I’ve been kicking around the idea of getting my masters for a while. I got my BA in 1996. I’m unsure though how to find out which are the top schools for whatever my chosen field turns out to be. Is there a concrete way to discover what are the best schools for graduate study in a particular subject? If I have to do a lot of research I’m up for it, I’m just not sure where to start.
Thanks for any help.
Twiddle
Well, you could start off by looking at the current US News & World Report ranking of various graduate degree programs. If you’re considering a degree in a major like engineering, medicine, public health or law, US News would have a list. People agree and disagree with how they rank, but at least you get a list of what schools have what programs to start with.
If your program is not ranked, I would start by going to your alma mater and consulting either your old professors or the career center. Maybe your alma mater has a Masters Degree progarm in your field. There’s also the idea of approaching people who have the degree you want and asking them.
US News and World Report publishes an annual ranking based on feedback from academics and administrators. They provide a pretty good breakdown by field:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/rankindex_brief.php
It looks like they only show the top few schools in each category online, but you should be able to find the full edition at your library or purchase access online.
This is great. Thank you both so much - I just needed a point in the right direction.
Twiddle
Just to note: the USN&WR rankings in my field, Computer Science, differ quite a bit from the rankings from dept. chairs done by the ACM (prof. org.). I always take the UN&WR rankings with a large grain of salt. I’ve seen schools ranking in the top 15 that aren’t in the top 30 in the ACM survey.
Find out who does the corresponding surveys in your field.