Criteria For Choosing A Program
There are many factors to consider when selecting a school. Some are listed here, and others will occur to you. It is extremely important to remember that you are selecting a program and a school, just as much as the program and school will be selecting you. Just as you made a considered choice about attending C.C. rather than attending other undergraduate schools to which you could have been accepted, you need to make a considered choice about graduate programs. Some important factors you should consider and weigh when selecting a program are listed below. And, Appendix B provides a system for keeping track of how well the programs you are considering meet each of the criteria that are important to you.
Quality Of Program
Reputation of the School
Probably the single most important criterion to consider is the quality of the overall program and of instruction. At the graduate level, "quality" is measured by a number of different factors. One of these is the general reputation of the school -- Harvard is obviously far better-known than, say, Central State University. In addition to the general reputation of the school, you need to consider the reputation of the particular department or program in which you are interested. To get a sense of the school's reputation, you can consult some of the graduate school directories in the Career Center. If you turn to the popular press, each year "U.S. News & World Report" publishes an issue that ranks the top schools in several professional fields. To find out about the prestige of particular departments, you should talk to faculty here at C.C. who are in the discipline in which you plan to pursue your graduate studies. Those faculty members can tell you which programs are well-thought-of, and which are not. You might learn that you would be wise to choose a well-known program in your discipline at a somewhat lesser-known school, over a poorly-thought-of program at a well-known school.
Reputation of the Faculty
Other factors related to program quality have to do with the reputation of the faculty at the graduate institution. It is very helpful (in terms of your future) to enter a program with highly-respected scholars in their field. How do you find out how prestigious the faculty are? One way is to get a list of the faculty members' names in the department in which you are interested, then run a quick search through the literature in your field. Are these people actively publishing, and presenting at conferences? Is their work cited by other scholars working in the same field? Are they names you've run across in your own studies here at C.C.?
Accessibility of Faculty
Equally important, you need to try to determine how accessible those faculty are to graduate students.
A program may be filled with internationally-known scholars, but none of them ever meet or work with graduate students. Accessibility of faculty is extremely important in terms of your own future success. You can often get valuable information about these issues from graduate students already in the department. Typically, if you call a department, and explain that you are potentially interested in their program, they can provide the names of graduate students who would be willing to talk with you about it. Follow up, and call those students. They can often give you the "inside scoop" that isn't available from the department's or school's literature.
Admission Standards
Another important factor has to do with the program's admission standards. Are they taking everyone who applies, or are they selective? If they are selective, what are the criteria they consider important in selecting their students? At what level, and by whom, are selections made?
Program Accreditation
It is essential to know by whom the program is accredited. You do not want to earn a degree from a program that is not properly accredited, for a variety of reasons. Perhaps the most important is that if you are in a professional program (e.g., in dentistry, in mental health) that is not accredited, you might be unable to gain certification or licensure to practice your profession after graduation. If you are unclear about what kinds of accreditation are important in your future career field, find out from faculty here, and/or by writing to state accreditation boards in your field of interest. Information about accreditation is available in a variety of indexes of graduate programs in the Career Center, and in the literature published by the institutions themselves.
Type Of Program
You probably came to Colorado College for a lot of reasons, but it's pretty likely that at least one of those reasons involved the Block Plan -- and how the block system fits with your own preferred learning style. Just as you chose Colorado College because of the style of its academic program, you will also want to choose a graduate program that matches your style as closely as possible. You also need to consider the following factors:
Program Requirements
Requirements in graduate programs -- even in the very same academic discipline -- vary considerably in different institutions. For example, in graduate programs in the social sciences, while one school may require a great many hours of course-work combined with a little research experience, another school may only require a handful of core graduate courses and a great deal of research involvement. You need to know what courses and other learning experiences (e.g., internships, field experiences, etc.) are required to complete the graduate degree you are contemplating. All of these requirements affect the amount of time required to complete the program, and may affect your choice of one program over another.
Time to Complete the Program
One very important thing to find out is the average length of time required to complete the program. It is pretty obvious that a Master's degree should take less time to complete than a Ph.D. However, there is a lot of variation in the length of time required to complete the very same degree in different programs. For example, some graduate programs might require only 2 years to complete a Master's in a particular field, while other programs might take 3 years or more to complete that same degree. Similarly, length to complete a Ph.D. in a particular field might range as much as 4 years at one school to 12 years (yes, that's 12!) at another. And, be sure to find out not only what the "official literature" tells you, but inquire about how long students in the program have actually taken to complete their degrees. It's not very helpful to be told that one "can" complete the degree in 4 years, then learn that no-one has finished it in less than 7 years in the history of the department!
Number of Students Who Finish
You also need to know the number of students who do complete the degree program in which you're interested each year. Just as it's not very useful to know how quickly one can theoretically finish the degree, it's not very useful to know how many students could finish the degree each year. You want to enter a program where students do - - successfully -- complete their degrees. While you don't want to get your degree from a degree-mill that will automatically graduate anyone who will pay the tuition, you do want a program that offers you a reasonable chance of success at finishing your degree in some reasonable length of time.
Other Institutional Features
It is pretty likely that your decision to come to Colorado College was at least partly influenced by its beautiful location. Similarly, you may want to think carefully about the locations of the various programs you are considering. During your graduate school years, you will be living in the local community to a much greater extent than was true during your four years at C.C., so its size and nature (e.g., a large metropolis vs. a small rural area) should be considered carefully. You also need to consider the size of the institution at large, and probably even more important, the size of the department you plan to enter. Your Colorado College experience is closely related to its relatively small size, which provides for a fairly intimate, personal community and general atmosphere. Do you want to continue your education in a similar institution or department, or are you ready for a change? Both small departments and large ones have their relative advantages and disadvantages. Small departments may offer a higher degree of collegiality, but fewer course selections and fewer opportunities to engage in research. Large departments may have more resources and more opportunities, but a greater likelihood of you as an individual -- unless you are highly assertive -- getting "lost in the shuffle." And, consider the composition of the faculty and graduate student groups in the department. You will be spending a lot of time working with these people in ways that are different from your experiences as an undergraduate, and you need to think about how important it is to you that those persons are diverse or similar in terms of gender, ethnic and cultural backgrounds, academic backgrounds, age, sexual orientation, religious orientation, etc.
Other Resources
You might also want to evaluate some of the following institutional resources, since strengths or weaknesses in these areas can affect your success as a graduate student: How good is the library? Although computer access to information has made this a less critical question in recent years than it might have been 10 years ago, you want to ensure that the schools you are considering do have good library facilities -- lack of such facilities can make completing a thesis or dissertation incredibly difficult. If you are going into a program in science or medicine, how modern and complete are the laboratories and equipment? If you are going into a program in the arts, you may need to evaluate how good their collections, galleries, and/or performing arts facilities are.
Given a choice, it is preferable to go to a school that has state-of-the-art resources, to ensure that you acquire the essential skills and knowledge in that field.
Also find out what kinds of support services the school offers. Do they have good health care facilities, or do you have to provide your own (often expensive) insurance and find your own doctor? Is health care available for both you and your partner or spouse, and/or for your other dependents? Do they provide counseling, or is that another resource you must locate on your own if you need it? If you have children, is there a good day-care or preschool program available for young children, and/or good local schools available for older children? Are there any programs to provide career services to your partner or spouse, if that is desirable?
From Colorado College Career Center
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