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Ranking of Earth 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 Earth Sciences PhD Programs

Programs 1–30

Rank	Program	Regres Quality	Survey Quality	Student Outcomes	Jobs at Grad	Diversity	In-State Tuition	Room Board
1-2	University of California-Irvine Earth System Science	2-10	1-8	1-18	80%*	24-53	$7,836	$9,625
1-6	California Institute of Technology Environmental Science and Engineering	4-15	1-3	6-69	72%	6-31	$33,324	NA
2-9	University of California-Berkeley Earth and Planetary Science	2-32	1-7	16-84	69%	31-66	$7,836	$10,036
2-12	Princeton University Geosciences	9-24	3-15	2-37	94%	11-32	$35,340	NA
2-18	University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Geophysics	15-55	7-30	2-79	95%	40-99	$11,212	$7,392
3-17	California Institute of Technology Geophysics	3-13	2-11	9-80	72%	33-76	$33,324	NA
3-16	Columbia University in the City of New York Earth and Environmental Sciences	1-7	3-14	29-97	75%	17-46	$35,396	NA
4-17	Harvard University Earth and Planetary Sciences	1-8	2-10	32-98	81%	52-96	$33,696	$11,042
5-20	Stanford University Geological and Environmental Sciences	2-11	4-15	25-92	85%	48-95	$37,380	NA
4-23	California Institute of Technology Planetary Science	1-6	4-14	3-69	72%	113-131	$33,324	NA
4-30	California Institute of Technology Geochemistry	3-19	3-13	3-87	72%	52-104	$33,324	NA
6-24	University of Arizona Geosciences	8-21	9-30	8-70	85%	62-100	$7,330	$11,234
7-25	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Geology	19-50	18-53	11-86	100%	52-94	$9,318	NA
7-26	University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Geology	20-45	27-74	48-109	95%	39-76	$11,212	$7,392
8-29	University of California-Santa Cruz Earth Sciences	18-43	10-34	6-53	81%	31-75	$7,836	$10,176
Rank	Program	Regres Quality	Survey Quality	Student Outcomes	Jobs at Grad	Diversity	In-State Tuition	Room Board
9-31	Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus Geosciences	10-25	11-29	25-89	79%	69-108	$15,446	NA
10-32	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Geology	10-40	11-33	16-85	77%	49-85	$17,286	$8,924
9-36	University of Maryland-College Park Geology	12-38	14-42	18-99	75%	4-23	$8,478	$9,575
8-42	Michigan State University Geological Sciences	17-81	33-89	1-12	100%	29-67	$10,478	NA
10-39	University of Arizona Hydrology	17-64	10-30	3-49	85%	74-110	$7,330	$11,234
11-39	Purdue University-Main Campus Agronomy- Soils	24-73	16-54	10-69	67%	6-22	$8,183	$8,710
9-46	California Institute of Technology Geology	3-13	9-27	4-102	72%	83-122	$33,324	NA
12-38	Massachusetts Institute of Technology Geology and Geochemistry and Geophysics	4-16	9-28	13-80	82%	102-126	$37,510	NA
11-43	University of California-Riverside Soil and Water Sciences	35-86	26-82	30-110	100%	7-28	$7,836	$9,460
15-48	Stanford University Geophysics	12-34	6-23	72-117	85%	34-64	$37,380	NA
15-48	University of Wisconsin-Madison Geology	25-62	20-66	27-99	76%	31-73	$9,500	$8,040
9-68	University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Soil Science	36-104	39-102	4-123	95%	8-28	$11,212	$7,392
19-52	University of Colorado at Boulder Geology	29-63	14-47	8-64	71%	35-75	$8,190	NA
16-59	Washington State University Soil Sciences	44-91	22-73	7-93	80%*	2-16	$7,944	$8,780
20-49	Duke University Environment	13-30	21-52	9-67	80%*	7-28	$37,700	$8,200

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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)
In-State Graduate Tuition (In-State Tuition): This variable shows the amount of tuition paid by graduate students who are permanent residents of the same state in which the program is based. Your weight = -2. Smaller values are better. (Source: IPEDS, 2009)
Off Campus Room and Board (Room Board): This variable shows the estimated cost of housing and meals for a typical student sharing a room with one other student over the course of one academic year. Your weight = -2. Smaller values are better. (Source: IPEDS, 2009)

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.