"With me it was always been about quality of life." Rogers said. "I've been to New Haven a couple of times, and when you compare that city to where I currently am, New Hampshire seems pretty nice. I have family nearby and I had been in contact with professors there. People knew me."
According to the Post-Graduate Survey for the Class of 2005, 51.9 percent of students indicated that they plan to go to graduate school in the next five years and 3.9 percent were currently working towards a doctoral degree.
Career Services offers advice on the process of applying to and enrolling in graduate schools. Most PhD students interviewed, however, said that they did not rely primarily on Career Services or University rankings in making their decisions. They instead turned to professors to find the graduate school that was best for them.
"We really encourage [prospective PhD students] to talk to their advisor or faculty members." Graduate School Advisor for Career Services Karen Whittet said. "We can talk about how one might go through the application process, but we want students to talk to faculty and talk about the specific programs that they are aware of."
According to Whittet, the application process for graduate schools is far more specific than for undergraduate schools. She said that many applicants are looking for a specific program with a future career in mind. Many students interviewed said that they were most interested in the quality of the program that they would be working on rather then the quality of the university as a whole.
When Kevin Arnold '05 was searching for graduate schools, he was more interested in the one that best fit his specific interest of English and philosophy than the one that was ranked the highest. He said he thought about the U.S. News & World Report rankings.
"At the same time I didn't choose a program that was the highest ranked. I got into grad schools that were higher ranked than Buffalo, but its most important to go to a program where you can produce the best work."
Some graduate school applicants also turn to the internet. Tetse Ukueberuwa '04 turned to gradschool.com, a website that allowed her to compare various financial aid packages from across the country. She eventually chose a master's program at Princeton because of its generous financial aid package.
PhDs.org, a website founded by former Dartmouth professor Geoff Parker, helps to provide students with information about graduate schools with programs in mathematics and the sciences. Parker said his site is unique because instead of creating one uniform ranking for all graduate schools, it allows students to create their own ranking scheme based on what they are looking for in a graduate school.
"U.S. News and World Report says, Here are the best schools," Parker said. "But what's the best school for one person is not always the best for another. We let you create what's best for you."
Parker gave the example of the Dartmouth Department of Mathematics as a graduate school that could benefit from PhDs.org. According to Paker, while the department may not be considered a top-tier research institute, it does an excellent job at training PhD students how to teach. On the standard ranking system for math programs at graduate schools, Dartmouth would not rank very high, but a graduate student very interested in teaching would find Dartmouth at the top of the list on PhDs.org.
