PROBLEMS STUDENTS UNDERGO IN CHOOSING BEST GRADUATE SCHOOLS
Introduction
Students are constantly presented with a dilemma of choice in terms of what graduate school to attend after completing their undergraduate degree programs. The challenge arises due to the high number of institutions that provide these programs. It becomes very difficult for students to pick which among them is the best to meet their academic needs conveniently and appropriately. There are several top graduate schools which have been credited with the provision of learning friendly services that are in a position to ensure that the students obtain the best quality of education and learning. The focus of this research is to assist students to get out of this dilemma that has seen many students make wrong choices that ultimately affect their entire career development. The study critically presents the problem; the aim and objective are also explored. The study looks at the number of students willing to pursue such graduate courses after the completion of the undergraduate degree. The kinds of graduate schools that students are looking for are also examined together with the factors that drive the choice of such schools. The study employs the use of interviews with five friends to obtain the relevant information. Websites of five leading graduate schools are also utilized to review what they offer, their admission requirements and the justification for the choice of the school. The data is presented in form of tables and critically and objectively analyzed. A conclusion is then made on these issues. The significance of this research is that it is able to help students make the fundamental choice of which graduate school to attend whether in the field of law, business, education, engineering or medicine.
Background information
Graduate schools are increasingly becoming a better choice to many students across the globe. It is true that most students attend the learning institutions so that they get employment in the future. This has prompted many students to increasingly consider attending diploma from graduate schools as opposed to diplomas from the undergraduate institutions. The main goal of the students is to secure employment in the industries that give more priority to the students with diploma from the graduate school. Every student loves to find a decent job with a reputable organization. It is a general belief that many people hold that graduate schools produce more treasures than their undergraduate counterparts. Owing to the large number of graduate schools across the world, the most fundamental thing that arises is how to choose the best among the many alternatives. Definitely the quality of education that is provided by these graduate schools significantly differs. The differences could be on terms of admission requirements, the capacity of students that the school is capable of holding, academic and learning facilities, qualification of the lecturers (the number of professors) among other several factors can greatly guide the choice of s graduate schools among many students.
Statement of the problem
With the passing of each year, a large number of students are seen graduating from the universities all over the world. While many of these students consider getting employment, some are passionate about enrolling for further studies in graduate schools. The dilemma that faces many of these students is the graduate school which is most appropriate and better suited to transform his academic dreams into realities. Every graduate school tries as much as it can to expose itself as better equipped to handle the students’ requirements. It becomes an increasingly daunting task among the learners to establish the best option among all the others which certainly appear equally good. Graduate schools are seen as standard measure of the achievements that the students attained during their earlier periods in primary and high school.
It should be remembered that many graduate schools have come up with the sole intention of making money. Education has been commercialized in the modern day society. As a result the institutions seem not to care so much about the needs of the students. The major preoccupation is to see how much money they are able to obtain from the student. This further pose a major challenge of which one to chose. This is because all of them try to look good to entice the students to join them. Without sufficient information about these institutions, many students may become prey to the money making business at expense of the quality of education that they should obtain from such institutions.
The burden that is posed to many of the students is how to get the best graduate school that is in a position to provide them with the challenge they require getting to greater heights of learning and achieving higher degree of academic excellence. The focus of this study is to identify the possible advantages of different graduate schools in terms of what they offer and their facilities, reputation, the problems they are likely to encounter and their suitability of choice among the students. The study is designed to assist students who are looking into furthering their studies in graduate schools, to make informed decisions on which schools are in a better position to assist them find the best quality education. Details of what the students should consider are provided in depth so that the challenge of choice prior to making a wrong application can vehemently be addressed. The information provided in this paper gives the student the power to make informed choices bout which school to choose to attend and which ones to be avoided just like one can avoid the plague.
The Purpose of the Research
The objective of this study is to deeply examine the graduate schools in terms of their quality and provide information that is in a position to assist the students to plan the application to graduate school and to provide them with a deeper view of considerations that they ought to necessarily make in applying to these graduate schools.
Scope of the research
The study will be limited to three major areas. These are the factors that will be analyzed effectively with a view to assisting students to make informed decisions about the best graduate schools to attend and which ones they should avoid. These factors are:
The number of students willing to accept higher education after obtaining the undergraduate degree
The kinds of graduate schools that the students are looking for
The elements that students should consider while applying to these graduate schools
Research Methodology
The methodology of this research will employ the use of both the primary and secondary data so that students can be assisted in addressing this big challenge that has made some make pathetic decisions that they live to regret. The primary data will be obtained through interviews from students who graduated with graduate degree from graduate schools. All the interviews will be conducted from friends who are in a better position to give suitable information. It will be easy to seek for clarifications from these people since they have been known to me for a long time. There is therefore a sense of trust and confidence with them making their choice very appropriate and welcome indeed. The problem with my choice of friends is that they may not be very objective as each of them may only mention the positive sides of his school.
The secondary data will be obtained from the top graduate schools websites. The information from these websites will be able to reveal the strengths of such schools and their advantages over others. The services that these schools offer are also highly likely to feature in their official websites. The advantage of using this method of data collection is that it is fast and very efficient. Its only limitation is that it may not be easy to obtain clarifications as some of the institutions may be slow to responding to customer queries. Some of the schools do not even offer customer feedback in their websites; this will be a critical challenge.
Research Delimitations
The research will be delimitated in the following ways:
Interviews will be limited to five people who have graduated with graduate degrees
The interviews will be confined to internet only
Limitations of the research
The following factors will significantly limit the research: firsts and foremost, the students usually have different majors. This has a fundamental potentiality to affect their perceptions of the graduate school. Their concerns and issues are also different. This will substantially limit the research. Another limiting issue is the backgrounds of students. The family background is likely to limit the students’ perception of the graduate school. For instance, students whose parents were majorly religious may have passion for graduate schools that offer courses related to religion. As a result, the students are not in apposition to give objective information regarding the graduate schools. Biased accounts of the schools are consequently likely to feature in their responses.
Data Presentation
The research set out to find the number of students willing to further their education after the undergraduate degree. Of the five friends that were interviewed, three of them stated that it is not easy to consider further education before employment. Two of them however stated that it is necessary to further the education before obtaining employment. The table below shows what they had to say.
Student Response
Student1 Education is meant to make me employed, so after my undergraduate the driving factor is my employment
Student2 Having toiled all the years, it would be appropriate to take a break, get employment then more education to follow later
Student3 Education is not only for the sole purpose of employment, it nurtures skills into individuals to become useful members of the society. Further education following undergraduate is necessary.
Student4 Life is too short to spend the whole of it in education. Get employed immediately after undergraduate degree
Student5 Graduate education is very important. It grounds one for the job market. It is therefore important that one goes for further studies in graduate school before considering issues of employment.
On the issue of the kinds of graduate schools that students are looking for, the responses were varied. The following table shows the kind of responses obtained from five friends, students who had earlier graduated from graduate schools.
Student Response
Student1 Students look for graduate schools that are in line with the courses they undertook as undergraduates. This is because they would love to develop their own careers. A student of medicine would not go to a religious school. Similarly, an engineer would be interested in a graduate school of technology.
Student2 Students look for graduate schools that serve to transform their dreams into realities. They want the schools with the best lecturers and those that are capable of making them useful members of the society.
Student3 Many students only want to be recognized. Most of them do not choose the graduate school for the sole purpose of learning. They instead, want others to see them as graduates rather than what they actually do while in schools. No wonder many graduate students in the contemporary society have grown lazy and are not able to perform most of the tasks required of them. Their main aim is to be seen to have graduate degrees.
Student4 Students want graduate schools with the best facilities. They also consider the richness in terms of the populations. Most students would want to get exposed to different environments and scenarios. Human beings by their very nature are adventurous; students want a metropolitan graduate school where they can meet diverse kinds of people of multi ethnic, multi cultural and multi religious backgrounds. They need to make friends and interact with people of entirely all walks of life.
Student5 Students want to go to graduate schools where they can obtain the best quality education from the highly qualified professionals. They also consider the facilities that exist in such schools. But the most fundamental thing is the course that they want to pursue. If it does not exist in a graduate school, they would certainly decline to attend such a school.
When asked about the elements that students ought to consider when applying to these graduate schools, these are what the students had to say:
Student Elements to consider
Student1 The most fundamental consideration is the course that is offered by the graduate school
Student2 The most significant factor that students do usually consider is the number and qualification of the lecturers in the school.
Student3 Students consider the reputation of the school among most of the other things. This is because they want to satisfy pride and higher social status
Student4 Students consider the location of such a graduate school, the facilities and whether they are in line with the modern day requirements. The contemporary society demands extraordinary state of the art facilities in the universities and colleges that offer the graduate courses.
Student5 The quality of education guides the choice. No student prefers to go to a graduate school that provides poor quality of education. The main reason for attending the school is to obtain education. If it is of low quality the students have every reason to worry.
Information was also obtained from the websites of the following top universities, Harvard University, Yale University, The University of Washington, Stanford, Massachusetts and The University of Carlifonia. The findings are presented in the table below.
Graduate School Information
Harvard One of the leading universities in the world with a state of the art technology. Produces quality students on laws and many other disciplines. Professional lecturers and facilities that is capable of nurturing the students making them very useful members of the society. Tops in medical science ranking
Washington The institution is served with motivated staff and individuals who are in the best position to offer quality law degree programs.
Massachusetts The university has highly qualified professionals particularly in the field of technology. It offers the leading services on engineering courses.
California The University is leading in provision of education related programs
Stanford The university is also modern with a state of the art technology and offers leading bossiness degree programs in the world.
Data Analysis
Number of students willing to pursue further studies after Undergraduate Degree
The study undertook to find out how many students consider pursuing further graduate degrees after undergraduate. It was discovered that most students want to get employed and later pursue the graduate degrees. Some would want to pursue such degrees when they are already employed and do so on a part time basis. The findings were very eminent since three of the five students representing 60% favored employment after obtaining the undergraduate degree. This could be attributed to the harsh economic crisis that rocks the world. Many people want to obtain a source of livelihood. They get this from employment. They are able to obtain decent salaries from the employments right from undergraduate studies. Therefore, for some students, pursuing graduate degree is a waste of time since they already have the basic knowledge to exist in the society.
There are those students who feel that education is meant to nurture skills and not only for the sole purpose of employment. These students vehemently favored pursuance of graduate education after the undergraduate degree programs. Others have a feeling that with furtherance of education from the basic undergraduate, they are even in a better position to secure even more quality and well paying jobs in the employment industry. This is because they feel better poised to tackle most of the employment requirements owing to their wealth of knowledge and skills following intensive and wide learning. Generally, education is important, but most people view it as a way of obtaining employment. This explains why so many people do not bother to develop their careers after getting a job.
The graduate schools that students look for
Many students who wish to pursue graduate degrees look for various factors as shown on the presented data. In most cases, the motivation is the courses offered by those graduate schools and the quality of such courses. As a result, a student of technology would desire to pursue his studies in a graduate school that is leading in the provision of the best quality engineering programs. Students also look for schools with the best facilities so that they are able to find the best learning from such institutions. The learning facilities in a graduate school including the state of the art equipments like computers, accommodation facilities and any other tools that can facilitate teaching and learning are very important factors that constantly nag a student’s mind.
The reputation of the institution is another fundamental issue of consideration. Most students will not want to be associated with an institution that has been branded as poor and unable to ensure quality degree programs. Instead, they want to be associated with the best institutions in the world. This is a very significant boost even to the social status of the students. The feeling that one is learning in a reputable institution in itself is a motivation to the student even to work harder and achieve higher levels of academic excellence. It is no wonder that students are struggling to find places in the leading and reputable institutions.
The number, qualification and professionalism of the lecturers in such a graduate institution is yet another factor that students do constantly look at before making a decision as to whether to join such a school or not. At the end of the day, it is the lecturer that will impart the knowledge into the minds of the student. His qualification, mode of delivery and ability to motivate students is therefore a significant factor of consideration before an informed fundamental decision is made. As a result students consider the number of professors that exist in an institution before they join. Professors are thought to have the best knowledge and experience to enable the students to realize their nurtured dreams and aspirations that they have lived with for a long time. An institution with fewer professors is likely to exhibit low ranking in the list of the best and reputable graduate schools.
Elements that students should consider when applying
The study set to find out elements that students ought to consider when applying to the graduate schools. Students need to first of all know exactly what they want in life. Consequently, they have to find out what they want to do with their life. After establishing these fundamental facts, they will be in a position to tell what courses coincide with their dreams. It is not compulsory that a student pursues the same course he attended at the undergraduate level. Having known exactly what he wants, the student should then embark in making a choice of which graduate school can best meet his requirements.
First and foremost, the student ought to critically examine his abilities in line with the course that he has chosen. He should then consider the institution he wishes to pursue the studies in. this becomes the most challenging part. However, issues of facilities in the institution, the courses offered and the reputation of the institution should drive the choice. The student should study the various graduate schools, their strengths and weaknesses in terms of facilities, the number and qualification of lecturers among other key issues.
Another significant factor to put into consideration in making the choice is the quality of education that he is likely to obtain from such a graduate school. If the quality is deemed to be necessarily high, the student should not hesitate to apply for that institution. But if the institution is deemed as one of those that exist to make profit, then the student ought to be wary of making a choice that would lead him to that institution. Students are the most important clients of any graduate school. They exist to meet the needs of the students. If this is not possible, then the graduate school in inconsequential in terms of reasons for its establishment.
The Top Graduate Schools
The study set out to bring out some of the leading graduate schools to help the students make informed choices on which one can best meet their needs. These top graduate schools were looked ate. Their websites were visited so that critical information regarding what they offer could be obtained conveniently. The use of the internet was considered the most convenient means as it required no travelling expenses. The information was also able to be obtained on a real time basis.
The graduate schools were examined in terms of what they can offer best. As such broad areas of medicine, technology, laws, business and education were the guiding factors. This is because in most cases, students concentrate on these areas. Harvard University was found to be leading in the provision of programs related to medicine. The prospective doctors can therefore consider pursuing medicine graduate programs in this high profile institution. The school is served with modern technologies designed to facilitate teaching and learning in the medicine career. There are also adequate teaching professionals in the field of medicine in this reputable graduate institution.
Massachusetts University was found to be leading in technology. The institution is well equipped with facilities leading to the successful and quality pursuance of engineering courses. The students with a great love for computer science, engineering including civil, electrical, mechanical and many other technologically based courses can consider this modern institution to further their studies and see their long nurtured aspirations converted into reality. In the field of business, Stanford University appeared to be the place to be.
Students who feel that teaching is their calling and whose desire is to see more members of the society educated can consider attending California University as it is one of the leading graduate schools that provide education related programs. There exist in this institution the modern facilities and lecturers that propel the education career forward. The would be judges, lawyers, magistrates and advocates or legal practitioners are advised to attend the University of Washington or Yale University to pursue successful and quality law careers. This again is attributed to the fact that these two universities have better facilities and professionals that can assist the students become better future law practitioners.
The information about these graduate schools was obtained from their websites and represents the objective view of the researcher. The information is particularly designed to assist the students to make wise and informed decisions about which graduate school to attend. The choice is highly pegged on the course that the student wishes to pursue.
Problems encountered
The information obtained from the websites of the top graduate schools was only showing the advantages of such institutions. This is mainly because the website is used as a marketing tool and it was very difficult to obtain the disadvantages of such institutions. The admission requirements and majors were vehemently addressed. However, the general views and merits were extensively captured on the schools’ websites.
The biggest challenge of the interviews was objectivity. The friends interviewed were mainly likely to have taken sides making their responses dominated by personal accounts and feelings to a great extent. However, the researcher tried addressing these issues by taking a broader look of the issues trying to be objectively analytical as possible.
Conclusion
The dilemma of choice of the graduate school is probably one of the critical factors that affect a student’s career development and consequently the future life. With the rising of so many graduate schools, the biggest challenge is to ascertain which among them is genuinely established to offer quality services to students. It is a fact that some graduate schools are established to reap money from the students. One thing ought to be fundamentally clear. Graduate institutions exist because of students and not vice versa. But the rule has been broken. The contemporary society witnesses the uprising of so many graduate schools whose visions are hard to even establish in the first place. As a result, each student who wishes to pursue graduate education following the undergraduate program completion must be very careful.
While many may argue that the top graduate schools are the best suited for student’s needs, this may not be the case. There are other medium graduate schools that can serve the purpose of these top schools. These schools are better equipped with modern facilities and professional lecturers who can ensure the best methods of knowledge generation and acquisition to the learners. Besides, not every student will get the opportunity to get admitted into these top graduate schools. The most important thing that the students are required to do is know exactly what courses they want to pursue.
The problem of choosing the graduate schools should be rendered a thing of the past. Parents and teachers ought to play a leading role in ensuring that the students are well informed about these schools. The purpose of this research is met if it assists students to make such choices in a better, wise and informed manner. It is every student’s right to acquire graduate education and it is only fair that this education is obtained from a reputable graduate institution. The issue of employment immediately after completion of the undergraduate studies is not a bad idea, but in most cases it leaves students with little or no time to advance their studies thereafter. Moreover, getting to a graduate school when the students are still fresh from undergraduate is advantageous since they are still in the learning mood. Students can also opt to enroll for graduate schools while they remain employed. This is especially when the lectures are available on a part time basis.
Choosing the best graduate school should be a process involving a critical examination of the available schools and what they have to offer alongside the aspirations and targets of the students. Issues of the modern facilities, reputation of the school, availability and professionalism of the lecturers should also form a fundamental basis upon which the choice should be made. Every student would then pursue graduate degree in a school of his choice and meet his individual dreams promptly and comfortably indeed.
