How does one determine the quality of a graduate program?

Graduate School
1

<p>I’m beginning to look at graduate schools, but I’m not sure what criteria I should look at to determine if the school has a good PHD humanities program (Classics). </p>

<p>When I look at a program’s website, I look at the Professors’ research interests, their education, the courses available, the sub-fields that the program is strong in, percentage who receive financial aid, etc. </p>

<p>Alot of the departments don’t seem to release statistiscs, such as how many of their students get jobs in Academia after graduation, etc. A lot of the big-name, prestigous schools release these kinds of statistics, but should I be suspicious of schools that don’t release this information?</p>

<p>I don’t want to stick with the prestigious schools, but they seem to post the most information on their websites. </p>

<p>Any advice on how to approach this would be welcome. Thank you.</p>

2

<p>When I was looking at schools, curriculum was my #1 criteria. Did they offer the classes I wanted? Did they have required classes that were of no interest to me? Next came student work. For me this meant canvassing their websites and design publications for where awards went, and what the work looked like. For someone in a sciences PhD program, this could mean looking in relavent and respected publications to see where the papers come from. Then, I looked at faculty: their previous work, relavent books, articles, and awards. Another big criteria for me was teaching opportunities. This all built not towards looking for something that was “the best” in some sort of objective terms, but towards a picture of whether what they were offering lines up with what I want to get out of a program.</p>

3

<p>AMB2005 - I’m in Classics as well, though I’m looking at Classical Archaeology programs for myself.</p>

<p>As you’ve observed, almost no one publishes any kind of detailed stats on their programs. Some places keep track of their alums, but not many, and there’s no data on how many started vs. how many actually graduated (and after how long). You should not be suspicious - that’s just the way it is. </p>

<p>Now… there’s an interesting take on Classics grad school here:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.siu.edu/~dfll/classics/Johnson/HTML/grad.htm[/url]”>http://www.siu.edu/~dfll/classics/Johnson/HTML/grad.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Now how to choose…</p>

<p>The gating factor to the top programs (all else being equal) will be language preparation. Greek, Latin (one at least to the advanced undergrad level) and ideally German for reading knowledge. If your language prep is less than that, you’ll want to look at some of the excellent masters feeders or a post-bac year. Since I’m at Penn, let me recommend ours:</p>

<p><a href=“http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/clst/programs/postbac_program.html[/url]”>http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/clst/programs/postbac_program.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Given the languages, the next step is to figure out what you’re interested in. By the start of your junior year (at the latest) you should be reading the journals - that will hook you up with what people where doing a couple years ago. </p>

<p>Try to get to one or two major conferences - the AIA/APA joint conference is in Chicago in January. Go to as many sessions as you can handle, hit the parties, and talk to people. this will give you an even more up to the minute idea of what’s happening in the field, AND you’ll get a feel for the styles of various professors and their students. </p>

<p>Then…</p>

<p>The best thing to do is (wait for it) TALK TO YOUR PROFESSORS!</p>

<p>If you’d like, PM me and I’ll be glad to give you my details and the places I’m applying and why.</p>

4

<p>AMB2005,</p>

<p>I’m going to echo everyone else and tell you to talk to your professors. One nice thing about academia is that most people within a certain field will be honest with you about the best programs, and will be very likely to offer you sound advice about where you should look.</p>

5

<p>You said you have started looking at programs and professors in those programs. Take the time to keep an eye out for the unis those profs are coming from, especially the ones that have gotten their PhD within the last 10 years. You will start to see a pattern of certain schools cropping up. Those programs will likely give the best preparation and job placement.</p>

6

<p>One can also simply ask the Director of Graduate Studies of each program about the current placement rate of that program. (We keep stats.)</p>

7

<p>It’s refreshing that your program keeps stats on placement - I wish more programs did. Unfortunately, many only have a “greatest hits” list and don’t keep reliable track of their graduates.</p>