.com.

The new academic journal Lingua Franca provides a list of the teaching positions where recent Ph.D.'s from various graduate programs have been placed (the bottom line, so to speak.)

These and other reference works, such as guides to scholarships and fellowships, can be found in the office of Graduate Studies Advisor, Smith 212-213 and the Career Planning Office in Hogan 203 (Peterson's Guides are also in the Main Reading Room of the library). (See the attached Bibliography of References on Graduate Study and Financial Aid.  The Graduate Studies Office also has a collection of reasonably current graduate catalogues.  Catalogues for specialized programs are available through the departmental Graduate Studies Advisors.  Browse through these collections to get a sense of what M.A. and Ph.D. programs are like in various schools. The office of the Graduate Studies Advisor also has copies of the General and Subject Graduate Record Exams which you can consult.  A growing body of information is available on the internet. A particularly useful web site is www.gradschools.com, a master site linked to subject-searchable web pages. Most graduate programs have home pages with essential information.

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