<p>I'm not sure if anyone will have responses for this, but I've been wondering about something. I started working on my M.S. a couple of months ago, and I would like to go on for the PhD afterwards, if possible. I'll need to apply to PhD programs in about a year, so that's still a while away, but it's not too early to try to get an idea of which ones I want to apply to.</p>
<p>My concern is that I've always thought of myself as being the "diligent, not brilliant" type. Unlike some people on these boards, I woudn't want to go to a grad school that is very rigorous academically, super competitive, or where it's especially hard to get good grades. I do want to go to a good school though. There are often at least some variations in academic rigor from one school to another, even if the two schools are ranked similarly. My question is, what is the best way to find out beforehand how rigorous a grad program at a particular school is? Sometimes programs will give out stats, like GRE scores and GPA's of admitted students, but that wouldn't really answer my question. Does anyone have any suggestions?</p>
<p>By the way, I'm at a good, though not extremely prestigious school right now for the M.S. There's definitely a lot of work to do (classes, TA-ship, studying, etc.), but I also get to sleep and to have some free time now and then. I'm hoping to find something similar for the doctorate.</p>