The Perfect “Fit and Match”

When composing a list of potential graduate schools, it is important to consider a “Fit and Match” between you and the program. “Fit and Match” is a term used to describe how well suited you are for the program of interest, and vice versa. Before applying to graduate programs, you should take some time to assess whether or not your intellectual interests align with the faculty mentor with whom you would like to work. Visit Web sites that include faculty profiles describing their research interests and published works. This will help you better assess fit and match. There are other things you should ask yourself to evaluate fit and match. For example, is the faculty member supportive and accessible, or arbitrary and harsh? Do this mentor's advisees finish their programs of study in a timely manner? Does this faculty member have funding to support her graduate students? Does this faculty member allow students to publish? What are the research interests of other faculty in the department?

 

There are several ways to get these questions answered and begin your list of graduate schools. Take some time and do some research using the following on-line guides: Google Scholar, EBSCO Host Research Databases, US News and World Report, and Gradschool.com.

 

Google Scholar

Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations. Google Scholar helps you identify the most relevant research across the world of scholarly research. Begin your search by entering keywords that highlight your research interests. For example, if you are interested in researching how the family context relates to positive youth development, you could enter the following keywords into Google Scholar: “family influence and youth development,” positive youth development,” “family and development.” When you find an article that sparks your interest, takes some time to review the literature and research the faculty who have published the work.

 

 

 

EBSCO Host: Research Databases

EBSCO Host is another source that allows you to search for scholarly literature across many disciplines. You can begin your search by, once again, searching keywords associated with your line of research and reading articles that may relate to what you can potentially study in your graduate program. Background research, although a bit time consuming, is an effective way to learn about the current research associated to your research interests and to find faculty with whom you could potentially work.

 

 

US News and World Report , America 's Best Graduate Schools

Compiling a list of top-ranked schools is another method to use when researching potential graduate school programs. If you have decided which discipline to pursue for graduate study, it may be beneficial to research which programs are highly ranked in that discipline. This can give you a starter list on which graduate programs to research and what faculty is currently present at these institutions. Although ranking is an important factor to consider when choosing a graduate program, do not forget to assess the “fit and match” component when creating your list of programs.

 

 

Gradschools.com

GradSchools.com is the leading online resource for graduate school information with over 58,000 programs listed on their Web site. The site contains a unique and comprehensive directory categorized by curriculum and subdivided by geography. You simply select your desired curriculum to receive thorough information about those particular graduate programs. This site enables you to search for potential programs based on disciplines and geography.