Is There Another Degree in Your Future?

            Choosing Among Professional and Graduate Schools

                            by Neale Baxter

       Neale Baxter is the OOQ's managing editor, (202) 606-5691.

     Does one good degree deserve another? Having earned a bachelor's,
should you now devote a year or 2 or 10 of 60- and 80-hour weeks to
earning a master's or a doctorate? Master's, doctoral, and professional
degrees have become increasingly common during the past 20 years. In
1989-90, more than 395,000 master's and first professional degrees were
awarded, compared to just over a million bachelor's degrees. Consider
these figures for degrees granted in 1989- 90, according to the U.S.
Department of Education:

   Medical Doctor (MD)                           15,000
   Jurum Doctor (J.D.) or
      Bachelor of Law (LL.B.)                    36,000
   Dr of Philosophy (Ph.D.) or
      Dr of Education (Ed.D.)                    38,000
   Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.)    77,000
   Other master's degrees                       247,000

     Along with their popularity have come the proliferation of programs
and the growth of competition for entrance. The numbers of schools
granting first professional degrees is relatively low, with just 54 for
dentistry, 124 for medicine, and 182 for law. But nearly 800
institutions now grant the M.B.A. degree (although only 271 are
certified by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business,
according to Chuck Hickman, Director of Projects and Services for the
Assembly).

     With so many to choose from, only you can decide what kind of
program you should follow and where you should follow it.

     How can you make the best decision? Whether buying a car or
deciding on a postgraduate degree in medicine, law, business, education,
or some other field, the process to follow when making a decision is
much the same:

* Specify the factors that affect your choice.
* Decide how much weight each should have.
* Set up a table with a column for each school or program and a line for
  each factor (see sample).
* Determine each program's score for each factor. * Go to the school
  with the highest score.

The easy part is setting up the table. The work comes as you decide what
factors are important and gather the information you need. Even after
following this procedure, you'll never know whether a different program
or a different school would have led to a better future, but at least
you'll know that you made the best decision you could with the
information available.

It's Not Just a Degree, It's a Career

A good place to start the decisionmaking process is with a review of
your reasons for attending a professional or graduate school. Stay
focused on your reasons. As Julie Dolan, the Director of Member Services
for the Graduate Management Admission Council, says, "There is no one
right school for every applicant. Self-assessment should be the starting
point for anyone considering graduate business education."

     Although good reasons might be plentiful for devoting 1 to 10 years
of your life to obtaining another degree, one stands out: A Career.
[note to art director: this side bar should appear on the first or
second spread of the article. it is not specifically referred to in the
text

Psst! Are You College Bound?

The accompanying article is for people who have finished college and
want to continue their education. Even so, most of the questions it asks
are also important to high school students and others who are planning
to go to college. Compared to a person choosing a graduate school,
someone looking at colleges would probably take more interest in the
extracurricular and campus-wide academic offerings. Such a person might
also be less concerned with the jobs that graduates take. But still, if
you are planning to go to college, look over the article. It may point
up something to keep in mind as you make your own evaluation of
different schools.

     People with abundant leisure and a steady income may undertake
graduate or professional studies for other reasons, such as to acquire a
scholarly or professional knowledge of a subject that interests them, to
associate with experts in a field, to enrich their lives, or simply to
pass the time of day (and night, if they are to keep up with their
studies). Whatever the primary motivation, anyone entering a graduate or
professional school should have a real interest in the subject of study.
But most people embark on the difficult, expensive pursuit of another
degree to further their careers.

     Graduate education is usually vocational education. The purpose of
a law degree, medical degree, M.B.A., Ph.D. or Ed.D. is to enable you to
qualify for a job you cannot now obtain or to improve your career
prospects in a field you have already entered. The job may not be
directly associated with the degree. Aspiring politicians, for example,
often seek law degrees although they do not intend to practice law and
are not required to be lawyers to stand for election. In most cases,
however, the degree and the job go hand in hand. A Master of Social Work
would be of little value to a manufacturing executive, and an M.B.A.
would do little for the career of most social workers.

     Looking at graduate programs primarily from the point of view of a
career makes both self-assesment and program evaluation much simpler
than the comparable task of deciding to attend a college. College is
both less costly_especially in terms of lost income_and more general in
its benefits. Not only do college programs equip a person for many
different potential careers, they also have social and other payoffs.
But graduate degrees are much more specific, and one that does not
improve your earning power or get you into the career you want is
unlikely to be worth the considerable cost involved. For this reason,
the Graduate Management Admission Council advises, "Your first step
should be to explore career areas that interest you."

     When considering employment, be as specific as possible. Read about
the occupation you plan to enter, and ask people in the field about the
different specialties. You are deciding how you would like to spend
about a third of your waking hours for the next 30 or 40 years. The
decision is worth much more time than you would put into buying a car.

     What if no particular occupation appeals to you? What kind of
advanced degree should you get in that case? None.

     If you do not know why you are getting the degree, you probably
should not get one. You can sort out career options just as easily while
being paid to work as you can while paying tuition. To be blunt: Going
to a graduate or professional school because you do not know what else
to do is foolish.

 
Not Just Any School Will Do

Just as the kind of work you wish to do for a living should determine
the kind of degree you pursue, so should that work be a major factor in
picking a school. You will benefit most from a school if you have
identified a specialty within an occupation, for you will then be in a
much better position to select the appropriate program.

     No one school is the best choice for every specialty within every
field, and some schools are a bad choice for any specialty. Chuck
Hickman advises that one should attend a school "not for a credential
but for specific skills and knowledge." You need different skills as an
entrepreneur than as an auditor, and few schools are equally successful
at preparing people for both fields.

     While president of Law School Admission Council, Peter A. Winograd
made a similar point, writing, "Law schools are, and should be, diverse
institutions with a wide variety of missions and strengths. What is best
for one student (or faculty member, or prospective employer) is not
necessarily best for another. The large school, with large sections and
a multitude of Wall Street-type employers clamoring at the door, may not
be the school of choice for the individual who fails to shine in crowds,
hankers to dig into environmental law, or seeks substantial interaction
with faculty. Each type [of school] will be right for certain students.
. . ." People who want to practice law in their hometowns will quite
possibly develop better contacts at a State law school than at one of
the famous institutions on the east coast.

     What is true of business and law schools is true of all the other
kinds of graduate and professional schools as well. Dick Green, a
spokesperson for the Association of American Medical Colleges, points
out that some medical centers stress biomedical research while others
serve regional needs. This means that you need to identify the kind of
medicine you wish to practice and then select appropriate schools to
apply to. Similarly, if your interest is engineering, education,
science, clinical psychology, or one of the arts, you must look further
than the general subject in order to find the right school.

     You want to identify how well each school will prepare you for
exactly what you want to do_no more and no less. And yet, specialties
are not always obvious. For example, the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, that bastion of engineering, offers an M.B.A. with a focus
on real estate. So the next question is "How do you learn about the
various programs."

Tiptoeing Through the Catalogs

Information on specialties is available in school catalogs, as you well
know. The real challenge is learning which of the hundreds of relevant
catalogs you should consult and finding information that is not in the
catalogs themselves. Basically, you have two resources: publications and
people.

     Publications, speaking as someone who works for one, have many good
points: They are easily found (you know where the library is), clearly
dated in most cases, often comprehensive, and usually consistent in
their treatment of different schools. Publications can also be evaluated
against each other with little difficulty: You can judge a book by its
contents. Some frequently recommended ones are listed in the
accompanying box, "Learning More About Graduate and Professional
Schools."

     Unfortunately, publications also have a drawback or two or three.
They don't answer open-ended questions, the way people do. They don't
volunteer information that they notice you need, the way people do. And
they don't have enough detail about real strengths and weaknesses, the
way people do. Where can you find information not in the books and
catalogs? From people.

     When asked how someone can find out about the reality behind the
catalog photos, Jackie Rashleger, of the Native American Law Students
Association, replies, "Word of mouth is important." Another spokesperson
for business graduates, Wayne Jossey, of the National Black MBA
Association, agrees with her, as would just about everyone else. To find
the information you need, you have to tap into the grapevine, a
communication medium that boasts neither the convenience nor the
reliability of the phone service. Gathering information in this way
might seem like a lot of work to some, and to others it may just seem
pushy. But if you were going to pay $100,000 for a car, wouldn't you
want to know more than the sales catalog had to say? The cost of a
graduate or professional degree can easily exceed the $100,000 mark.

     Begin your quest for information by asking current or former
professors for their advice. Then speak to everyone else who knows
something about the field_local lawyers, family doctors, executives who
graduated from your alma mater, or anyone else you can contact. If your
goal is law or medical school, the prelaw or premed advisor on campus
should be helpful. Jackie Rashleger also suggests that you find out the
names of student associations at your schools of interest and call them,
or get the names of the associations' officers. Forums, which are
similar to the college nights you might have attended when looking at
undergraduate schools, are another place to find people to talk to;
information about them is given in the box, "Learning More About
Graduate and Professional Schools."

     When you speak to someone, you obviously want to know which schools
they suggest you look into. It is not merely a matter of a school
offering a specialty, it's a matter of how strong the school is in that
specialty. The academic atmosphere of the school, a subject discussed
below, is also something that people can convey better than books. Other
topics to raise will become clear as you read this article and as you
begin talking to people.

     The first people you speak with will rarely have definitive
information, so you always want to ask for recommendations of other
sources of information, including books, magazines, and journals that
discuss the subject. In particular, ask if there is another person you
can speak to, especially someone at the schools that have been mentioned
to you.

     Carefully evaluate the information you receive in light of each
person's own experience and interests. For example, a person's
assessment may be out of date. A relative or family friend may have had
a wonderful experience at a school that no longer employs any of the
professors who made the time memorable. People who have recently
completed their own education often have more reliable information than
do those who have not had any direct contact with a school for some
time.

Not All Programs Are Alike

Graduate and professional schools that offer the same degree differ a
great deal regarding how they structure their programs. A hint of the
variety available just in M.B.A. programs is given in "Destination MBA,"
published by the Graduate Management Admission Council:

Some schools believe all students should be trained as general managers.
Other schools allow students great freedom to design courses of study
that suit their individual career objectives and special interests.
There are joint degree programs, such as business and law, business and
engineering, and management of the arts. Specialized degrees in such
areas as educational administration, hospital and health care, public
administration, and urban and regional planning are also offered.

What is true of business schools is true of every other kind of school.
A program in one subject at one school may specify only a few required
courses and have a flexible curriculum, but that for another subject
sets out a fairly rigid course of study. Students in one field may be
able to select electives from throughout the university, while those in
another must restrict themselves to the school they are in. Internships,
other kinds of experiential learning, and opportunities to study abroad
may be plentiful at one school and unheard of at another. Programs can
be part time, full time, executive, weekend, 1 year, 2 years, or various
permutations of the above. The length of a practicum, the value (in
credit hours) of a thesis, and the number of foreign language or
mathematics courses required all depend on the individual program. Even
the total number of credit hours required to complete similar programs
may vary.

     You'll also want to think about the methods used to cover a
subject. Teachers at one business or law school, for example, may rely
primarily on case studies, while the professors at another take a more
theoretical approach, and those at a third balance one against the
other. In the liberal arts and social sciences, a particular theoretical
approach may dominate one school, while another is more eclectic. You
will need to know something of the primary theoretical and pedagogical
approaches in your field to identify whether a school will appeal to
you.

Not All Programs Are Successful

The previous section points toward the ways programs differ. The
dissimilarity in results may be even more important. As Chuck Hickman
says, "The M.B.A. has historically been a ticket to challenging and
financially rewarding careers in management. I expect that to continue
to be so. Remember, however, that not all M.B.A.'s are created equal.
There are places to stay away from." Others would say the same thing
about programs in most fields.

     In order to evaluate a school's results, you need to know more than
what it teaches and how. You want to evaluate each school's success at
preparing people for the type of career you wish to have. The same
people you speak to about programs will be able to give you some
pointers, but you will need much additional information from books,
periodicals, and the schools themselves.

     You should first establish whether the school is accredited.
Accreditation is crucial in some fields. For example, only graduates of
accredited law schools may take the bar exam in many States. Lack of
accreditation is not such a definite barrier in other fields, such as
business, but it is certainly not a plus. Accreditation also guarantees
quality in some fields, such as medicine and engineering. But in other
fields, the standards of employers are higher or at least different than
those of accrediting bodies.

     Given that a school is accredited, you next want to gather
information about the placement of graduates and the salaries they
receive. You might think that such information would give a clear,
objective measure of a school's ability to prepare its graduates for the
labor market. In the words of Sportin' Life, "It ain't necessarily so."
Numbers may not lie, but they do not tell the whole truth, either. As
Chuck Hickman says, "Schools will put themselves in the most favorable
light." Graduate schools, you should remember, make money from graduate
students.

Placement of Graduates

The department head, dean's office, or placement office at each school
should be able to provide information about where graduates work, at
least in general. Naturally, you want to be cautious about a program
that won't provide such data. The kind of information available will
vary with the field. For example, according to Dick Green, data are
collected for each medical school indicating the percentage of graduates
entering primary care, accepting residencies in that State, or becoming
medical school faculty members. Law schools often have similar
information, but few Ph.D. programs do.

     One indication of how seriously a school takes the need of its
graduates to find employment is the kind of placement services it
offers. A law school that operates its own placement service is
obviously more concerned with the careers of its students than is a
graduate school that groups new Ph.D.'s in with the undergraduates at
the university's placement center. You should also be able to learn the
number of recruiters who visit the campus to interview candidates for
the degree you wish to obtain.

     Use caution when assessing the information you receive from the
school or elsewhere because placement data looks very precise but may
omit important factors that have much to do with the jobs taken by
graduates. For example, many recipients of an Ed.D. have years of
experience in education. Similarly, many of the students in a weekend or
part-time M.B.A. program may already be working in managerial positions
when they enroll in the business school. Information about the class
that includes these students will tell you little about the outlook for
a student who has no comparable experience.

     Still, the answer to the question "Where were the graduates
working?" is likely to give you the clearest picture of the strengths of
any school or program so that you can determine if it will really
prepare you for the career you want. At a minimum, a school with few
graduates who actually find jobs in the specialty you wish to pursue is
a school that should fall to the bottom of your list. Students in the
sciences and liberal arts may face special challenges regarding
placement, as indicated in the accompanying box, "Jobs and Ph.D.'s in
the Arts and Sciences."

     As a prospective student in law, medicine, or a few other fields,
you have another fact to check out. Find out the percentage of graduates
who pass their board or bar exams.

Salary Information

Data on average salaries offered to new graduates are available in
various publications and from the schools, depending on the field. It
looks even more exact than the placement information but may be even
less so. For example, the figure for a class's average starting salary
varies according to the time of year that the information is collected.
Typically, the highest ranked graduates receive the first job offers.
Therefore, salary data collected in February often yields a higher
average than data collected in August. Consistent data, at least with
regard to the time and method of collection, is available in at least
one field: Law. The National Association for Law Placement collects data
on employment 6 months after graduation.

     The focus of a school also changes figures for average salaries in
ways that might not be relevant to you. For example, data for a law
school that prepares large numbers of graduates for the public sector,
such as Howard University, will serve poorly as a guide to the salary
offers received by graduates who are entering the private sector. On the
other hand, public defenders will earn relatively little compared to
corporate lawyers no matter where they go to school.

     Salaries also depend on factors unrelated to the school's
educational program. One particularly important element is the amount of
experience students had before they started the program. For example, in
the survey of M.B.A. programs published in Business Week in October 26,
1992, one finds that graduates of Northwestern's Kellogg school were
earning more than $70,000 a year, on average; but one also learns that
these graduates had average annual incomes of almost $43,000 before they
began their M.B.A. program. An entrant who was not at these high levels
before starting school is unlikely to attract the megabuck offers that
make the news. The earnings of new M.B.A.'s are also effected by their
undergraduate degrees.  According to the College Placement Council, 1993
M.B.A.'s with technical undergraduate degrees and 1 to 2 years of
previous work experience had an average annual salary offer of 53,345,
versus the $36,657 average of those with neither experience nor a
technical bachelor's degree.

     Besides consulting the published reports, seek out personal
contacts for insight into the salary situation. Current students and
recent graduates will have information not only about fellow students
who got high paying jobs but also what might be more important, students
who did not.

Why Not the Best? Using School Rankings

Lists of "The Best" schools, such as those mentioned in the accompanying
box, "Learning More About Graduate and Professional Schools," are
somewhat controversial, to put it mildly. Peter Winograd calls them
beauty contests. In regard to medical schools, Dick Green says,
"Rankings oversimplify the relative value or merit that a given
institution may have for an individual and the differing missions of
medical centers." Associations that accredit schools, whether of
medicine, law, business, or some other subject, adamantly refrain from
ranking the schools they accredit, saying that any accredited school is
a good school and no school can serve every student. Some associations
go even further, criticizing the rankings. Consider this statement,
signed by the presidents of four associations concerned with legal
education:

     Although we have not had the opportunity to review the U.S. News &
World Report article, we believe that any ranking or rating of law
schools, based upon data the magazine has asked deans to provide, must
be meaningless or grossly misleading. The survey does not and could not
measure many important factors involved in evaluating the quality of law
schools. Statistics cannot reflect such factors as the quality of
faculty, curricular offerings, adequacy of library resources, and
quality of life. Most importantly, the U.S. News & World Report ranking
or rating is, in significant part, based on responses of legal
educators, judges, practicing lawyers, and others who could not possibly
know enough about each of the 175 [American Bar Association] accredited
law schools to rank or rate the law schools by quality quartiles."

     The Graduate Management Admission Council warns, "Heavy reliance on
rankings may lead to an unnecessary narrowing of choices." In answer to
the question "Are school rankings important?" its booklet, "MBA Q&A,"
states the following:

     The ranking of all kinds of educational programs has become very
popular, and this is especially true for M.B.A. programs. While it is
certainly valuable to have a comparative view of different programs,
keep in mind that any ranking is only a shorthand method of evaluating
schools. The methodology used in any particular ranking will affect its
outcome, and these methodologies are not always made clear. Further,
rankings do not adequately address the tremendous variety of graduate
management programs.

     The lists may also simply add to your confusion, in part because
they are subjective. For example, in a U.S. News survey, one law school
ranked 110th by law professors was ranked 51st by lawyers and judges.
What is the "real" rank of that school?

     Much of this criticism is well founded. Some of the surveys that
lead to the lists are poorly conducted; the questions asked may be ill
defined; and the responses given are likely to be highly subjective. But
in the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed person rules, and in the
absence of standards set by the accrediting associations or some other
group, the cyclopean vision of the magazine surveys will have to do.
Most important, they are not read only by prospective students.
Recruiters also consult them and use them when deciding where to visit
and whom to interview.

     How, then, should you use the lists? Chuck Hickman advises that you
consider the tier or cohort of the school rather than its precise rank.
He also offers one last caution: "Ranking should not be used as a
surrogate for you asking what you want to get out of this school in
terms of your career plans."

Admission Requirements

Knowing a school's admission requirements and being able to determine
whether you are likely to be accepted will save you time and money. In
"Medicine: A Chance To Make a Difference," the Association of American
Medical Colleges notes, "Applicants apply to an average of 10 schools.
Statistically, applying to more than the average will not increase your
chances of acceptance." It goes on to make an important point regardless
of the type of school you wish to attend: "You will have a much better
chance of being accepted if you research the schools carefully and
narrow your list to a few well-chosen schools."

     You do not want to apply to a school to which you have no chance of
being admitted. It should also go without saying that you shouldn't
apply to a school you would not attend even if you should be admitted.
But sometimes people will apply to such schools in the fear of not being
accepted anyplace else. At $100 to $200 per application, this can prove
to be expensive.

     Once again, the first place to seek information is each school's
catalog, which will indicate minimum requirements. Keep in mind that
most schools reject applicants who simply meet the minimum. So, once
again, you will need to ferret out information, asking your contacts
about your real chances of admission and looking for statistics in
various publications. And, once again, some of the statistics you find
will not be as definite as they look.

     The statistics you want concern grade-point averages and scores on
standard tests, such as the GMAT. You might find a median, mean, or
range of scores for all the students accepted or for all the first-year
students. The scores of those who were accepted are generally higher
than the scores of those who actually attend.

     As you sort through the names of schools likely to admit you,
recall the advice not to attend a school that will not prepare you for
your professional goal. If you conclude that you will not be admitted to
a school that meets your needs, do not attend another school. Rather,
take other steps to improve your chance of being admitted to an
acceptable school.

Money Matters

Butterflies may be free, but schools are not. Therefore, deciding where
to apply requires information on the cost of the education and the aid
available.

     Tuition is one subject about which you can easily obtain accurate
information. You already know that State schools can be terrific
bargains. Still, writing down that tuition costs $900 at Central State
versus $18,000 at Ivory Tower University clarifies the difference. You
will have to determine whether the difference in cost_taking financial
aid into account_is worth the difference in the value of the degree. The
answer will depend on the particular schools and, once again, on what
you want to do after graduation. Generally, people advise going to the
school with the better reputation even if it costs much more, as long as
the reputation is related to what you really want to do.

     Besides tuition, you need to consider many other expenses. These
include the direct costs of the program, such as books and computers,
and indirect expenses, such as travel. Some of these costs will not vary
much from school to school, but others will. Living expenses may also
vary widely. For example, housing for married students may be readily
available at one school but not at another, or inexpensive housing may
be a long commute from one school and just across the street at another.
Medical, dental, and child- care costs may also be much higher in one
place than in another.

     While on the subject of cost, remember that the major cost of
furthering your education is likely to be the income you lose while in
school. At this stage of your career, you may also be foregoing
experience and promotions. Taking these hidden costs into consideration
may be especially important if you are comparing full- and part-time
programs in fields such as management or education.

     You also need to determine how much money is available and from
what sources. Generally, your earnings and the contributions you can
plan on from other people (such as parents or a spouse) will vary little
no matter which school you attend. This is not always so, however,
especially with regard to your earnings. Employment opportunities may be
much better near one school than another, particularly if you or your
spouse works in a specialized field.

     Tuition may be a certainty, but the aid a school will provide is
not. About 49 percent of all postbaccalaureate students in 1989-90 had
some form of aid. You need to look not only at the total package offered
but also at how it is broken up. How much of it will be scholarship or
fellowship money that is yours to keep (or spend on tuition) and how
much of it will be in the form of loans that will haunt you for the next
decade? Loans are a major source of funding for postbaccalaureate
education. In 1989-90, about 18 percent had Stafford loans, including 57
percent of those working on first professional degrees. Graduates of
Business Week's top 20 business schools in 1992 had outstanding loans
averaging $27,000.

     Here are some other questions to ask: Will you have multiple
creditors or will all the loans be from a single source? How much will
your monthly repayment charge be once you complete your program? Will
you earn enough to pay it? How will additional loans affect the loans
you already have from your undergraduate days? Will you be able to
consolidate the repayment schedule? Would it be better to go to work for
a firm that offers tuition assistance and earn while you learn? Will
participation in a work-study program leave you sufficient time to
study? Will you have a research or teaching assistantship related to
your educational program or will you have a work-study job in which the
work has nothing to do with your studies?

Where It's At

Other readily available information about the schools, such as their
locations, may also enter into your decision. Preference for one
location over another is not simply a matter of liking a particular
climate or wanting to hear police sirens rather than geese in the autumn
night. A school's location may make travel expenses much higher. A
remote school may attract fewer recruiters. Crime rates may make a
library virtually useless after dark. Nor is location simply a matter of
where you will spend your next year or 2 or 3. Graduates tend to work in
the same region as the school they graduate from, at least in part
because they can contact regional employers more easily than employers
in other parts of the country. Carl Monk, the Executive Director of the
Association of American Law Schools, says, "Physical proximity makes
researching employers, interviewing, and so forth easier," a point to
keep in mind while reading a catalog's glowing description of nearby
wilderness.

     Besides location, other factors to consider are the size of each
school, class size, number of large classes, amount of small-group work,
opportunities for independent study, the library and laboratory
facilities that will be available to you, and the school's allied
institutions.

     The faculty is especially important. The American Association of
Colleges of Nursing believes that two indicators of quality in a
doctoral program in nursing are that "Faculty [are] accessible to
students to enhance scholarly development" and faculty mentors
"socialize students into a career of stimulating and satisfying
excellence of inquiry and service." These factors also indicate quality
in other programs. Look at the size of the faculty, the student/faculty
ratio, the degrees held by the faculty, where their degrees are from,
the fellowships they have held, the research they have published, and
the kind of nonacademic work they have done_such as industry experience,
laboratory research, or judicial clerkships. And look at the
opportunities offered students to meet with the faculty out of class or
informally.

     In many fields, individual professors have a great deal to do with
the future success of their students. For that reason, the choice of a
school may come down to the choice of a professor. As always, one must
be careful when making such a decision. Glancing over the visiting
writers for a master of fine arts in writing, one sometimes sees the
same author listed under two schools. This happens because, with some
disregard for truth in advertising, a school may list several
celebrities who have been visiting writers in the past rather than
listing only the ones who are actually on campus at the moment. If
particular faculty members are important to you, find out whether those
professors will actually be teaching a class you may enroll in while you
are at the school. Some professors only teach doctoral candidates, and
most try to take sabbaticals.

What It's Like

The academic and social atmosphere of an institution is especially
difficult to determine, and yet it has a crucial effect on many
students. A campus visit is essential. Carl Monk says, "It's very
important to spend a day or two at the school sitting in on classes and
talking to people in order to get a feel for the institution and the
relations of students with faculty and students with each other."
Barbara Brookmyer, a medical student on the staff of the American
Medical Student Association, notes that being in a place where people
are like minded can make medical school a little less onerous. Chuck
Hickman also notes that the age and experience of the other students
will affect your experience. Even a visit may not convey the feeling of
the school accurately, but it will tell you much more than any book,
catalog, or video.

     A visit also enables you to judge class size at first hand. The
catalog's description of class size might be low because large classes
for first-year students are averaged in with small seminars in the last
year. The availability of computers and advanced technology, the quality
of the laboratories, the condition of the library and its carrels, and
access to clinical facilities can all be judged better on the scene than
via catalog.

     Even before your visit, you will have already learned much from the
school's catalog and other publications. For example, the average LSAT
score or grade-point average indicates how competitive your fellow
students are likely to be. You might also check out the attrition rate
as an indicator of student satisfaction. According to the Office of the
American Bar Association Consultant on Legal Education, about 4 percent
of the law students enrolled in 1991-92 discontinued their studies
before the year was out. Attrition rates are much higher in other
fields.  According to In Pursuit of the PhD, a Mellon Foundation study
by William Bowen and Neil Rudenstine, fewer than 60 percent of the
English, history, and political science graduate students at four highly
regarded universities in the mid- 1970's actually earned doctorates.

Personal Factors

Finally, you may need to take personal or family considerations into
account. A spouse's opportunities for employment, a child's need for
medical services, or other concerns might take precedence over any other
factors in your particular circumstances. Jackie Rashleger, after
stressing the importance of attending a school with an appropriate
specialization, suggests that you ask yourself where you would be
comfortable. She also points out that family duties might cut into the
time available for school or employment. A degree might take longer to
earn in such a situation.

     Some indication of how supportive a school is can be drawn from
data on degrees awarded. Degrees awarded is a more meaningful indicator
than the number of such students accepted or even enrolled, two other
numbers that you are likely to come across. As Barbara Brookmyer says of
the graduation rate, "It reflects the philosophy of the program and the
administration." Dick Ellis, of the American Association of Engineering
Societies, points out that data for engineering schools show that some
have clearly been more successful than others at graduating women,
members of minority groups, and people with disabilities. For example,
Northwestern University has a relatively higher proportion of women who
graduate, and people with disabilities make up a relatively larger share
of the graduates at the University of Minnesota. Ellis adds, "There is
enormous variation in the ability to recruit and graduate students from
different groups." One school may have more people skilled at mentoring
female students or be more committed to preventing harassment. Another
might offer a strong support system through a specialized student
organization, such as one for Native Americans, whereas such an
organization may be weak or nonexistent at another school. But, whatever
the reason for a school's success, you may want to take it into
consideration.

     Other things you may want to check on are student input on
committees, universitywide services for health or counseling, and the
overriding educational philosophy of the school. In general, however,
the university as a whole will be much less important to you than the
graduate or professional school you attend. And social amenities are far
less important than the academic program. One can imagine the new holder
of a bachelor's degree saying that he benefited a great deal from
college because of the people he met, the organizations he was a part
of, and the new experiences he had, although he did not learn much in
class. The holder of a graduate degree who said the same thing would be
sadly deluded.

Making a Decision Model

If you have sorted out what is important to you and gathered all the
information available, making a decision model (such as the accompanying
one) should prove simple. The decision model is merely a table. Across
the top, list the schools you are thinking of applying to. Down the
left, list the factors to consider . Next, estimate the importance of
each factor. You might begin with verbal statements, such as "very,"
"most," or "who cares?" But at some point, you need to give a numerical
value to each. Is reputation twice as important as cost? Ten times as
important? Is one worth a maximum of 20 points and the other only 2?
Next, assign a score to each factor for each school. You can guess the
last step.

     Of course, after going through this exercise, you may decide to
ignore the results because someone you want to stay close to has just
been accepted by a school on the other side of the continent. But at
least you'll know the tradeoffs you are making.

Doctoral Recipients, 1991

     Field                              Total     Percent women

All fields                                37,451     36.7

Physical sciences                         6,276     18.3
     Physics and astronomy                1,408     10.7
     Chemistry                            2,194     23.1
     Earth, atmosphere, and marine          837     22.1
     Mathematics                          1,040     18.6
     Computer science                       797     14.5
Engineering                               5,212      8.7
Life sciences                             6,928     38.5
     Biological sciences                  4,642     37.8
     Health sciences                      1,049     63.8
     Agricultural sciences                1,237     19.8
Social sciences                           6,127     49.3
     Psychology                           3,240     61.2
     Anthropology and sociology             806     45.4
     Economics                              852     20.3
     Political science/intel relations      522     27.2
     Other social sciences                  707     51.0
Humanities                                4,094     46.5
     History                                658     37.5
     American/English language/lit          853     56.6
     Foreign language and literature        498     60.0
     Other humanities                     2,085     41.9
Education                                 6,397     58.1
Business and management                   1,164     25.0
Other professional fields                   829     41.9
Other fields                                 81     49.3

Decision Model for Selecting a School 
 
               Maximum
     Factor    Score    School 1   School 2   School 3   School 4   School 5
     Suitability of program
     Placement of graduates
     Salary of graduates
     Cost:
          Tuition
          Other education
          Other
     Reputation or rank
     Aid
          Scholarship or grant
          Assistantship
          Loans
     Location
     Atmosphere
          Academic:
               Faculty
               Library/laboratory
               Computer facilities
          Social:
               Make up of student body
               Organizations 
     Personal 
     Total

Jobs and Ph.D.'s in the Arts and Sciences Associations and accrediting
agencies concerned with law, business or management, and the health
fields clearly recognize professional employment as the goal of
professional school education. As one result of this recognition, the
placement of graduates in these fields is closely monitored by various
organizations. The employment of recent Ph.D.'s is not watched as
carefully. Associations concerned with the arts and sciences often have
little current data on the employment of recent graduates. The Modern
Language Association_which publishes the single most comprehensive
listing of positions for college teachers of English and other modern
languages_ has conducted only 8 placement surveys, beginning in the
1970's. Surveys that are conducted often do little more than determine
that people are in fact employed, without establishing whether their
employment is commensurate with their degrees or even related to their
field of study. Even In Pursuit of the PhD, a major study by the Mellon
Foundation, skips over the subject of employment, except to note that
the poor academic labor market of recent years has evidently led to a
reduction in the number of students seeking Ph.D.'s.  The Federal
Government doesn't provide any help either, for it does not collect
employment data that indicate both the nature of the work and the year a
graduate degree was awarded, crucial information for determining whether
earning a graduate degree is worth the time, effort, and expense
involved. As a consequence, prospective graduate students in the
sciences and liberal arts have fairly weak information to guide them,
some of it indefinite and the rest merely anecdotal. The information
that is available points to a shortage of jobs.

     Some measure of the seriousness of the employment problem of new
Ph.D.'s is indicated by statistics from the National Academy of
Sciences, which publishes annual reports on doctoral recipients.
According to its Summary Report 1991, which appeared in February 1993,
about 30 percent of those in the doctoral class of 1990-91 had definite
positions for postdoctoral study, were seeking such positions, or were
of unknown status; less than half had definite employment prospects; and
20 percent were seeking employment. The percentage seeking employment
varied from field to field but was high in all of them:

   Field of study             Percent of 1990-91
                              doctoral recipients seeking
                              employment in 1992

All fields                       20.1
Education                        22.1
Engineering                      25.0
Humanities                       29.5
Life sciences                    12.1
Physical sciences                15.1
Social sciences and psychology   22.2
Other professional fields        18.7

These degrees took 6 to 8 years to earn; that's a long time to prepare
for unemployment.

     And yet schools and associations often sound optimistic when
describing the employment situation of Ph.D.'s. The Modern Language
Association, for example, points to a 5.3 unemployment rate of 1986-87
degree recipients early in 1988, although this rate was not, in fact,
significantly lower than the 1988 rate for all members of the labor
force ages 25 to 34 (5.4). Schools may be more upbeat than the data
appear to warrant. For example, the head of an English department
recently reported that all the department's new doctors had been placed
by the beginning of the 1992-93 academic year. However, the placements
evidently included positions that would not normally require a doctorate
in English, judging by the department's newsletter. Looking again at the
Modern Language Association's statistics, one notices that while it is
true that more than 90 percent of the people awarded Ph.D.'s in English
in 1986-87 were employed early in 1988, only 43 percent had tenure-track
appointments and more than 15 percent had only part-time or 1-year
appointments. One can only speculate as to how they fared when looking
for work the next year. In 1991-92, the average job opening listed by
the Modern Language Association that was actually filled attracted 100
applicants.

     One could dismiss the situation in the humanities as being unique.
After all, for more than two decades, universities have been producing
far larger numbers of humanities Ph.D.'s than were needed. But numerous
indicators suggest that Ph.D.'s in the sciences and engineering are also
encountering difficulty finding employment. Articles in Chemical and
Engineering News, Science, and Bioscience are among the many that speak
of job shortages.

     The October 19, 1992 issue of Chemical and Engineering News makes
the point that, "A few years ago, there were warnings of a pending
crisis [due to a shortage] in the supply of scientists and engineers.
However, today, it is the unemployed and underemployed scientists and
engineers who are angry and are experiencing the pain of supply and
demand imbalance, not employers looking for workers."

     The October 1992 issue of Science, which is published by the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, looks more closely
at physicists. Its article, "Physics Famine: A Frenzied Search for Job
Stability," discusses the difficulties recent Ph.D.'s have finding
permanent positions, requiring that they take at least one and possibly
two or more "postdocs," that is, 1-year postdoctoral research positions.
The article notes that data from the American Institute of Physics show
that "Through the 1980's, the number of permanent jobs fell while the
pool of postdocs grew."

     A sampling of quotations from the same issue's "Postdocs: Tales of
Woe From the 'Invisible University'" clearly shows how angry some young
scientists are. For example, one says, "Postdocs are rapidly becoming
the burger flippers of science; they're cheap, temporary, and highly
trained laborers." Another says, "Most of us never realized that one
could work hard, contribute to science, do all the 'right' things, and
still end up unemployed." A third adds, "It's a pretty bizarre situation
when the people doing most of the medical research in this country can't
afford health insurance." (According to Science's informal survey, the
typical salary for postdoc's was between $20,000 and $25,000 a year; the
average salary offer to new college graduates in nursing was $31,731 in
1991-92, according to the College Placement Council.)

     Judging by data from the National Academy of Science, the picture
looks somewhat brighter in the life sciences. The November 1992 issue of
Bioscience includes information drawn from a survey conducted by the
American Institute of Biological Sciences of its member societies. The
agricultural and zoological societies all reported job opportunities as
fair to good or excellent, and two of the five botanical societies
reported job prospects as good. But it should be noted that even under
"good" conditions many new Ph.D.'s are not finding work in their field.

     One could, of course, hope the job market will soon turn around.
For example, Paula E. Stephan, of Georgia State University, and Sharon
G. Levin, of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, write, "A wave of
faculty retirements starting in the late 1990's will offer a window of
opportunity. . . . More faculty jobs will be open. . . ." Certainly, a
large number of faculty members in the sciences (and humanities) will
become eligible for retirement during the 1990's. However, no one can
know for sure the number that will actually retire and be replaced. At
present, even a  1 to 1 replacement rate would not suffice to provide
all the new Ph.D.'s employment in many fields.

     Clearly, the question for an applicant to ask is not "Were the
graduates working?" People with Ph.D.'s are, after all, qualified for an
enormous number of jobs before they become doctoral candidates. One
would expect well-educated, highly disciplined people in their late
twenties and early thirties to find employment. The question to ask is
"What kind of employment did graduates find?"

Learning More About Graduate and Professional Schools

     A great deal of information is available about graduate and
professional schools, ranging from simple lists of schools to huge
compendiums. The following list has five sections: Associations and
accrediting agencies, admissions tests, commercial publications, school
rankings, and forums or fairs. The kind of information available from
the association, along with title and price information for
publications, is included whenever possible. Many of these publications
should be available at libraries and career centers.

Associations and Accrediting Agencies 
Business and Management 
     Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) 
     2400 Broadway
     Suite 230 
     Santa Monica, CA 90404
     Publications include the following:  
     "MBA Q&A," a 30-page pamphlet with information on the degree,
careers, school programs, admission criteria, admission tests, program
costs, financial aid, other GMAC publications, order form, forums, and
other associations (free). The Official Guide to MBA Programs describes
more than 550 programs and discusses the selection of a graduate
management school, the application process, financial assistance, and
career opportunities in management (1992-94 edition, $13.95). The
Official Guide to Financing Your MBA discusses ways to pay for graduate
management study, compares financial aid packages, specific schools,
total costs, and benefits of attendance (1992-94 edition, $10.95).

Dentistry
     American Association of Dental Schools
     1625 Massachusetts Avenue NW., Suite 502
     Washington, DC 20036
     Publications:
     Admission Requirements of U.S. and Canadian Dental Schools
($22).

Engineering
     American Association of Engineering Societies
     11 19th Street NW., Suite 608
     Washington, DC 20036
     Publications:
     Engineering and Technology Degrees (annual, $230)
     Engineering and Technology Enrollments (annual, $195).
     Both include data on enrollment and graduation by sex,
         minority group, and disability.

Law
     Law School Admission Council/Law School Admission Services
         (LSAC/LSAS)
     Box 40
     661 Penn Street
     Newtown, PA 18940
     Publications:
     The Official Guide to U.S. Law Schools: Prelaw Handbook,
         ($14). Send requests to P.O. Box 63, LSAC/LSAS Dept. 0-6.

     American Bar Association
     750 North Lake Shore Drive
     Chicago, IL 60611
     Publications:
     A Review of Legal Education in the United States_Fall 1991:
     Law School and Bar Admission Requirements (first copy free;
         additional copies, $2 each).

Medicine
     Association of American Medical Colleges
     Division of Communications
     2450 N Street NW.
     Washington, DC 20037-1126
     Publications:
     "Medicine: A Chance To Make a Difference" (free).

     Medical School Admission Requirements (annual, $7.50). Send
     requests Attn: Membership and Publication Orders.

Nursing
     American Association of colleges of Nursing
     1 Dupont Circle NW., Suite 530
     Washington, DC 20036-1120
     Publication:
     Peterson's Guide to Nursing Program, Baccalaureate and Graduate
     Nursing Education in the U.S. and Canada (available Spring 1994)

     The Economic Investment in Nursing Education ($3) Enrollment and
     Graduations in Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs in Nursing ($35,
     published annually)

Veterinary Medicine
     Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges
     1101 Vermont Avenue NW., Suite 710
     Washington, DC  20005-3521
     Publications:
     "Information Packet on Veterinary Schools."

Admission Tests
General
     GRE
     Graduate Record Examinations Board
     Educational Testing Service (ETS)
     CN 6004
     Princeton, NJ 08541-6004
     Publications:
     GRE Registration and Information Bulletin (free).
     Also provides the Graduate Student Locater Service and Minority
     Graduate Student Locater Service. These free computer services
     match prospective students with institutions by factors such as
     intended major, degree objective, geographic preference, and race
     or ethnic background. Further information on the service is
     provided in The Bulletin.

     Business and Management
     GMAT
     Graduate Management Admission Test
     Educational Testing Service (ETS)
     CN 6108
     Princeton, NJ 08541-6108
     Publications and other materials:
     "The GMAT Bulletin of Information" (free).

     The Official Guide for GMAT Review includes three complete tests,
     samples of each question type, test-taking strategies, and math
     review (1992-94 edition $11.95).

     The Official Software for GMAT Review, a computerized version of
     the above, includes interactive tutorials and one actual test
     different from the one in GMAT Review, (1992-94 edition, $59.95).

     Dentistry
     DAT
     Dental Admission Test
     Department of Testing Services
     American Dental Association
     211 East Chicago Avenue, Suite 1840
     Chicago, IL 60611-2678
     Publications:
     DAT Application and Preparation Materials (free).

     Law
     LSAT
     Law School Admission Test
     Law School Admission Council and Law School Admission

Services
     LSAC/LSAS
     P.O. Box 500-57
     Newtown, PA 18940
     Publications:
     Registration and Information Book (free) and The Official LSAT
     Triple Prep ($15).

     Medicine
     MCAT
     Association of American Medical Colleges
     Attn: Membership and Publication Orders
     Suite 200
     One Dupont Circle NW.
     Washington, DC 20036
     Publication:
     MCAT Student Manual ($7).

     Optometry
     OAT
     Optometry Admission Testing Program
     211 East Chicago Avenue, Suite 1840
     Chicago, IL 60611-2678
     Publication:
     OAT Application and Preparation Materials (free).

     Pharmacy
     PCAT
     Pharmacy College Admission Test
     Psychological Corporation
     555 Academic Court
     San Antonio, TX 78204

Commercial Publications

General

     Index of Majors and Graduate Degrees. New York, NY: The College
     Board, annual. 1992 edition covers 2,900 colleges, universities,
     and graduate schools, including 470 master's, 380 doctoral, and 10
     professional specialties.

     Graduate Programs and Admissions Manual. Princeton, NJ: Educational
     Testing Service, annual, multivolume.

     Peterson's Guides to Graduate Study. Princeton, NJ: Peterson's
     Guides, Inc., annual, multivolume. Greene, Howard and Minton,
     Robert.

     Beyond the Ivy Wall: 10 Essential Steps to Graduate School
     Admission. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1989.

Law

     Gillers, Stephen, ed. Looking at Law School: A Student
Guide from the Society of American Law Teachers (NY: NAL Books, 1984).
Munneke, Gary A., J.D. Barron's Guide to Law Schools, 9th ed. (New York:
Barron's Educational Series, Inc., 1990).

School Rankings

     The following magazines regularly publish rankings of graduate and
professional schools: Business Week Forbes U.S. News & World Report

Forums and Fairs

     Forums at which representatives from several schools are available
to answer questions about their institutions are sponsored by various
groups. Among them are the following.

Business and Management

     MBA Forums
     At each, representatives from 65 or more schools, including
faculty, admissions, and financial aid officers, present information.
Almost 200 schools participated in the 1991-92 forums, which were
attended by more than 12,000 potential applicants for graduate
management study. Held in eight American cities, London, Paris, and
Yokohama. (Cost: $5.) MBA Forums Graduate Management Admission Council
P.O. Box 6106 Princeton, NY  08541-6106

     Destination MBA
     A 3-hour program on the M.B.A. especially for prospective minority
students. Sponsored by the Black MBA Association, the National Society
of Hispanic MBA's, and the Graduate Management Admission Council.
Presented in 10 or so cities annually. (Free.) Destination MBA Graduate
Management Admission Council P.O. Box 6108 Princeton, NY  08541-6108

Law

Law School Forums

     Videos concerning legal education, law school admission procedures,
and the LSAT are shown. Law Services publications and LSAT preparation
materials are available for purchase and admission materials, and
catalogs are available from the schools. Representatives of laws school
attend each. Held annually in New York, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago,
Houston, and Los Angeles. (Free.) Sponsored by Law Services.

Occupational Outlook Quarterly
Winter 1993-94
Printer copy
date and time printed:
January 5, 1994  04:16 PM

Occupational Outlook Quarterly
Winter 1993-94
Printer copy
date and time printed:
January 5, 1994  04:16 PM