<p>I keep hearing people that so and so college has a strong chemistry department or this college has a great english program. If i'm going to figure out the strength of a program at a certain college, how would I do it? Maybe ask several questions or look them up at the rankings?</p>
<p>Rankings, faculty alma mater, faculty awards, strength of student body at college, job placement of Ph.D candidates.</p>
<p>Course offerings
Degrees offered
Breadth/depth of education in certain areas (within the program itself)
Professor credentials + teaching ability
Success of grads
Research opportunities
Facilities (for research and so on)
Publications / faculty and student productivity
Funds
Library holdings
Department connections (to local companies, etc.)</p>
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<ul> <li>department accreditation by a professional association related to the subject,</li> <li>faculty size compared to the number of graduating majors in the department</li> <li>where grads of the department go on to graduate school or employment</li> <li>any recent or pending changes in funding for the department (search the school's press releases, and the student newspaper archives),</li> <li>special facilities or capabilities of the department (department library, research facilities, special equipment, etc.)</li> <li>how many prof's in the department are tenured, how many are full-time, how many are just visiting or are not tenured.</li> <li>the philosophy or subject approach of the department. This can take some digging, and you may have to put some divergent pieces together to see if the department's goals/philosophies are a fit with yours. Two equally sized departments at different schools can have very different approaches.</li> <li>I also like to get a hold of the actual course schedules (not the catalog which merely lists courses that may or may not be offered on a regular basis) for a few semesters and see how many classes the department typically offers, how large or small they are, and whether they fill up quickly or are over-subscribed. A department is only good if you can get into classes without too much trouble.</li> </ul>
<p>Another piece of advice that I also find helpful came from the Philosophical Gourmet site, which ranks Philosophy graduate programs but also has a section discussing how to evaluate undergrad programs, is to (1) find the rankings for top graduate level programs (these are usually more readily available) and then (2) look at the faculty bio's and see how many received their doctorates from the top grad programs. Of course, at large universities, you'll also need to find out how many of those faculty actually teach undergraduates.
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