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How to decide on schools to apply to

Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2009 4:00 pm
by limbophysics
:shock: So I'm wondering if people could give some recommendations as to how to go about making the decision on what schools to apply to. What are some good websites to use to find out about the typical test scores of accepted students? What is a good process to use for narrowing down options? When is a good time to get in touch with professors at schools you are considering applying to? It would be great to hear from the experiences of anyone who's already gone through this process.

Thanks!

Re: How to decide on schools to apply to

Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2009 8:16 pm
by geshi
http://www.gradschoolshopper.com/
Best resource around in my opinion. Can look up schools by state and get a file with basic information about the schools. There is also a book version published as well. I think there's a link on the website to purchase the book. The advice my profs gave me was to look at schools based on location. Basically you're going to spend 4-8 years in a location, you might want to make sure you'll be happy there. Once you decide on locations, look at the schools in those cities/states/etc. Look at the kind of research they do (make sure there's research you find interesting, etc). There's other factors to consider, but those are probably the 2 most important.

Re: How to decide on schools to apply to

Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2009 11:42 pm
by pqortic
gradschoolshopper is one resource. another resource is the websites of the universities that have the requirements and some of them list the stats of the applicants who were accepted last year. you can check if your records are competitive or not. and also 08,09 admission threads in the prospective... forum are most up to date resources. you can find profiles similar to yours and see where they have been admitted.

I don't suggest contacting the professors since you will be TA in the first year. although there is a long thread for this issue with different thoughts.