In case you, too, are making a list of graduate schools to apply to for next fall, here is how I'm recording the details for each university program I find interesting. My graduate student mentor, Christian Gonzalez, provided this basic format:
University:
Program:
Department:
College:
Location:
PhD Stipend/Financial:
Strengths: Consider..
- ...Does the department do mainly theoretical or applied work (take a look at the faculty profiles and where they have published to get a hint)?
- ...Is the department well equipped for your field of research?
- ...(If you're thinking about gaining industry experience at the same time) Is it easy for students to gain industry experience at the same time (e.g. companies in the area, commute)? It may be useful to email the director for the program and ask if many students work and study simultaneously.
- ...(Particularly for Masters programs) What kinds of courses are part of the curriculum, and will they help you achieve your career goals (e.g. Are they more research-oriented, or skills-oriented?)
- ... Location
Weaknesses: Consider all of the above again, and anything else in addition
Potential Faculty: List potential faculty you are interested in working with. Look at their profiles to read about their research.
Rank:
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Here's an example of one of my entries...
University: Georgia Institute of Technology
Program: Human-Computer Interaction, Master of Science Program http://mshci.gatech.edu/node
Department: Interdisciplinary – offered by three schools: Interactive Computing; Literature, Media and Communication (LMC); and Psychology
College: (the three schools above are in the College of Computing, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts and College of Science respectively)
Location: Atlanta, GA
PhD stipend/financial: (Total estimated cost per year $43,000)
- Graduate assistantships: 14 hours/week, $1200/month; tuition ($28,000/year) is waived for graduate assistants. However, must still pay mandatory student fees.
- Master’s students not promised funding but frequently receive compensation after establishing a good working relationship with a faculty member.
- A number of students also find part-time work with companies/government agencies in the Atlanta area (typically 20 hours a week with a 9-credit load)
- One large corporation has a long-term agreement with Georgia Tech to hire a half-time intern for two years of their studies; the department is actively seeking more of those agreements
- Student loans also available
Strengths:
- Majority of the research is applied (example labs that do HCI research – design computing and cognition, adaptive media lab – media experiences that tailor themselves to individual users, contextualized support for learning, digital video special effects, experimental television lab, human factors and aging lab, PIXI lab…)
- Has a Graphics, Visualization and Usability lab that is well-equipped (e.g. 3D printer, laser cutter, circuit mill, silk screen, arduinos with breadboards, variety of saws and drill presses)
- Has a Usability Lab (observation room with 1-way mirror; monitoring software; two workstations…); also, a product design lab (http://mshci.gatech.edu/forms/GT_MSHCI_At_A_Glance.pdf)
- Fixed core courses include HCI – Professional Preparation and Practices; Psychology Research Methods for HCI; Human Computer Interaction and Elective
- Curriculum consists of 11 credits in fixed core courses, 9-11 specialized credit hours and 9-12 elective credit hours, 4-6 project credit hours.
- Big Atlanta HCI scene (some companies that are headquartered in Atlanta – Home Depot, Delta, CNN, IBM, Google, UPS)
Weaknesses:
- There’s a large selection of computing specialization courses, fewer psychology specialization courses, and even fewer digital media specialization courses
- The computing specialization courses seem more interesting than the psychology courses (however, I think some of these courses can be taken as elective credit if I specialize in psychology)
- Natural disasters in the south??? (or not)
Potential Faculty:
Rank: 1
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In addition to making this list, I am also keeping a more simple list on an Excel spreadsheet. Want to start making your own list now? Download the basic Word template below.
blank_grad_school_list.docx |