Category — Grad School Programs

One PR Expert is searching for courses or programs in schools that focus on Social Media. Social Media is growing so fast I wonder if its even logical to have a course like this once it is created it will be so outdated it will be ineffective to teach. Much like many HTML classes of old.

If you are like me, you may want to go to grad school, but live in a place where your local colleges do no offer a program that has to do with your field. I have recently been looking at online programs that would minimize both cost and not interupt my work schedule. I found Distance Grad Schools to be quite helpful. You can choose the subject you are looking to work in, and the site lists prospective schools you could apply for.

Imgaine it–studying in Paris, Costa Rica, Geneva or Hong Kong. The thought of getting an MBA overseas is exhilarating, scary, adventurous, and possibly a smart career decision depending on what your intended area of business is.

If you’re interested in doing business internationally or just getting some diversified cultural experience, getting your MBA in a foreign land may be exactly the right thing to do.

Erin O’Conner has an excellent article at Jungle that covers the whole shebang about international MBAs, so you’ll want to check out.

As business becomes more and more global, so does business education. Graduate education in business administration was once a primarily American and Western European phenomenon, but programs are now springing up all over the world. And as more top U.S. schools open international campuses and partner with international firms, foreign business schools are responding to the competition by improving the quality and breadth of their programs. Today you can get an MBA just about anywhere…

Studying Abroad: Getting an MBA Overseas

Photo Eiffel Tower

University of Pennsylvania PhD students will be receiving a 6.7% stipend increase for 9 month fellowships, and a 14.7% increase for 10 month fellowships. Students are hoping that they will be able to finally cover the cost expenses outside of their tuition. The previous stipends were the lowest out of all of the other Ivy League schools, but is now competitive.

Source: The Daily Pennsylvanian

I know what you’re thinking–I need a master’s degree to become a librarian? Yes, you certainly do. I’ve checked this out because I have a book fetish and harbor a secret crush on many a librarian.

Upon investigating though, I found that it is not really as easy as I thought it would be. Librarians of today have more going through their pretty heads than the Dewey Decimal system. If you want to become a librarian, you need a master’s degree, and the competition is fierce!

For Library Studies programs, you can specialize in any of these areas:

• Archives and Preservation
• Digital Librarianship
• Health Librarianship
• Information Systems
• Law Librarianship
• School Library Media
• Services for Children and Youth

Your top ranking graduate schools for Library Studies in 2008 are: University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, and Syracuse University (NY)

To find the top ranked graduate schools for your specialty, check out the other Library Studies Graduate School rankings.

Photo librarian

US News & World Report has announced the 2008 top ranking graduate school programs for Business. Let’s take a gander through the top 10, and let’s see if there are any surprises:

1. Harvard University (MA)
2. Stanford University (CA)
3. University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)
5. Northwestern University (Kellogg) (IL)
5. University of Chicago
7. Dartmouth College (Tuck) (NH)
8. University of California–Berkeley (Haas)
9. Columbia University (NY)
10. New York University (Stern)

To find the top ranked graduate schools for your specialty, check out the other Business School rankings.

There’s a great article at the Daily Princetonian that you’ll want to check out if you’re considering going to graduate school. Princeton professor Anthony Grafton gives some great insight into what graduate school is like and the present challenges facing those on a quest for a higher education:

If you love editing friends’ chapters and arguing about their ideas, if you find that being immured in a carrel for long days and nights with several hundred books is oddly exciting, then you have good reason to think about making another, longer dive into the scholarly deep. But don’t jump before you find out exactly what lies below.

–Anybody Thinking of Graduate School?

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to take classes at top notch universities such as MIT, Tufts, or Johns Hopkins? Well wonder no more–now you can, for free! Here’s the deal:

MIT has a program called OpenCourseWare where educators, students and self-learners from around the world have the opportunity to take classes at MIT for free!

Of course this is completely virtual–you take the classes from your home at your own convenience. You get all the class notes, quizzes, exams, discussion groups and some audio/video of the lectures for over 1400 classes they offer–at no cost. Classes are available on the graduate and undergraduate levels.

Some of the departments I’m looking at are Anthropology, Foreign Languages & Literature, and History. It’s MIT, so they also have the science/techie departments. Under each department there are tons of classes to choose from, all at different levels.

Since it’s free, you don’t get any direct teacher interaction, and there are no grades. You also don’t get credits for taking these courses, but this could be a great way of exploring other fields of interest before or after you start graduate school.

There are 3 other universities in the US that are also offering OpenCourseWare:

Johns Hopkins University School Of Public Health
Tufts University
Utah State University

When you think about graduate school, the first thing that comes to mind is the studying, cost, and how you are using it to put off living in the real world (just kidding!). We sometimes forget the the professor, who teaches us during the day, but actually has a real life the rest of the time. Professors and grad students work a little more closely together because sometimes grad students are heavily involved in their departments. Check out the blog The Gentlemen’s C. This (anonymous) prof offers a hilarious look into politics in academia, dealing with students, and teaching classes. A perfect site to procrastinate with!

According to US News & World Report, the 2008 top ranking graduate school programs for Fine arts are:

Rhode Island School of Design
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Yale University

If you have a speciality such as ceramics, sculpture, graphic design, industrial design, painting/drawing, photography, printmaking or multimedia communications, there are a whole slew of schools that stand out from the crowd.

To find the top ranked graduate schools for your specialty, check out the other Fine Arts Graduate School rankings.