Choosing a Graduate School – Tips & Tricks
Choosing a Graduate School – Tips & Tricks
Many college graduates and professionals going back to school to earn an advanced degree struggle with how to go about choosing a graduate school. Since there are thousands of colleges and universities to choose from many students get dizzy just looking at the graduate school list of choices. Choosing a graduate school to earn an advanced degree is just like making any other major decision. You have to take a look at the cold hard facts for each school that you are considering and then narrow down your options based on which school is the best option for you.
Request the college brochure from each school that you are thinking about applying. If you do not find your answers there, look at their web site, call the admissions office, and speak with former students of the institution. Here is a list of questions that you should ask in order to make an informed decision about your graduate school choice.
Overall Quality of the School & Your Program of Study
First, you need to research and review the overall quality of the school and the program of study that you are interested in pursuing. The school is not an entity of itself. It is made up of the students that attend it, the teachers, faculty and administrators, the surrounding community, etc. In pursuing an overall rating of the quality of the school you should dive deeper into each of these areas.
Student Body
What types of students are currently enrolled in the program of study that you are interested in pursuing? What is the average GPA for the program? After graduation from the program, where have some of the students gone on to work and what have they been able to achieve? Answers to these questions will help you to paint a picture of what the student body is like and whether or not the quality is at the level that you wish to associate yourself with.
Faculty
When it comes to graduate schools a lot of what shapes the program’s reputation is the faculty. Depending on what your course of study is, it becomes more important to your development to be able to learn from some of the highest achieved and well-known professionals than it is to attend a famous university. The college can provide you with a list of their faculty. Read articles that they have published. This will give you an overall sense of the caliber of the faculty in your program.
Financial Resources
Find out how much funding the school has to provide students with esteemed faculty and the technology and equipment that are needed in your program of study. Are their adequate library resources, meaning does the program have the money that is required to keep the library equipped with the most current information and resources?
Curriculum
Make sure that the overall purpose of the program is in line with what you expect to get out of studying there. Find out what the faculty to student ratio is and make sure that you are comfortable with it. In a graduate program, the curriculum is more than just the actual classes that you will attend. The curriculum in a graduate course of study also has to do with internships and job placement services that will allow you to experience hands-on training while you are studying. The ultimate goal for most graduate students is to further their career and the types of services that your program offers to you with career placement is an important service.
Accreditation
It is important to attend an accredited school no matter what type of degree you are trying to obtain. Accreditation means that a school meets the guidelines to turn out educated graduates whose degrees are recognized worldwide, in most cases. Accreditation plays an especially important role in graduate school because, depending on your course of study, if your career choice requires licensure for you to work, a requirement is typically that you have earned your degree from an accredited institution.
University & Community
You will have to live, work and study on the school campus and within the community that surrounds the school. The size of the school, the location of the school and the surrounding community are also contributing factors to choosing a graduate school. The climate, extracurricular activities and employment opportunities are also things that should be taken into consideration.
Financial Considerations
There are financial resources available for attending graduate school just like there are for undergraduate school. Tally up the total cost for your graduate education for each school you are considering. Cost is a factor when making a major purchase of any kind, and an education is no exception to this rule. Just don’t let the cost alone determine your decision. Try to consider all of the facts before making a decision on which school to attend.
Graduate students can apply for financial assistance that isn’t available to other types of degrees.
Grants and Fellowship Awards
Grants and fellowships award money to graduate students. These are not loans that have to be paid back. Grants are usually given based on a financial need, while fellowships are usually earned as an achievement award.
Teaching & Research Assistantships
Graduate teaching assistants and research assistants can also work in their field of study at the university in exchange for money that can be applied to their education. These are appointed positions by the university that are usually based on academic achievement.
So when you are trying to decide which graduate school to choose, don’t let the list of options make you dizzy. Obtain and take a good hard look at the facts, so that you will make an “educated” decision that will benefit you and your career in the long run.
Take a look at more industry related articles by Kristie Lorette at CareersandEducation.com . Kristie Lorette is a frequent contributor with articles pertaining to using Distance Learning and Career Advice.
A glimpse into the Graduate Liberal Studies experience at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. Four students and four instructors talk about what it is that makes the program so great, and the ways that the experience has enhanced their lives.
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The Various Options For Graduate Degree
The Various Options For Graduate Degree
Many people find that in the courses of their careers they wish they had the ability to go back to school for even further education. Unfortunately, not everyone has the good fortune to live in the vicinity of a university that offers graduate level studies in the career they have chosen.
Chances are that a good percentage of the population does not and if they do chances are even better that they have very busy personal and professional lives that make intensive graduate studies difficult to pursue at best.
If you are one of the many people that feel you have made your choice and are stuck with your undergraduate degree or that a post graduate degree is simply out of your reach, I hope you will read this article with great interest and learn that there options available to you no matter how far away from a university you live or how little time you have to devote to your graduate studies.
A graduate education is a very intensive course of study that is very narrow and specific. In other words, many students find that their graduate coursework is their favorite by far as it gets into the meat of the subject matter of their interest rather than merely hitting the highlights.
Only a small percentage of the population at this point in time has a graduate education. Though this does not necessarily guarantee you any employability it can provide you with very specialized knowledge or skills that will help you perform your job better and qualify you for more interesting and specialized positions in your field of study.
If you would like to pursue a graduate education but feel you are too far from the nearest university that offers a comprehensive graduate education in your field, you might be surprised to find that the nearest graduate level curriculum is as far away as your living room or your favorite Internet cafe.
Online courses give new hope to potential graduate students. Many of them will actually allow you to work around your work schedule and at your own pace while trying to achieve your dreams of higher education and life long learning.
Online courses are becoming more widely accepted across the nation and around the world. We live in the information age and it only makes sense that we are taking control of our educations by using services and demanding services like online courses in order to further our educational goals.
At the moment there are only limited offerings for graduate studies, most of them centering on educational fields with only a few graduate degrees offered in other fields such as the medical industry. As demand grows so will the availability of graduate courses and degrees that are being offered online.
If you happen to be fortunate enough to live relatively close to a university that offers graduate studies in your field you might want to check with the university and see if they offer weekend graduate classes. This is a new trend that seems to be growing in popularity as a valid option for those who hope to return to college but can’t afford to give up precious work or family time during the week.
These courses are much more intense than your average once or twice a week night course but they allow you to pursue your graduate degree in a much quicker manner than traditional programs have allowed and are much more employer and family friendly.
Of course you also have the option of taking one or two classes at a time at night in order to achieve your graduate degree as well. Masters degree students only need to take 9 hours a semester in order to be considered full time students and qualify for financial aid.
All in all, you do not need to sacrifice your goals of graduate studies in order to maintain your career or achieve some sort of balance between work, education, and family. Whether you choose online courses, night courses, or weekend courses for your studies you have many opportunities to achieve the degree you desire without sacrificing heavily in order to do so.
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This video offers an introduction to Graduate Studies at The American University of Paris. AUP offers highly competitive graduate degrees in a number of fields, ranging from Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies to Sustainable Business Development. To find out more about Graduate Studies at The American University of Paris, please visit www.aup.edu/graduate
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Further Education. Is It Worth It ?
Further Education. Is It Worth It ?
Education increases a person’s ability to comprehend issues better with a better outlook. It also increases the perspective of a person. The result is that the person’s ability to seek information for itself and look for literature for better alternative ideas improves considerably.
Back to School?
In this economic crisis what we need is to plan our finances for long term achievements. Students increase their future opportunities for better salary packages and better prospects only after further education. Good career has roots of a good educational background. Higher education not only improves the remuneration figure but also gives an individual job satisfaction and expand his or her business network as well. A good quality graduate education helps to improve not their personal progression as an individual, but are highly beneficial to their organization and even at a national level as well. This is especially so in countries like Singapore, Sweden and Finland where human capital development are their main competitive asset in the global economy. Education should not be considered as a means to an end but as means to enrich their lives and of those around the.
Graduate Education is worth far more than for a fiscal reason.
In tough economic situation like today, people sound miserable when they talk about recession they are in reality deceiving themselves by promoting negative views on how the economic turmoil is devastating peoples’ life and this prediction is actually stopping them living their lives. But they must understand the fact that it is precisely in times like this that the more qualified you are the better it is for your career. To say that education is not worth it in this financial climate proves how short sighted we are. The need of the day is to educate individuals so that similar recession can never recur. The value of a quality graduate education ranks much higher in the mind of prospective employers, graduate schools like INSEAD, Chicago and The City University of New York are flourishing in Singapore, attracting experienced professionals across ASEAN.
The forecast – the recession might be temporary and variant, but higher education is compulsory to enjoy a better life when the downturn fades out
If acquiring a degree requires three long years of investment of time and money, it is bound to scare the students. However, students can avail of student loans from the various banks today and start studying for a higher degree course. In the three years’ time, they would get enough time to prepare and ready themselves for a job after the completion of the course. By the time they will finish their degrees, the recession is going to be over and there will be enough jobs for them to grab and make it big!
Students, however will have to be more conscious about their financial situation. Several finance companies offering loans which are to be repaid only when they start earning over 15,000 GBP and the repayments start at 5 GBP per week, favor the case of students. Student debt, hence is one of the safest loans to opt for, while the best fight against the recession is to opt for higher studies. Furthermore, the success lies in taking advantage over those who have wrong reasons and ideas against further studies.
We can overcome!
Lastly, The Tripartite Centre for Fair Employment has given the WPP agency a plan to transform the approach of employers to adopt “fair and merit-based workplaces”. The WDA has also structured the WPP agency to craft a national education campaign to give confidence to Singaporeans so that they do not hesitate to enter further education. This is to boost their morale and get ready as employment is supposed to rise above 3 million by this year itself! WDA also launched a series of graduate diplomas and post graduate diplomas under the Professional Conversion Programmes (PCP) which helps Professionals, Managers, Engineers and Technicians (PMET)s to explore career switches and advancement.
So exactly how much value can be placed on further education today?
Talk to anyone in the industry, everyone recognized the value of a quality graduate education. An enhanced education will play a significant role cause regardless of economic conditions, time tested attributes like experience, qualifications and right attitudes always survives.
http://business.smh.com.au/business/study-now-for-a-wage-worth-waiting-for-20090213-873o.html
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