How to Choose and Evaluate Programs

One of the more vexing issues is deciding on the best programs and schools that are appropriate for you. Careful internal research – self-assessment – will make this a bit easier; once you identify what you need, the areas you need to enhance, and then you can identify the schools that match those requirements. It is imperative that you spend a good amount of time getting to know yourself – your specific academic / career / job focus – and the relative strengths of the various programs available to you that address your identified needs and goals. The worst strategy you can take is in applying to many schools in the hope of in getting into one. That application process is akin to a hungry individual throwing a hand full of cooked rice at the wall and eating only what sticks to the vertical surface. Wisdom would advise against such an approach and recommend a more careful, critical method.

Additionally, it is imperative that you carefully evaluate and target the most suitable schools: applications can be costly averaging from $ 25.00 to $180.00 per institution apart from the costs for forwarding entrance test scores, transcripts, and other submission materials. Costs alone may limit your search.

Aside from a clear understanding of your professional and personal needs and a good understanding of the schools’ strengths and weaknesses, some of the other ‘points of evaluation’ that you need to consider as you begin your evaluation of possible schools could include:

1. How long as the program been around? Age may equate with longevity that in turn may equate with quality. Alternatively, a newer program may be on the cutting edge and incorporate innovative approaches. Be sure that quality and innovation balance.

2. Is the program accredited? Accreditation is granted to a school or program after careful peer professional review, when that course of study, resources, instructors, facilities, funding, governance, focus, and support services meet defined parameters as determined by practitioners in that field. More, accreditation implies a level of mutual recognition of the program and degree by others experts or certified members in the field.

3. Where do graduates go from the program? Where are the graduates the first year out, fifth year after graduation, and 10 years later? The tracking of grads is essential in defining quality. In other words, do other organizations recognize the qualities in the graduates of those programs? If they do, that tells you something about the results of the program as manifest in the employability of the school’s graduates. Apply the One, Five, Ten Rule in this manner:

a. The first year after graduation indicates the initial destination of new alumnae. What are they doing? Who are they working for? What are their salary ranges? Are they in a managerial track for higher responsibility and promotions? Are the satisfied with their education from the graduate program? Are they connected back to the school in various ways such as internship sponsors, employers, advisors, speakers on campus?

b. The fifth year after graduation indicates serious commitment to a career, profession, industry. What are those graduates doing? Are they in significant positions in various industries? What sort of advanced management titles do they possess?

c. The tenth year after graduation implies a senior engagement in a career, profession, industry, or company. Again, how is that senor status manifest? How connected are those senior graduates with the school? What outstanding qualities and accomplishments of those senior alumnae are attributed to the training they received?

Finally, if graduates of that program go on for further training and advanced degrees, where do they get in?

4. Where did the graduate faculty of the schools come from and what is their training? Do the instructors come from good or high quality institutes/programs? Are they well known and current with their fields and new techniques? Are they ‘experts’ in their fields? What are their publication and research records like? How well are they known in their areas of specialty? Aside from their academic activities, are they also active in their fields as consultants, advisors, and other roles?

5. Is the program and school current? Do they have the most up-to-date materials, equipment, facilities, library, etc? Are the buildings and grounds well kept? Do they care about the physical plant? Do they have the funding to maintain and expand the program, building, library, and other parts of the school?

6. When you visit the school, what do the students tell you about the program, instructors, advising, courses, career office, and financial aid? Are they fully engaged in their studies, research, internships, and courses? Are they pleased with their studies or do they complain? Remember, you will be joining that group; you are affiliating with a culture and cohort of individuals. Do you feel comfortable with them? When you attend a class, do you feel engaged, welcome, and intellectually challenged?

7. How is the school and program ranked in the national ratings? One must approach the rankings with care: the criteria used in defining the relative position of a program and school can either be obscure or not relevant to your needs. For example, if you are interested in international monetary policy with a specific emphasis on growing Asian markets, the rankings may not address that specialty. Conversely, there are some functional areas such as finance, marketing, and human resources that often appear in the rankings. The relative placement of a school in the rankings could help in determining if the program has some sort of quality indicator in evaluators’ eyes. Yet again, approach the rankings with care; they don’t tell the entire story in their ‘good, better, best’ numerical summations.

8. Direct indicators, such as others’ experiences and insights, will probably be the better barometer. Connect with your undergraduate institution, or high school, and obtain the names and contact information of alumni from your school who are attending, or have graduated, from the schools you are considering. If you are unable to locate alumni at the schools you are interested in, ask the admissions office at those graduate schools for the names and contact information of a few grads from the school in your area. Ask them some very pointed questions that will better enable you to gage the effectiveness of the programs such as:

a. What are the best and worst aspects of the graduate program and school?
b. Did you get your money’s worth from the program?
c. What about the school or program would you change? Why?
b. How accessible are the instructors?
c. Were the academics what you hoped they would be? What were the deficiencies of the course work?
d. Were you academically and intellectually challenged?
e. What did you learn from the program that enhanced your employment options?
f. Which courses were the best and worst?
g. What are the school’s and program’s strongest / weakest aspects?
h. How would you define the climate and culture of the school / program?
i. What were the 5 most important things you learned while enrolled?
j. Would you recommend the program to others without reservation?
k. What are some of the reservations you have about the program?
l. Would you do the program again if you had a choice?
m. How does the school evaluate candidates?
n. What would recommend as the best ways to apply for the program?
o. What other schools / programs did you apply to?
p. Why did you finally choose this program / school?

9. Guide books on graduate schools and programs are useful if they substantially summarize the qualities of the schools and programs you have an interest in. Not all printed guides are the same; do consult more than one as you begin to evaluate your options. Pay particular attention on the student teacher ratios, number of students on financial aid, graduation rate, ‘placement’ data, and salary ranges of graduates, organizations that hire students, internships, and other specialized information such as study abroad and program focus. Be aware that the research that precedes the publication of the guides is often based on questionnaires completed by the schools, investigation of web sites, reading of catalogs, and interviews with alumni. More, the information in the printed guides is usually a year or so out of date by the time of publication. Consequently, the quality of research and information on any one school can vary greatly. Supplement the printed guides’ insights with direct, personal evaluations.

10. Geographic location and climate is also a critical issue for some applicants. Often there is a preference for a certain climate, state, or city / rural local. This could be critical for off campus activities such as corporate visits, case reviews, internships, and summer jobs. More, there are certain life-style issues for some applicants that imply a city or rural setting no matter the quality of the program or school. This is especially if there is a dual career issue at hand for the applicant and the candidate’s partner. Additionally, some schools have a focus that is bound to a geographic area for cases, research, field investigations, etc.

11. If the program requires a thesis it is appropriate to review Dissertation Abstracts and evaluate the level and degree of creativity, topics, and scholarship encouraged at the school. For example, if you note that the quality of dissertations is less than exciting, or if you are not interested in the topics or content of the research from that school, you might reconsider the program. Conversely, if the scholarship is creative, engaging, and insightful, that implies that the school encourages that level and degree of investigation.

There are a few additional techniques for evaluating graduate and professional schools as outlined under the section “Evaluating programs and schools.”