In the US, the best graduate schools are very competitive and tend to admit only the cream of the crop. Usually, these institutions only get the cream of the crop, so they have a very small graduate student population. Still, many students want to apply to these institutions because they believe they will get the best kind of instruction there is for their chosen field.
Health
In 2008, the University of Washington was commended for its excellent nursing program. At rank three, The University of Pennsylvania, another competitive graduate institution, has an acceptance rate of 21%. And in the case of Washington University, acceptance rate is at 67%.
Education
Graduate degrees are very specialized. One of the most specialized graduate programs is in the area of education. Advanced education degrees focus on different aspects of education such as educational theories, educational administration, and educational psychology. As of 2008, the Teacher’s College of Columbia University has the most competitive teacher’s program. Its acceptance rate is only about 48%.
Social science
The Social sciences are broad by convention therefore varying universities excel for a particular graduate program. However, some top-ranking universities are noted for their very selective admission standards. For example, Stanford tops the Psychology program and holds an acceptance record of 11%. Harvard, which also has one of the country’s most competitive political science program, presents a lower acceptance rate at 9%.
Engineering and the natural sciences
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) offers some of the country’s best graduate programs, so MIT receives hundreds of applications every year. To maintain a low student-teacher ratio, MIT overall acceptance rate is only 14%, which ranks it as the most difficult university to enter with respect to the fields of engineering and the natural sciences. To ensure that it only gets students who are capable of coping with the rigorous academic demands of its programs, MIT looks for applicants with SAT math scores above 700.
Humanities
According to experts in the field, Harvard University has one of the best graduate programs in English. Yale offers the best History program according to a huge number of respondents. Princeton, the University of California – Berkeley, and Stanford also have competitive graduate programs in the Humanities.
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Until now, there is no single organization that is authorized to rank graduate school programs in the US. This is why the rankings of various graduate school programs vary. Different institutions use different methodologies when it comes to gathering and analyzing data about graduate school programs, producing dissimilar results.
Ranking results are also made complicated by the fact that the results published by organizations and magazines are often categorized into different academic fields. For example, the school that offers the best business and medical school programs may rank low in their engineering and computer graduate school programs. This is why this compilation lists five often cited top graduate school programs that are categorized according to different fields of study.
Top five law school programs
* Harvard University Law School
* Yale University Law School
* Columbia University Law School
* New York University School of Law
* Stanford University Law School
Top five graduate business and administration programs
* Harvard University – Harvard Business School (HBS)
* Kellogg School of Management – Northwestern University
* The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
* Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management
* Stanford University Graduate School of Business
Top five medical school programs
* Harvard University Medical School
* University of California – San Francisco School of Medicine
* Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
* The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
* University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
The rankings of medical schools made by World Report and US News were done by weighing the merits of schools according to the primary care and research facilities and programs of medical schools. Business school rankings, on the other hand, are usually categorized based on the types of MBA programs available such as executive, full-time, part-time, dual, and online.
Based on the lists, Harvard University and Stanford University are often cited as two of the top universities offering excellent graduate programs. Harvard and Stanford are both renowned for their highly selective admission criteria and procedures, including them in the roster of the most prestigious universities in the US. The alumni of these two schools include politicians, CEOs, Nobel Prize winners, Pulitzer Prize winners, and various individuals who are widely recognized in their chosen fields.
When applying to any graduate program in any school, it’s important that you create an excellent graduate admission essay. Writing an impressive graduate admission essay with the help of a sample graduate school essay can help you get accepted into the school of your choice even if your college grades are not exceptionally high.
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