Geography

[Sonny]

Thank you very much that anonymom. I now have a list of some sort to guide me (rather than the "think of a state, add the word 'university', add the word 'geography' and type it into Google" approach!!). I wonder how they arrived at those rankings... I know it's a few years ago, but my (uninformed) impression was that places like Maryland and particularly Georgia and UNC (and Kentucky for that matter) would have ranked a little higher. Who knows though... I wonder if there's much correlation between ranking and competition for admission. I guess probably not, but what do I know? Just looking at the websites, Indiana and Kansas seem pretty good in terms of covering a range of my (potential) areas of interest. They can be added to my tentative list of possibilities as I wait to see to what extent I have to revise my aims/expectations downwards! At least in amongst everything else I have sufficient time to spend "crafting" those aspects of my applications (personal statements) that I have control over and may have some influence -- and I will now have a list to work through, c. June 24, for inspiration. So thank you for the help!

Congratulations to your son! It must be pretty exciting coming to geography "fresh", as it were. What's his background? At least (human) geography is not about learning, memorizing and regurgitating a fixed body of facts (although exam time feels different). So, in that sense nobody (geography major or not) can (claim to) have mastered "Geography". Because individuals' prior exposure to specific narrow themes/approaches ranges so widely (I mean, geography is virtually unrecognizable as the same subject between departments), everybody is in the same boat to some extent.

Britt, I'm glad to hear you're making yourself at home, staking your claim on the most desirable desk (alliteration, you see). So I take it you've already finished your degree (and/or graduated)? Here, there are still finals going on next week, and Judgment/results day comes the following week... This is going to be one much needed summer break... followed by autumn... winter... then hopefully I'll be "good to go" (as they say).

Since we are on the topic of rankings. I found this site that enables an inquirer to assign weights to the variables set by the NRC. You can actually get a customized ranking. However, this does not take into account unquantifiable variables and the quality of your research interest. Hope this helps:

http://www.phds.org/rankings/geography/

The variables used by NRC are the following:

1. Ed Eff Program effectiveness in educating research scholars and scientists, 1993. Scale of 0 to 5, with 0 denoting "Not Effective" and 5 denoting "Extremely Effective". Your weight: 5. Larger values are better. Source: National Survey of Graduate Faculty

2. Years for PhD Median time lapse from entering graduate school to receipt of Ph.D. in years. Be sure to read this caveat about how these values were calculated. Your weight: -3. Smaller values are better. Source: Doctorate Records File

3. Fac Qual Scholarly quality of program faculty, 1993. Scale of 0 to 5, with 0 denoting "not sufficient for doctoral education" and 5 denoting "Distinguished". Your weight: 5. Larger values are better. Source: National Survey of Graduate Faculty

4. Cite / Fac The ratio of the total number of program citations in the period 1988-1992 to the number of program faculty. Your weight: 3. Larger values are better. Source: Institute for Scientific Information

5. # Stu The number of full and part time graduate students enrolled in the Fall of 1992. Not used in rankings. Source: Institutional Coordinator Response Data

6. % Fac Supp Percentage of program faculty with research support. Your weight: 3. Larger values are better. Source: Federal Agencies

7. % RA The percentage of Ph.D.s supported by research assistantships (as a percentage of Ph.D.s who reported their primary form of support). Not used in rankings. Source: Doctorate Records File

8. % TA The percentage of Ph.D.s supported by teaching assistantships (as a percentage of Ph.D.s who reported their primary form of support). Not used in rankings. Source: Doctorate Records File

9. % Fem PhDs The percentage of Ph.D.s awarded to women during the period July 1986-June 1992. Not used in rankings. Source: Doctorate Records File

10. % Min PhDs The percentage of Ph.D.s known to be awarded to underrepresented minorities (only U.S.Citizens or Permanent Residents) during the period July 1986-June 1992. Not used in rankings. Source: Doctorate Records File

11. % US PhDs The percentage of Ph.D.s known to be awarded to U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents during the period July 1986-June 1992. Not used in rankings. Source: Doctorate Records File

[Sonny]

The official rank:

Anyone may email me and ask for a copy of the excel file with the scores for every variable.

Pennsylvania State University 4.59

University of Wisconsin-Madison 4.40

University of Minnesota 4.22

Univ of California-Santa Barbara 4.16

Ohio State University 4.07

University of California-Berkeley 3.99

Syracuse University 3.99

Univ of California-Los Angeles 3.95

Clark University 3.82

University of Washington 3.66

State Univ of New York-Buffalo 3.63

University of Colorado 3.57

Rutgers State Univ-New Brunswick 3.39

University of Texas at Austin 3.38

Arizona State University 3.35

U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 3.30

University of Iowa 3.23

Louisiana State U & A&M College 3.19

University of Arizona 3.17

University of Kentucky 3.10

University of Georgia 3.02

U of North Carolina-Chapel Hill 2.89

Johns Hopkins University 2.87

Indiana University 2.77

University of Kansas 2.69

Boston University 2.67

University of Oregon 2.61

University of Maryland College Park 2.40

University of Hawaii at Manoa 2.36

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee 2.35

University of Nebraska-Lincoln 2.32

Oregon State University 2.03

University of Utah 1.96

Kent State University 1.95

University of Cincinnati 1.39

I guess we can make a revised list that emphasizes the strength(specialization) of each department in the list (e.g. UC Santa Barbara - spatial perception, physical geography).

Hope this helps.

[rising_star]

Hi all, sorry for my absence and for taking so long to delete those spam postings. They're gone now, btw.

UGA is great. As far as rankings, new ones should be coming out soon. I don't know if AAG ranks programs or not.

I've been doing some fascinating summer reading. (I'm in love with Derek Gregory now!).

Bye for now!

P.S. Sonny, I'm a female.

[larry83]

I just wanted to thank you guys for the help and let you know where I applied.

purpose statement: not very good

letters of rec: good

GRE: V:490 Q:710 AW: 4.5

3.3 overall gpa (if you dont count my freshman year(my fun year), it is around 3.6-3.7)

sociology major from a large but not great state university in the Southeast

applied to masters programs at:

SUNY Buffalo

SUNY Binghamton

University of Washington

University of Florida

University of Georgia

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

University of Kentucky

Not too sure of my chances at any of these schools, but I guess we'll see.

[Sonny]

Britt,

Hi there. Glad you are doing well there at UGA. Good luck and hopefully, we all here will have the chance to see each other in an AAG conference.

I think there will be a new set of rankings in the next couple of years. Geography is just too broad of a discipline to be ranked given the variables that NRC uses.

-Sonny

Hi all, sorry for my absence and for taking so long to delete those spam postings. They're gone now, btw.

UGA is great. As far as rankings, new ones should be coming out soon. I don't know if AAG ranks programs or not.

I've been doing some fascinating summer reading. (I'm in love with Derek Gregory now!).

Bye for now!

P.S. Sonny, I'm a female.

[Sonny]

Kevin,

Good luck to you! Why did you say that your purpose statement is not good? What is your specialization? Did you contact a professor who would wanna advise you?

-Sonny

PS: Is it true that there are issues surrounding GRE particularly with regard to its validity if taken in specific countries?

I just wanted to thank you guys for the help and let you know where I applied.

purpose statement: not very good

letters of rec: good

GRE: V:490 Q:710 AW: dont know yet

3.3 overall gpa (if you dont count my freshman year(my fun year), it is around 3.6-3.7)

sociology major from a large but not great state university in the Southeast

applied to masters programs at:

SUNY Buffalo

SUNY Binghamton

University of Washington

University of Florida

University of Georgia

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

University of Kentucky

Not too sure of my chances at any of these schools, but I guess we'll see.

[larry83]

Well looking back I realize that I should have made my purpose statement more focused. My specialization is economic geography (specifically location analysis and/or international trade). I mentioned a professor or two in my purpose statement for each school that I would like to work with, but I haven't contacted them yet.

I doubt schools will take the GRE very seriously if english is not your native language. I found the verbal to be difficult, so I dont see how they would expect a foreign student to do well on it.

[sad1584]

Anyone going to AAG?

[rising_star]

I'm going to AAG. I think. I don't have plane tickets or a hotel yet...

[sad1584]

I'm going too. I already got my ticket and reserved my hotel room. I heard if you go through United, you get a discount. I got my ticket through them(a multi-city ticket for I am going to visit some family) and I got a really good deal on it.

[Sonny]

Hey, I am going too! Any plans of meeting up? It has been quite a while eh. Any newbies?

[rising_star]

Haven't seen much from newbies yet. the who_got_in community on livejournal is pretty quiet too this year. but that doesn't lead me to believe applications are down. I think UGA got the same or more than last year.

P.S. Am I the only one excited for prospective grad students to start visiting?

[sad1584]

I'm for meeting up! I'll be there from Wednesday to Friday. I'll be presenting on Friday around 2:15...the session is called New Perspectives on Space and Place.

Anybody else presenting?

[rising_star]

Well if nothing else, I'll be at the Georgia party (Thursday, April 19, 2007, 8:30-11:30pm, Nikko Hotel, Room: Monterey II)

[Sonny]

Greetings to everyone! WoW! I am sad that it seems some porn spammers have infiltrated this great forum. Geography grad students should have a venue to discuss and share insights and thoughts about grad life as a Geography student. Oh well.

Brittdreams...too bad I didnt get to see you at the AAG. I presented a paper on population deconcentration.

Sadly, I will be transferring from Indiana University-Bloomington to University of Washington-Seattle for my Ph.D. I specialize in population geography particularly internal migration and urbanization issues and the population expert at Indiana retired whereas Washington has 3-4 migration experts and has an amazing demography center. I am excited about my move and I am sure I made the right decision to move to UW! Unfortunately, I will start all over again at UW but I guess it wil be for my own good.

Hope to hear from other geog-addicts out there.

[rising_star]

Hey Sonny, I hope things work out better for you at UW than they did at IU. I thought about applying there (and was maybe considering it for PhD work) but I heard some scary stories from a current graduate student about funding and competitiveness between students. When you get there, let me know what it's like, ok? And good luck!