Narrowing it Down... A Little.

So, over the past few weeks, there have been a couple of factors which have influenced my potential choice of graduate school. One of these is that new rankings for graduate schools was released by US News and World Report. The other is that I've been looking at the possibilities for financial assistance from the schools I had previously been interested in. This has led me to discount a few potential grad schools and to include a few that I had not previously included.

First of all, the US News and World Report Graduate School rankings for civil engineering didn't change much from the 2010 edition to the 2011 edition, but the latter was definitely more inclusive. One thing to note is that BYU was ranked #73 while Utah State was ranked #65 in the nation. This essentially took Utah State out of the ranking. If I was going to take the time and effort to try to go to Utah State, I might as well just go back to the school that I've been going to for the last 3 years.

Though the rankings were not that different, I noticed a few schools on the list that I had previously discounted, but realized that, for the given economic circumstances, I'd be willing to go to. Two that I noticed were the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. One of my employers, Dr. Hotchkiss got his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, so I'm sure that he could provide me with recommendations and contacts galore. As I looked into the University of Wisconsin, I really liked their program and the possibilities for research that they had. Though their cold and kind of liberal, I think I could deal with going to either Minnesota or Wisconsin.
As I perused the US News and World Report Rankings, I also noticed that there were about 7 schools in the top 30 in California. At the same time, I thought about how I had two sets of aunts and uncles in California, who would probably be able to help me find something in the way of jobs. Even though I hate California and everything that they stand for, I decided that these factors were too much to ignore when looking into jobs and grad schools. I guess for 3 or 4 years I could just bury my guns in my back yard and yield 3/4 of everything I make to the man in order to get a top notch graduate education. As far as schools go, the ones that I like best were UC Davis, UCLA, and UCSD, in that order. Additionally, the department chair for BYU's civil engineering department went to UC Davis and my professor for steel design and reinforced concrete design went to UCSD. Once again, recommendations galore.

Secondly, I have recently been thinking that I really don't want to pay much, if anything, for grad school. In fact, I think it would be a really good idea if a grad school paid me to go there. I'm thinking that I could apply to several schools, whether or not I was a resident and see what kind kind of financial assistance I could get as a graduate assistant doing research or teaching. As I looked into the financial assistance programs of the schools in which I've been interested, I found out that they were definitely not created equal. For students who are awarded graduate assistantships, some schools offer full tuition waivers, some offer waivers for the in-state portion of tuition, some offer waivers for the out-of-state portion, and some say "Eph you, you can't have an assistantship!" So, as I did some research, I found that there were 6 schools where I could get a full tuition waiver:

• Virginia Tech
• Oregon State (whose logo is pictured below)
  
• Washington
• Colorado*
• Wisconsin
• Notre Dame

*I don't know if CU-Boulder offers full remission of out-of-state tuition, but since I'm a Colorado resident, it really doesn't matter.

The financial assistance program with which I was least impressed was that of North Carolina State. They basically said, "We really don't like giving out money, even if you are qualified, so don't ask." At this point, I'm pretty sure that I won't be going there for graduate school.

There were also some schools that would be willing to waive the in-state portion of tuition. I would be willing to consider these schools if I was able to find a job in the state where they are located. These include:

• Arizona
• Minnesota
• UC Davis
  

The graduate school at Texas A&M is willing to waive the out-of-state portion of tuition for anyone who is awarded a graduate assistantship. Considering that the tuition at Texas A&M is fairly reasonable and that there are many other opportunities for funding, I might consider attending if they made me a good offer, but their standing has definitely dropped.

Additionally, I've found that, the more experience that I have with Purdue University, the less I like it. The university's website kind of sucks. The civil engineering department website kind of blows. Their program, though ranked #3 nationally, doesn't appeal to me as much as it once did. I couldn't figure out whether Purdue offered a full or partial tuition waiver, or if it only applied to fees. And I've just never been that big of fan of Indiana.

As it turns out, the big winners of the day are Oregon State and Wisconsin. Oregon State went from being virtually unconsidered to being near the top of the running. Wisconsin went from not being considered at all to being in the top 5, or so.