- Joined
- Sep 18, 2008
- Messages
- 1,941
- MBTI Type
- INTJ
- Enneagram
- 512
- Instinctual Variant
- sp/so
Hello. Let me start off with some self-disclosure. As a current graduate student with rapidly-declining interest in academia, I couldn't help but notice that a disproportionate number of people on this forum are considering graduate school and academia/research as a legitimate career choice. The aim that I had with compiling this post with these links is to enable others to make a well-informed decision with regards to graduate school and college teaching. Also, to share a resource on higher education that I wish I had when deciding my future path.
I basically collated all of the useful (and free because I'm not paying subscription fees) data links from this site. I'm not based in the US but still found it interesting and thought-provoking.
Firstly, if you're looking to choose a graduate school with a specific program, this is pretty helpful. It provides several parameters in ranking various specific PhD programs at different universities.
The cost that you'll have to pay per year in tuition and student aid available, broken down as an interactive graphic, with trends across the last 10 years so that you'll know if the university's planning to slap extra tuition on you.
If you're interested in the median faculty wages (assuming that you can make tenure track) across different fields, this table breaks it all down. For the amount of education that you're getting, it might be better to do/teach law so you can get your money back.
If you're intending to choose a specific location to look for a faculty job, this reports the median wage across several regions of the US. At the same time, this graphic illustrates which states cut funding for higher education and this graphic shows the states where unis will be under stress when the stimulus package runs out in '11. On a more positive note, this interactive graphic shows the result of a survey of faculty staff indicating which colleges were AWSM (or less bad) to work at. This list compiled pretty much lists the best colleges for people seeking tenure/postdoc-ing.
My favourite blog series is the Academic Bait-and-Switch, which rather accurately satirises the politics and ridiculous university characters whom I've come across in my academic life. The column by The Shadow Scholar and the !outraged! response it generated also amuses, and provides an interesting perspective on plagiarists and academia alike. More than anything, the comments (trolls or not) provide for hours of entertainment.
The site itself provides higher education blogs and resources that are probably the best-categorised and organised that I've seen on the web. I've been hooked since I discovered it yesterday; there's a mine of gold there.
I basically collated all of the useful (and free because I'm not paying subscription fees) data links from this site. I'm not based in the US but still found it interesting and thought-provoking.
Firstly, if you're looking to choose a graduate school with a specific program, this is pretty helpful. It provides several parameters in ranking various specific PhD programs at different universities.
The cost that you'll have to pay per year in tuition and student aid available, broken down as an interactive graphic, with trends across the last 10 years so that you'll know if the university's planning to slap extra tuition on you.
If you're interested in the median faculty wages (assuming that you can make tenure track) across different fields, this table breaks it all down. For the amount of education that you're getting, it might be better to do/teach law so you can get your money back.
If you're intending to choose a specific location to look for a faculty job, this reports the median wage across several regions of the US. At the same time, this graphic illustrates which states cut funding for higher education and this graphic shows the states where unis will be under stress when the stimulus package runs out in '11. On a more positive note, this interactive graphic shows the result of a survey of faculty staff indicating which colleges were AWSM (or less bad) to work at. This list compiled pretty much lists the best colleges for people seeking tenure/postdoc-ing.
My favourite blog series is the Academic Bait-and-Switch, which rather accurately satirises the politics and ridiculous university characters whom I've come across in my academic life. The column by The Shadow Scholar and the !outraged! response it generated also amuses, and provides an interesting perspective on plagiarists and academia alike. More than anything, the comments (trolls or not) provide for hours of entertainment.
The site itself provides higher education blogs and resources that are probably the best-categorised and organised that I've seen on the web. I've been hooked since I discovered it yesterday; there's a mine of gold there.