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Should I Use Published Doctoral Program Reviews?
It is very important to note that NOT ALL REVIEWS ARE EQUAL. Common yearly rankings of programs may not provide an accurate perception of program accomplishment. Before relying heavily on rankings, you are encouraged to look at the method in used to rank schools. See what criteria are used in determining ranking (e.g., reputation, research publications, journal editing roles, student perceptions, graduation ratio) as well as whether they use a weighting system to put more emphasis on particular criteria. You should evaluate these ranking systems... are the criteria used in determining the ranks important to you? Do you agree with the weighting system (do you believe the heaviest weighted criteria are most important)? How do they determine the rankings? In addition, many published program rankings provide one list in which the most reputable schools are on top. How do they come up with these numbers? Typically they measure several different criteria to determine rank and then average or sum the scores on these criteria to come up with one ranking score. Realize that if the program review ranks programs based on only one score --then your knowledge of each program’s individual ranks on individual criteria will be lost. This means (1) you lose school-specific information on each criterion (e.g., you cannot compare schools on research publications, just on overall ranking score), (2) a range of scores on individual criteria can equate to the same ranking score, and (3) your perceptions of the schools are based upon someone else's criteria and weighting system. For example, a magazine ranks all developmental doctoral programs on 5 criteria. Each criterion is ranked on a scale of 1 to 10 (note this is a very simplified version of rankings and is for descriptive purposes): a) Reputation (based on faculty and administration member ratings): 9 (average rating) b) Yearly research publications: 5 (sum across all faculty members in dept for the previous year) c) Faculty on journal editorial boards: 4 (sum across all faculty members in dept for the previous year) d) Student placement in assistant professor positions: 8 (sum from previous year's graduate students) e) Faculty holding additional positions in professional organizations: 3 (sum across faculty members in dept for the previous year) The average score for this imaginary ranking would be 5.8. Note that you could change the order of these numbers or even change the numbers themselves and yield the same score. Also, examine how these rankings were established. How would you measure a school's reputation? Would you value one particular criterion over the another? As you can see, using average scores for overall rankings will lose very important information. 2. In addition to these rankings, some authors of published rankings will place more emphasis on certain criteria by mathematically weighting criteria. This means that the publication decides the importance of the criteria for you. For example, U.S. News and World Report weight academic reputation (25%) strongest out of all other criteria. While reputation is important, “it is of interest to know the extent to which reputations match the current accomplishments of the faculty.” Further, many times the data published may be based on previous year’s rankings" (Byrnes & McNamara, 2001). 4. As you can see, it would be more beneficial for you to see individual ranks on criteria than accepting a general ranking system. Very few publications offer comprehensive reviews of developmental programs ranked on several different criteria. If your ultimate goal is to gain acceptance into a doctoral program in developmental sciences, we encourage you to compare methods of ranking.
A Doctoral Program Review to Consider... An example of an independent, criteria-specified review of Developmental doctoral programs is by Byrnes and McNamara (2001) in Developmental Review. This review provides a ranking of programs based on four criteria of excellence that are indicative of program accomplishment: faculty productivity, grants received by faculty, editorial responsibilities of faculty, and placement of graduates. This review does not provide composite ranking scores, but shows individual rankings on each of the criteria. Instead of ranking programs by a composite score across all criteria, they examined which programs were at the top of all criteria (this alleviates averaging effects associated with composite scores). We HIGHLY recommend anyone take a look at this review when considering graduate studies in Developmental Science. This would be a great basis to start from, especially when considering published rankings. Because this review was published in 2001, it is possible that the top schools are different. Faculty changes, student changes, and programs changes may affect these rankings. It is important to examine each program that interests you carefully to be sure that the program meets your current needs. Remember, the 'best ranked program' in the world may not be the best program for you. Do your homework, apply to a variety of schools, and you are likely to have success.
Good luck!!
References Byrnes, J. P. & McNamara, C. C. (2001). Evaluating doctoral programs in the developmental sciences. Developmental Review, 21, 326-354.
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