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Student Guide - How to Evaluate a Program
Graduate programs
spend considerable time evaluating their applicants, and you
should be equally serious in evaluating the programs. After
all, selecting a graduate program is one of the most important
decisions you will ever make. Here are some issues that you
need to address before you make your decision:
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What can the
program offer you for the entire duration of your graduate
career? You may think you know exactly what you want to
pursue, but you could change your mind. The program should
be broad enough to offer a reasonable spectrum of research
training. If you are not wedded to any one area of
neuroscience, then this issue is even more important. Look
over the research interests of the program faculty and
identify those individuals with whom you might want to
work. Contact them to learn about current research
projects. Ask them to send reprints of some of their
research and see if this is the type of work you want to
pursue.
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What type of
financial support does the program offer? Are fellowships
available or will you be required to work as a teaching
assistant? If the latter, how much work is involved? Is
financial support available beyond your first year? Is
such support available for the duration of your graduate
career?
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How good is
the program? Some important considerations include: the
number of faculty members with external funding, the
number of research papers published during the last two or
three years, and the types of journals in which these
papers appear. It also is useful to know how graduates of
the program have fared in the field. What types of
positions do they now hold? How successful are they in
their own research? Have recent graduates been placed in
their top choice of postdoctoral positions? You can apply
these same types of questions in evaluating potential
research advisors.
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