Methodology

The graduate school route entails a tough decision-making process, but with the right information at your fingertips, taking the first steps—which means finding your best fit graduate program and graduate school—doesn’t have to be too hard.

GradSchoolCenter.com is here to help you! Using the latest publicly available information, we assess the numerous graduate programs offered by universities across the United States. To present the best options for prospective graduate students, we create a shortlist of the institutions that meet or exceed our ranking indicators:

GRADUATE SCHOOL PROGRAM SCORECARD – 50%

A grad school program should lead to an enriching learning experience where students emerge as experts in their field:

• What is the Delivery/Format of the graduate program? Is it offered 100% online, 100% on-campus, or hybrid? Is it synchronous or asynchronous?
• What are the tuition rates? Are Special Discounts (such as military-friendly rates) available? Do graduate students in this program qualify for Financial Aid Options
• Does the program offer accelerated graduate program completion options?

GRADUATE SCHOOL SUPPLEMENTARY SERVICES SCORECARD – 30%

A graduate school is expected to provide additional services to give students access to the latest facilities and equipment. Under this ranking factor, we ask these questions:

• Do students get access to Student Support and Career Services?
• Are there adequate facilities and resources for all graduate students?
• What are the university’s Job Placement rates?
• Are there online learning tools?

GRADUATE SCHOOL SCORECARD– 20%

To determine if a graduate school meets this criterion, we ask these questions:

• Is the university fully accredited? Does it maintain active membership in organizations and associations advancing graduate studies?
• Does the graduate school maintain stringent Admission Requirements to admit the most qualified?
• Does the graduate school demonstrate high Acceptance/Retention/Graduation Rates?
• Does the university have an appropriately credentialed teaching faculty?
• What are the school’s graduate outcomes?

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In addition to using the parameters above, the researchers, writers and editors of GradSchoolCenter.com also gather relevant and up-to-date information from NCES.gov’s College Navigator. We link to reliable, independent resources when citing data and statistics pertaining to graduate study, including the national organization, Council for Graduate Schools (CGS) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

While GradSchoolCenter.com may focus primarily on graduate study, we also feature undergraduate and non-degree vocational or technical programs that we believe are useful to higher education students seeking the right direction toward to a lucrative and fulfilling career in a specific discipline.

The Sponsored Schools featured on our website are paid advertisements. They neither form part of the graduate schools that we rank nor influence the parameters we use in our rankings. The word “AD” is added to indicate that the sponsored schools pay for their placement on GradSChoolCenter.com.

If you need information regarding our methodology or the sponsored schools on our rankings and other articles, please email us at editor@www.gradschoolcenter.com.