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Ranking of Plant Sciences Graduate Schools

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The rankings below have been generated using the priorities you set. You can change your priorities or get rankings for a different field.

About the rankings »

The box plots in the "Rank" column show the uncertainty in each program's ranking. Learn more.
Hover over table headers to see more details.
Data sources and weights for each item are listed at the bottom of the page.
Better values are shown in green. Worse values are shown in red.
Learn more about the ranking algorithm.

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Your Ranking of Plant Sciences PhD Programs

Programs 1–30

Rank	Program	Regres Quality	Survey Quality	Student Outcomes	Jobs at Grad	Diversity	Minority Students	Minority Faculty
1-8	University of California-Berkeley Plant Biology	1-7	1-6	26-80	70%	8-23	12%	0%
1-10	Purdue University-Main Campus Horticulture	5-29	5-27	29-79	78%	9-24	22%	5%
1-14	Cornell University Plant Breeding	4-23	1-11	21-67	71%	13-32	14%	0%
1-15	Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus Plant Biology	1-13	1-4	19-76	55%	30-60	5%	0%
1-14	University of Nebraska-Lincoln Plant Systems Biology	29-71	13-61	7-72	78%	1-4	33%	6%
1-14	Washington University in St Louis Plant Biology	5-27	2-12	5-61	NA	51-84	0%	8%
2-22	Washington State University Molecular Plant Sciences	4-25	1-10	6-68	71%	53-85	0%	0%
3-22	University of California-Davis Plant Biology	1-4	5-30	78-103	70%	42-72	2%	7%
4-24	The University of Texas at Austin Plant Biology	10-61	9-43	9-56	69%*	10-30	15%	9%
4-25	University of Wisconsin-Madison Botany	4-42	10-47	20-75	67%	10-30	3%	12%
4-23	University of Wisconsin-Madison Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics	2-10	3-19	24-78	67%	41-74	7%	0%
5-26	University of Nebraska-Lincoln Agronomy	10-49	11-54	13-62	78%	12-33	25%	2%
5-25	University of Georgia Plant Biology	4-18	4-20	7-56	68%	19-50	5%	0%
6-27	University of California-Riverside Plant Biology	5-32	14-52	14-69	68%	8-19	11%	6%
6-29	University of Massachusetts Amherst Plant Biology	48-97	16-68	65-103	67%	1-4	25%	15%
Rank	Program	Regres Quality	Survey Quality	Student Outcomes	Jobs at Grad	Diversity	Minority Students	Minority Faculty
9-33	Iowa State University Plant Physiology	15-44	11-51	32-82	65%	7-17	20%	4%
9-35	Michigan State University Horticulture	19-66	11-47	15-64	63%	4-7	33%	0%
8-34	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Crop Sciences	5-38	12-54	12-57	75%	76-100	0%	9%
9-36	Ohio State University-Main Campus Horticulture and Crop Science	11-55	22-72	3-41	59%	7-16	25%	7%
7-38	Oregon State University Crop Science	37-96	18-71	11-76	75%	7-24	0%	22%
7-42	Purdue University-Main Campus Agronomy- Crops and Genetic	10-61	10-54	8-69	78%	87-106	0%	6%
9-38	Oklahoma State University-Main Campus Plant Pathology	69-104	34-92	5-35	66%	1-3	50%	0%
9-37	Kansas State University Plant Pathology	12-49	6-36	1-21	79%	30-67	0%	0%
12-46	Michigan State University Crop and Soil Sciences	7-45	4-27	2-28	63%	97-109	0%	3%
14-46	Michigan State University Plant Biology	6-34	5-31	32-83	63%	48-80	4%	3%
16-47	University of Delaware Plant and Soil Sciences	33-67	18-63	1-14	92%	59-92	0%	0%
15-51	University of Georgia Plant Pathology	44-88	14-61	2-45	68%	13-35	25%	0%
16-51	Iowa State University Plant Breeding	11-55	12-55	10-61	65%	39-74	0%	9%
15-58	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Biology-Physiological and Molecular Plant Biology	24-74	12-63	54-103	75%	30-57	8%	5%
18-56	Michigan State University Plant Pathology	58-101	32-83	18-82	63%	3-6	29%	9%

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Item Descriptions

Rank: A range indicating how this program ranked in 500 simulated rankings based on your priorities. Programs are sorted by their median rank. Learn more.
NRC regression-based quality measure (Regres Quality): The NRC's measurements of overall program quality are based on 20 key variables (19 in the humanities) such as GRE scores, student support and faculty publications. To calculate the regression-based quality measure, the relative importance, or weight, of a variable was set by the extent that it correlated with programs viewed most favorably by evaluators in each field. Learn more. Your weight = 3. Larger values are better. (Source: NRC, 2010)
NRC survey-based quality measure (Survey Quality): The NRC's measurements of overall program quality are based on 20 key variables (19 in the humanities) such as GRE scores, student support and faculty publications. To calculate the survey-based quality measure, evaluators in each field identified the variables that they considered to be the most important indicators of program quality. Learn more. Your weight = 5. Larger values are better. (Source: NRC, 2010)
Student support and outcomes (Student Outcomes): This variable is a composite of other measures of student support and outcomes, including 6-year or 8-year graduation rates (for non-humanities programs and humanities programs, respectively), time to degree, job placement within academia, percentage of first-year students with full financial support, and whether a program collects data about the employment outcomes of its graduates. The relative importance of these variables was determined by the direct assessments of some 50 faculty in each field. Your weight = 2. Larger values are better. (Source: NRC, 2010)
Placement Rate (Jobs at Grad): This variable shows the percentage of students with definite plans at graduation (either a job or a postdoctoral position), based on data from the student questionnaire. Your weight = 2. Larger values are better. (Source: SED, 2000–2004)
Diversity in the academic environment (Diversity): This variable shows a composite measure of diversity generated by the National Research Council. It includes data on percent of faculty and students from underrepresented minorities, percent of female faculty and students, and percent of international faculty and students. The relative importance of these variables was determined by the direct assessments of some 50 faculty in each field. Your weight = 1. Larger values are better. (Source: NRC, 2010)
Percentage of minority students (Minority Students): This measure shows the percentage of non-Asian minority doctoral students based on data from the program questionnaire. Programs reported the race or ethnicity of graduate students enrolled in fall 2005. This variable is calculated as the number of students listed as non-Hispanic Blacks, Hispanics, or American Indians or Alaska Natives, divided by the total number of students whose whose race or ethnicity was specified. Students whose race or ethnicity was unspecified were excluded from the calculation. Your weight = 2. Larger values are better. (Source: NRC, 2010)
Percentage of minority faculty (Minority Faculty): This variable reports the percentage of faculty members who are non-Asian minorities based on data from a 2006 program questionnaire. The value was calculated as the number of faculty listed as non-Hispanic Blacks, Hispanics, or American Indians or Alaska Natives, divided by the total number of faculty with specified race or ethnicity. Faculty members with unspecified race or ethnicity were excluded from the calculation. The calculation did not consider faculty allocations. Your weight = 2. Larger values are better. (Source: NRC, 2010)

Data Sources

Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System: IPEDS is an annual, comprehensive set of surveys of all colleges and universities in the United States. The surveys are conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. Learn more
National Research Council: The National Research Council conducts periodic assessments of doctoral programs in the United States. Our data comes from the most recent assessment in 2010. Learn more
Survey of Earned Doctorates: The NSF/NIH/NEH/USED/USDA/NASA Survey of Earned Doctorates is an annual survey of all new recipients of doctorates from US universities at graduation. The average of the response rates for the 2000–2004 surveys was 92%. Learn more
Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering: The Survey is an annual assessment of the number and characteristics of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in science, engineering, and health-related fields It is conducted by the National Science Foundation. Learn more

* Value is missing. The value shown is based on the average for other programs in the same field. Learn more.

The graduate school rankings on PhDs.org have been made possible by grants from The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and The Burroughs Wellcome Fund.
The National Postdoctoral Association and The Center for Science and the Media have served as the project's fiscal sponsors.