Best-Graduate-Schools

How does a prospective student make a choice among graduate schools? Here, five former students tell U.S. News why they chose to attend their particular schools. Why I Picked the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School  Lauren Cruz, 2015 graduate and marketing associate at Ethicon UNC Kenan-Flagler embraces diversity, collaboration and teamwork and offers excellent educational and experiential opportunities. In assessing MBA programs, I looked for these strengths as I didn't have a traditional undergrad business education. After college, I founded and operated a personal training studio and became enthralled with running my own enterprise. I felt Kenan-Flagler's program would build my leadership skills while surrounding me with the passionate and open-minded students and faculty I sought. My classwork was flanked by great opportunities: a Leadership Immersion course, study abroad in Barcelona and a bu...

These five pioneers are among the law schools overhauling programs to build in extensive hands-on practice.     Law school continues to be more of a buyer's market than in years past, as many programs invent new ways to reel in applicants who've been wary of the poor job outlook and steep tuitions. The legal education community is still trying to regain its footing after the Great Recession forced firms to radically tighten their belts, shutting out many new grads and sending applications into a spiral. Among the more unconventional curricular experiments law schools will keep an eye on are several new programs. The Mitchell Hamline School of Law – a merger of Minnesota's William Mitchell College of Law and Hamline University School of Law – will offer a first-of-its-kind hybrid curriculum, for example. Students will take online courses for 12 or 13 weeks a semester and visit the campus 10 times during the four-year program to participate in skills work...

The costs of studying to become a doctor can really add up.       ​If you dream of becoming a doctor, you already know that you’ll be spending a lot more time in school than most people. While four-year bachelor’s degrees are the ultimate goal for many college students, they’re just the first step on the road to a career in medicine. Your undergraduate education will be followed by an intensive four years in medical school. And after you earn your M.D. or D.O., you’ll spend three to five years in residency learning a specialty. It’s a long, difficult process, and costs can add up. While salaries for medical school graduates are among the highest for any profession, the median total debt for new doctors was $175,000 in 2013. Fortunately, there are scholarships for medical school students that can help you focus more on your studies and less on your tuition bills. [Get tips on choosing the right major for medical school.] As with...

Some prospective students may be eligible for a fee waiver that covers application fees, experts say.     There are two major financial costs most prospective medical students face in their quest to become a doctor. The first occurs when they're trying to become a competitive medical school applicant and spend thousands on MCAT preparation classes or a postbaccalaureate program. The second comes once they're enrolled in a school and billed for tuition, fees and sometimes health insurance. The total was as high as $82,251 for some students during the 2013-2014 school year, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. Between these two financial hurdles is another expense that applicants must also plan for: application fees. [Find out which medical school grads have the most debt.] "It is expensive to apply to medical school," says Thomas Levitan, vice president of research at the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Me...

Students who like to volunteer may join the Peace Corps to reduce medical student debt.         Becoming a doctor is an expensive career path. Among 2012 medical school graduates, 86 percent had debt. The median debt for indebted graduates was $170,000, according to a 2013 report from the Association of American Medical Colleges. “Debt levels for indebted medical school graduates and medical school cost of attendance have both increased faster than inflation over the last 20 years,” the report states. For prospective students who want an M.D. but don't want the student loans that often come with it, there's hope. There are a number of ways to offset the cost of medical education during and after school. 1. Plan to specialize in primary care: To lure prospective medical students into primary care – an area of medicine that often comes with long hours and a less-competitive salary – a number of schools offer schol...

Costly MBA Programs for Out-of-State Students Students who aren't local paid almost $50,000 a year or more to attend these schools. At UVA's Darden School of Business, out-of-state MBA candidates paid $59,268 in tuition and fees for the 2014-2015 year. The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College , The Short List: Grad School and The Short List: Online Programs to find data that matters to you in your college or grad school search. A state school is usually the go-to institution for students who want to cut education costs. Students who attend a public school in a state that's not theirs, however, often pay a steep price. Aspiring MBAs from outside the...

Consider career goals and academic concentration, not just rank, when creating your b-school short list. Think about the company or industry you want to work in, and find out whether they recruit at your target business schools. People typically pursue an MBA because they are looking to improve their career opportunities and increase their future income. What some applicants don't consider is that you can achieve both of those objectives even if you don't make it into the business programs at Harvard, Wharton or Stanford. While rankings are a valuable piece of the puzzle when you're narrowing down your school list, don't get hung up on the top few programs. It's more important to be pragmatic and align your expectations with the MBA programs that match your particular profile, particularly if your GMAT score isn't through the roof or your career trajectory has stalled out. MBA programs update their career or recruiting reports annually and post t...

The online bachelor’s degree in psychology from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College is offered in a 16-week format with the possibility of part-time study. The 125 credit hours required for the baccalaureate include 35 credit hours in courses for the major. Students can choose from electives in subjects such as counseling, stress management, addiction and mental health, with the option of an internship or a research practicum. Also available online from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College is a bachelor’s degree in criminology with a concentration in psychology. This major consists of 24 credit hours of core courses with 12 credit hours in the area of emphasis.  

Top Online Psychology Degrees Trinity International University   An online bachelor’s degree completion program in psychology is available from Trinity International University. Courses targetsubjects such as social sciences research, human development, learning, psychotherapy and personality theories. In addition, students can choose a concentration in counseling. This web-based degree includes a Christian-themed curriculum totaling at least 124 credit hours with 47-62 credit hours of general education courses. Students interested in entering the online program must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.0 and at least 36 transferable credit hours completed at the college or university level.  

Tips to Maximize Your MBA Application Feedback Session online MBA 2016 These brief sessions with schools can provide valuable insight into why you were rejected. These meetings can be another way to build your relationship with a school and help you improve your application for next cycle. ​ All MBA hopefuls fear getting denied, but if there's any silver lining to rejection, it's that many business schools now offer feedback sessions to help unsuccessful candidates figure out where they might have gone wrong. This availability of application feedback confirms that the schools really do welcome and encourage re-applicants, who often find success the second time around. In fact, in the past, the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School has shared with us anecdotally​ that applicants who reapplied often have a slight edge in the applicant pool. [Discover how to cope with business school rejections.] Find out the policy of your school of choice and get in touch ...

4 Questions to Ask About Online Dual MBA Degree Programs online Degree 2016 Students should determine whether a dual degree is the right fit for their career goals, experts say. Online learners should assess the application process and course sequence when choosing a dual MBA degree program. . Students considering an online dual MBA program should assess ​whether doing so is the right choice for their career path and then determine which program is best suited to meet their needs. In the process of researching ​online or in conversations with school officials, they should find the answers ​to the​ following questions. 1. What are your career goals, and do you see yourself in a management position? Experts say those who pursue a dual MBA online ​degree should be looking to both enhance their knowledge in a particular field and grow their career, especially toward a management role. "To do the extra four classes, or 12 credit hours, that are required for the dual d...

Consider a Second MBA Degree business school 2016 Applicants who received an MBA abroad can use a second MBA to strengthen job prospects. Prospective students who already have an MBA should be able to explain why they need a second degree to recruiters. The idea of pursuing a second MBA degree may sound strange, but it happens with a small number of applicants during every admissions season and can make sense under the right, very specific, circumstances. Some applicants consider a second degree after earning an MBA from a for-profit university or an unaccredited program. They may find they have hit a ceiling with their employment prospects as they vie for positions against candidates from better-known schools. More often, people who seek a second degree are international candidates who have discovered that their professional dreams cannot be fulfilled with their current degree alone. [Use these three tips as an international applicant for U.S. MBA programs. ] In India, ...

Avoid 4 Mistakes Wait-Listed MBA Applicants Make school 2016 Trying to network your way into a school won't work, says one admissions expert. . [Decide if you want to remain on the waitlist. ] • Refusing to listen to sound advice: Some applicants will call the schools that have wait-listed them to say they'll do whatever it takes to be admitted – but they don't really mean it, says Treavor Peterson, managing director of MBA programs at Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management . Certain schools, such as Marriott, tell wait-listed applicants why they've been wait-listed and what they can do to increase their chances of admittance, says Peterson​. Applicants don't always agree with the school's feedback,​ though. "They don't want to follow the direction we gave them," he says. In other cases, applicants will take it upon themselves to update schools with information they think will improve their candidacy, regardle...

Avoid These 10 Pitfalls in MBA Application Essays online 2016 Don't ignore the business school's essay prompt. Do not lie, exaggerate, apologize or make excuses in your business school application essays. By Stacy Blackman Jan. 29, 2016, at 9:00 a.m. + More The essay component of the MBA application is a chance to really wow the admissions committee and stand out from potentially thousands of other candidates with similar GMAT scores or GPAs. There are many ways to craft a stellar essay that will give the reader a better sense of who you are, but there are also several mistakes to avoid as you're answering these required prompts. Make sure you sidestep the following pitfalls at all costs. 1. Neglecting to answer the question: Applicants often become so determined to drive home a particular point, or worse, drift off into a tangent, that they fail to succinctly answer the question. Don't answer with "what" when the question asks "h...

3 Questions to Ask About online Business School Financial Aid 2016 Applicants who are offered scholarships should find out if they can be renewed, says one expert. 1. What does the total cost of attendance include? When it comes to paying for school, applicants can't just think about tuition, says Liz Riley Hargrove, associate dean for admissions for the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. The school usually has about 430 students in each of its incoming full-time MBA classes and between 3,000 and 3,500 applicants. Students most also front the money for a number of fees, she says. "There's a student government association fee. There's a pre-term fee that most schools will include for either your technology or things that you have access to in the facility. You have to think about your books and course packs, as well as student medical insurance," says Hargrove. Accepted students can also ask if the total cost will include room and board and...

Research Internship Data as an MBA Applicant A school's job and internship reports can reveal which industries are a big draw for students. [Prepare for an MBA internship.] "When I came and I visited, the people at the career development office here were just really awesome. They really had their stuff together. And they also just were really personable," says Schick, who graduates this year. As an MBA student, he interned at the consulting firm Bain & Company, where he learned about strategically analyzing problems, working with clients and other skills. Internships are critical for getting your foot in the door in some industries, says Sue Kline, co-senior director of the career development office at Sloan. "If you're someone who's interested in investment banking, it becomes important to have an internship because that is the way into the full-time opportunity. Or in some cases, leadership development programs," she says. The ...