If you are already in the states, this means you probably already know a bit about their system of higher education. I find that many people back at home have probably heard from movies about Harvard (e.g. The Social Network) and Princeton (e.g. A Beautiful Mind) and maybe even MIT (e.g. Iron Man) among the engineering crowd. A lot of people idolize these places and in some countries from a very young age. I have found that this gives you a romanticized and overly simplistic view of the US system of higher education. Here are some points I want to make with the bare essentials.
- While universities like Harvard or Princeton indeed represent world class universities with excellent research programs, they also represent prestige and a set of other qualities regarding social life that are unrelated to education. There are many other universities providing on par research opportunities that are also highly selective and even better in research quality in many fields. For instance in engineering, universities like the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Purdue University, or Northwestern University have programs that are academically as well regarded or even better regarded than the engineering programs at Harvard or Princeton.
- Almost on the same point as above: World University rankings are not very informative and I would even say harmful in most cases. If you are selecting a university for your education and it is in the top ten of those lists, you should clearly choose it over universities listed in the low end of the top one hundred in the list. This is a no brainer but you could probably have figured that out on your own without looking at the ranking. For all other cases and comparisons, these rankings are almost useless. For instance, let's use one of the most reputed rankings, the Times Higher Education ranking. Let's say we want to study a PhD in Computer Science and we have to decide between Yale University (Ranking #12) and the University of Maryland College Park (Ranking #117). It seems the clear choice would be Yale University, yet many people in the field would say that the latter is the better choice, or at the very least would find the difference in quality totally distorted as the rankings suggest.
- Following on the last point, you might get some value on using rankings grouped by subject area like the US News and World Report rankings which also include rankings specific to graduate programs, or the NRC rankings which are conducted by the government every five or so years. Neither of them is perfect and you would still be mislead if you only follow rankings blindly but these are at least somewhat better. One ranking methodology I particularly liked was that conducted by Clauset et.al., http://tuvalu.santafe.edu/~aaronc/facultyhiring/, where they measure the quality of History, Computer Science and Business graduate programs based on where did PhD students went on to become professors after graduation. It still has some biases but again, these rankings are not supposed to be used on their own and as an applicant you should always exercise judgment based on many factors besides ranking like: specific reputation within your subfield of research, available faculty you would like to work with, available courses that you would be interested to enroll, available funding opportunities, location offering reasonable social opportunities, other potential opportunities like internships, jobs, social networking, etc.
- BS, MS, and PhDs. These are the three major degree programs in the States in the sciences. The Bachelor of Science (BS) program is usually a four-year program where each year is named as Freshman, Junior, Sophomore, and Senior (in that order) and includes mostly coursework, although some programs might require or have an optional thesis at the end (most do not). The Master of Science (MS) degree takes usually between three to four semesters of coursework (two years) to obtain and might or might not include a thesis work at the end (in most programs it is optional). The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree includes an original thesis at the end and might take between four and eight years to obtain depending on the field, advisor expectations, and individual student circumstances. Pursuing an MS or PhD typically requires a BS degree or equivalent amount of post-secondary education. The MS is typically not a requirement to enter a PhD program. PhD programs in the sciences (especially the hard sciences) typically pay an stipend to the students and provide a tuition scholarship for the coursework, in other words they do not cost money to the student. This is why admissions to PhD programs are extremely competitive compared to other programs (BS, MS). Note that some schools offer slightly different degree names like Bachelor of Arts (BA), Master of Arts (MA), or Doctor of Science (DSc) degrees that might serve similar purposes but with a slightly different curriculum and focus.
- How difficult is it to get a PhD admission at a given university? This is a difficult question and it can not be answered easily, especially if you are an international applicant. The best chances are if you already are known by your work to any of the faculty at your target university. This is unlikely if you are an international applicant unless you attended a selected group of universities abroad that are doing top notch research. Another option is that your advisor in a foreign school happens to know people first hand at the target university and he is fully endorsing you. This is a bit more likely for international applicants at a larger number of schools but it might limit your choices if you only target those schools which might not be optimal. Another option is having an international research/educational experience like an internship at a research lab abroad, an internship at a top company, participating in an international competition related to your intended field of research, a popular piece of software that you wrote. This is a bit more difficult to judge but would certainly set you apart. Standardized test scores and grades from international applicants are not as important as people make them to be, just make sure you are within a reasonably high score on those so that you don't raise any concerns. To conclude, you should research the potential places that you want to apply and you should apply broadly (applying to 15 to 30 places is not unusual for international applicants).
- Finally, a last piece of information that even most foreign graduate students already in the states do not really know. Most of us are familiar with research universities but not everybody knows that there are many other institutions of higher education like primarily undergraduate institutions of higher education, community colleges, and even for-profit colleges. The romanticized view of the American university through universities like Harvard or Princeton might fool you into believing that studying in the United States always means prestige and quality. Most people are unaware of the existence of for-profit private universities. While some of these universities might genuinely serve a niche with programs that provide useful technical or professional training in very specific domains, a number of them have demonstrated to put their profits above the education of their students and even losing their accreditation. If you are curious I recommend you watching the PBS documentary College Inc. On the other hand, most international applicants are also unaware of primarily undergraduate institutions and liberal arts colleges that have an enormous reputation but often do not make it to the international rankings like Pomona College, Williams College, Harvey Mudd College, Spelman College, Wake Forest University, or Wesleyan University. When it comes to undergraduate education, some of these institutions rank in prestige as high or above some of the most well known research universities. Another important group of universities in the states are community colleges which typically provide two or three year programs which confer an Associate degree (AS). Community colleges are not as prestigious as research universities and they serve a different purpose like providing technical and vocational training but some local students also opt for them as preparation to obtain an admission to a more selective four or five-year program at a research university. Another reason why some local people enroll in a community college is economical because they are less expensive, and you could potentially transfer courses after your associate degree (AS) to finish your bachelor degree (BS) at a more expensive but prestigious school.
Wherever you are located for your graduate studies, remember to always enjoy life while pursuing your degree, these should be years of lots of work but also some of the best years of your life so keep things in control. No matter where you are make the best of your situation both socially and academically.
