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The Best Graduate Schools in America

Submitted by admin on Sun, 04/25/2004 - 17:14

Each year, U.S. News ranks graduate programs in the areas of business, education, engineering, law, medicine, sciences, humanities and arts. These rankings are based on two types of data: expert opinion about program quality and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school's faculty, research, and students. For the rankings in all areas, indicator and opinion data come from surveys of more than 1,000 programs and nearly 9,100 academics and other professionals conducted in fall 2003. I am presenting with the rankings of the top five schools in the different categories with a brief write-up.
Business:
 Business school education has come a long way. Back in the fifties, the M.B.A. programs would provide people with minimal applied skills. Today’s B-schools are extremely diverse with specialties ranging from E-commerce to environmental management as well as a wealth of learning opportunities. In the job scenario, most schools would have a regional focus, especially for fresh business grads. With placement openings in management, consulting, marketing, financing etc. the good news is that some of the companies are really teeming in to the campuses. Here is a list of top five business schools.

  • Harvard University.

  • Stanford University.

  • University of Pennsylvania (Wharton).

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan).

  • Northwestern University (Kellogg).

Education:
 Getting in to a good ed school is not an easy task. With high quality of teacher training program, there are enormous number of applicants competing for a top master’s program. Besides solid grades and rich experience is strongly encouraged. Ph.D. candidates should have significant experience and a strong interest in a specific line of research. Ed.D. applicants should have at least two to three years of successful teaching in their resumes. Here is a list of top five education schools.

  • Harvard University.
  • Stanford University.
  • University of California-Los Angeles.
  • Teachers College, Columbia.
  • Vanderbilt University.

Engineering:
 A majority of the applications that the Graduate College receives belong to this category. With jobs both in academics as well as industries there are many who wish to pursue a career in this field. Often the admission committee finds it difficult to choose from thousands of applicants who compete for different engineering schools across the country. Generally, the strength of an individual program is more important than the quality of the school as a whole. Grades, GRE scores and letters of recommendation have been the Big Three in engineering admissions, but in recent years the last one has become increasingly important. Undergraduate research experience is another important criterion to get in to a graduate school. An outstanding letter of recommendation from a supervisor or any other faculty member tells us the student has been brilliant in his/her academic curriculum as well in his/her research capabilities. Here is a list of top five engineering schools.

  1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  2. Stanford University.
  3. University of California-Berkeley.
  4. University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign.
  5. Georgia Institute of Technology.

Law:
 There are just the two important things that matters in getting admission in law schools - the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) and the undergraduate grade-point average (GPA). For example, Yale has the best law school in the country and three quarters of the students had over 3.8 in their undergraduate GPA. For students who don’t have high LSAT scores, there is still hope. Most law schools are now considering other factors in admissions, including work experience and professional interests. There are some specialty programs in some schools which are on the look out for demonstrated passion in those areas. Obviously, one of the best ways to show interest is work experience. A student attending a particular law school will help him/her determine which job he/she would be offered. For example to go to a top corporate law firm (that gathers six figures a year) then attending a law school with a premium reputation is the key. Here is a list of top five law schools.

  1. Yale University.
  2. Harvard University.
  3. Stanford University.
  4. Colombia University.
  5. New York University.

Medicine:
 Studies indicate that the demand for physicians and the demand for specialists are very strong in US and further doctors are still very satisfied professionally. However, there is a though competition to get in to the nation’s top medical school. So, if the students are serious about med schools, they should be prepared to show good grades (3.5 or above) and board scores (27 and up) with a solid evidence that they understand what medicine is all about. Another important consideration is the amount of money that they are going to invest in learning medicine. The average debt loads for medical school for the year 2003 was $109,457. Students are also told to prepare to answer questions about their financial support during their admission interview. Here is a list of top five medical schools by research.

  1. Harvard University.
  2. Washington University.
  3. John Hopkins University.
  4. Duke University.
  5. University of Pennsylvania.

Sciences:
 The first step for a student applying for grad schools is to pick department that is strong in their area of interest, and the admitting professors select them based on their academic records and test scores. To choose a school would require the student to make a preliminary resource in various aspects like high graduation rate, research funding, quality of research, short time to degree, job opportunity etc. Most college will accept a large number of students and then weed out after few years citing lack of funding or if the student is not making a significantly good progress towards degree. A Ph.D. degree is desirable to get in to academics but professional master’s degree (two year) program aim to make graduates ready for a job in research and industry. Studies show that almost 30 percent of science Ph.D. goes on jobs outside academia. Undergraduate research and recommendation letters are few of the important issues for getting in good graduate schools.

Here is a list of top six science schools.

  1. Stanford University
  2. Harvard University.
  3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  4. University of California-Berkeley.
  5. California Institute of Technology.
  6. John Hopkins University.

Social Science & Humanities:
 There are two rules for picking a program in the humanities or social sciences. One, choose a department with strong faculty presence in the area of interest. Two, to become a professor get in to the best school possible. The statement of purpose should prove the students’ gasps of the field and understanding of the department. Due to high dropout rates some graduate schools have reduced in their class size. The good news is that for the students who do make it in are much more likely to receive academic and financial support they need to succeed. Graduate students get more experiences in teaching and many universities have instituted Preparing Future Faculty programs which teach students how to be faculty members. Research and career advice can be best taken from Ph.D. supervisors. Here is a list of schools that tops the different departments in humanities.

  1. Economics: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  2. English: Harvard University, Stanford University, UC Berkeley.
  3. History: Princeton University, Yale University.
  4. Political Science: Harvard University.
  5. Psychology: Stanford University.
  6. Sociology: UC Berkeley, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Source: US News and World Report, 2005 Edition. For more articles, methodology, criteria of ranking visit http://www.usnews.com/

Compiled by: Satyam K Bhuyan, Ames, Iowa. The writer is a graduate student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Iowa State University.