<p>Many posters reference graduate school placement as a key consideration in the selection of a school for undergrad. But my impression is that increasingly the graduate schools are requiring students to work for a few years before beginning their graduate studies. </p>
<p>Does anyone have any hard numbers on the average entering age of students going to graduate school nationally? Also, what role should potential graduate school aspirations play in the selection of a college and does this differ according to what type of graduate study is being pursued?</p>
<p>Age data for Medical school applicants and matriculants. Avg age is 24 or 25, which translates for 1-3 years out of school. I believe this has less to do with the medical schools’ desire for work experience and more to do with the extremely competitive nature of med school admissions (fewer than 45% of applicants this year will matriculate). An extra year is just more time to better one’s resume, but a lot of people are forced to take that extra year simply because they did not get in.</p>
<p>In the sciences, it’s not uncommon for students to take a year or two off to do research in a laboratory setting.</p>
<p>Students from schools with great undergraduate research opportunities (and often, therefore, better grad school placement) don’t need to take time off to do research, as they’ve already accumulated impressive research records while undergrads. They still can take time off if they choose to do so, but they don’t need to in the way that a student from a school with limited research opportunities might.</p>
<p>I don’t think graduate school placement should be the only consideration when choosing a college, but it’s not unimportant.</p>
<p>collegeboard.com reports numbers for some schools for their graduate school placement within one year of undergraduate completion. Those that report do so for medical, law, business and other. Typically, business is non-existant as 4-7 years of work experience is far more common for MBA school matriculates. The numbers for med and law are somewhat higher, but not fantastically so. However, the numbers for other Graduate/Professional Programs are frequently quite high, eg. MIT at 41%, U North Carolina at 24%, Cornell at 21%, Brown at 22% and more. Does anyone know what graduate/professional work collegeboard is talking about here? For example, here is the entry for U North Carolina taken directly from collegeboard.com:</p>
<p>Graduate Paths
Percent of graduates of four-year programs who typically continue their education within one year of receiving their bachelor’s degree: </p>
<p>Law school: 5%
Medical school: 2%
Other graduate or professional programs: 24% </p>
<p>That seems awfully high. Will 24% of a graduating class go to vet school or dental school? In the case of U North Carolina, that would mean over 1000 students. What other disciplines would fall in this category? I think that business is separately accounted for (in the case of U North Carolina, the answer was 0% for graduate business school within 1 year of completion of undergrad).</p>
<p>hawkette: Since UNC-CH has one of the best dental schools in the country (and the only one in NC), I can imagine a large percentage do go on to dental school (and for the DDS program alone, 80% are in-state). NCSU, in Raleigh, has one of the top vet schools in the country, so I can believe some percentage might opt to stay in-state and continue on to vet school. A student can also be admitted to a professional school in his or her junior or senior year. This is true for those who go into UNC’s Pharmacy School (which, typically, a student can enter in the junior year, and depending on what he/she is studying–that’s a 4 year program after junior year, I believe.) Then there are Masters and PhD programs to consider. And what about Nursing? Health Policy? Public Policy? Journalism? I would also be very surprised that 0% go on to graduate business school within 1 year of completion of undergrad, since UNC undergraduates can enter Kenan-Flagler in their junior year. Hard to believe that some don’t opt to stay longer for a graduate degree there, before working first. While I realize most people work first before going on to any business school, I cannot imagine that 0% is correct.</p>
<p>It’s much easier to get this data for law and medicine because there is a central clearinghouse for applications and those agencies can track applications, admissions, and enrollment by undergraduate college, and they regularly report this to institutions. The GMAT people don’t have quite the same system, in that I think some of their research tools are available to schools but they don’t send automated reports. Other graduate and professional school placement would have to be tracked by the colleges themselves. </p>
<p>I think at selective institutions, it’s common for 1/4 to 1/3 of new bachelor’s grads to go on for postbaccalaureate studies right away (within a year). That’s not a national (or firm) figure I’m quoting; it’s just a range I’ve seen for several institutions.</p>
<p>Hawkette, I think the majority of students in “other graduate and professional programs” are going to graduate programs, not professional programs.</p>
<p>For example, you said MIT’s number was 41%. Those students are almost exclusively going to master’s programs in engineering or PhD programs in the sciences.</p>
<p>I’m also confused as to why hawkette doesn’t believe that a large percentage of these students go on for Masters or PhDs; why is that a difficult concept to get? One can go on to get a Masters or PhD in just about anything, not to mention the professonal schools.</p>
<p>jack,
No knock intended on any school and certainly not on U North Carolina. I’m just surprised by the volume. And the % numbers do vary a lot from school to school where they are reported. Unfortunately, the sample size I am looking at has only 16 out of 50 schools providing a % of students going to these programs. As hoedown notes above, the quality of the reporting is erratic.</p>