Ranking of History Graduate Schools

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 = 5. 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 = 4. Larger values are better. (Source: NRC, 2010)

Overall research productivity (Research Product)

This variable shows a composite measure of research productivity, based on publications per faculty member, citations per publication, percent of faculty holding grants, and awards per faculty member. The relative importance of these variables was determined by the direct assessments of some 50 faculty in each field. Your weight = 4. Larger values are better. (Source: NRC, 2010)

% faculty with grants (Faculty Grants)

This variable shows the percentage of faculty members in the program whose work was supported by external grants or contracts in 2006, based on data from a faculty questionnaire. Your weight = 5. Larger values are better. (Source: NRC, 2010)

Faculty awards (Faculty Awards)

This variable shows the average number of awards per faculty member in the program, based on data from a review of 1,393 awards and honors given by various scholarly organizations. The committee identified awards as "Highly Prestigious" or "Prestigious", with the former given a weight of 5. Award recipients were matched to the faculty in all programs. For each program, the number of awards for an individual faculty member was the sum of the weighted awards times the faculty member's allocation to that program. The variable shown here equals the sum of these individual values divided by the number of faculty allocated to the program. 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 = 3. Larger values are better. (Source: NRC, 2010)

Professional development (Profes Devel)

This measure indicates the number of professional-development opportunities and oversight mechanisms for graduate students. In a 2006 questionnaire, programs indicated how many, out of a possible 18, resources existed for the support of doctoral students or doctoral education. Your weight = 2. Larger values are better. (Source: NRC, 2010)

Instruction in statistics (Stats Instruct)

The program or institution provides instruction in statistics to graduate students (2006). Your weight = 2. Larger values are better. (Source: NRC, 2010)

Orientation for new graduate students (Orient)

The program or institution provides an orientation program for new graduate students (2006). Your weight = 2. Larger values are better. (Source: NRC, 2010)

Orientation for new international graduate students (Intl Orient)

The program or institution provides an orientation for new international graduate students (2006). 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