How to Understand the Ratings
How to Understand the RatingsRankings will be reported in ranges and will show the 5th and 95th percentile values.
Each program will receive a range of rankings for 5 types of illustrative rankings:
Two Overall Rankings
According to measures based on faculty input on a field by field basis:
- direct ranking (S)
- regression-derived ranking (R)
Based on 20 variables:
- Data provided by institutions
- Enrollment in 2006
- Numbers of faculty in 2006
- Female faculty
- International students
- U-MR faculty
- International students
- Number of Ph.D.s in 2003-2006
- % of a cohort completing in 6 years and in 8 years
- Median time to degree
- Student funding
- Total enrollment
- Female enrollment
- URM enrollment
- GRE score (if required)
- Student “treatment” variables
- Data obtained by NRC
- Faculty grants
- Faculty honors and awards
- Faculty publications
- Faculty citations (except for Humanities fields)
- Student placement
Three Dimensional Rankings
- Student Treatment and Outcomes
- Number of Ph.D.s
- Percent receiving financial support in first year
- Median time to degree
- Percent of entering cohort(s) completing within six years (eight for the humanities)
- Percent of graduates with definite employment or postdoc plans (from NSF)
- Diversity of the Academic Environment
- Faculty:
- Gender diversity
- Racial/ethnic diversity
- Students
- Gender diversity
- Racial/ethnic diversity
- International diversity
- Faculty:
- Research activity of Program Faculty
- Publications per faculty member going back to 1981
- Citations per publication (except for humanities fields) in 2005-6 with pubs going back to 1981
- Percent of faculty with grants (from NRC faculty questionnaire)
- Honors and awards per faculty member (from honorary and scholarly societies)
Visit the National Academies website for current information on the methodology for the NRC study. A revised report is expected September 20.
Questions to Guide Your Interpretation of the Ratings
- Each program has its own weights. Do these put you at an advantage or disadvantage?
- Look at variables with largest coefficients. These have the largest effect on the range of ratings.
- Compare your variable values with programs in other institutions.
- Are there areas of strength in the ratings (e.g., program is strong in student completion rates)?
- Have there been changes in your program since 2005-2006 (e.g., new faculty, revisions to graduate program)? Have you already identified changes to be made?
- Are there other demonstrations of program strength (assessments by professional organizations, recent faculty honors and awards) that may support or modify the NRC assessment?
- Does your program have a unique focus or strengths that should be featured in a discussion of program quality?
- Remember that ratings are one measure of quality among many and cannot account for the full range of strengths and approaches in graduate education.