Best Universities for Information Science

Continuing my lists of   universities by major , here is a list of the best information science programs

·          Amherst College

·          Boston College

·         CMU

·         MIT

·         Notre Dame University

·         UCLA

·         University of  Michigan Ann Arbor

·         University of Pennsylvania

·         University of Texas Austin

·         University of Virginia

·         USC

In the USA

 Over the past year or so , this blog has  picked up several readers in the USA.

 I will be in  the USA for the next month
 Phoenix AZ  April 27-May 8
San Diego CA   May 9-13
 Los Angeles   May 13-23


 If anyone in this area wants to meet, send me email at clearskyeducation@gmail.com to schedule a meeting.
 Will be in  the UK and Europe in June/July

 As always the first meeting is free.


Best,
 Ravi

Best Univresities for Philosophy

Continuing my look at  liberal arts  fields, I wil look at philosophy today. The advantage of a philosophy major is that rather than teaching facts and  technical skills,  it teaches one how to think  and analyse.

  

·          Amherst college

·          Georgetown

·         Harvard

·          NYU

·          Princeton

·         Rutgers University

·         St. John’s College

·         Stanford

·         University of  Michigan  Ann Arbor

·          University of Pittsburgh

·         University of Virginia

·         Wesleyan College

·         Yale

Of the best rankings come from insider experts, for Philosophy-Dr. Brian Leiter at Texas maintains the Philosophical Gourmet Report , in which he rates philosophy programs and tracks important faculty movements.

Best Universities for Psychology

Psychology  and related programs  such as cognitive science are very popular choices in the liberal Arts.

 Here is a brief list of some of the best  universities for students interested in  Psychology

·         Amherst College

·         Brown University

·         Carnegie Mellon

·          Columbia University

·         Johns Hopkins University

·          NYU

·          Reed College

·         Stanford University

·         Tufts University

·          UCLA

·         University of California Berkeley

·          University of Chicago

·          University of Michigan

·         University of Pennsylvania

·         University of Texas – Austin

·         Washington University St. Louis

 Yale 

Best Universities for Political Science

 One of the most popular undergraduate majors is  political science. One asvantage of this major i that it is good preparation for  law school or even MBA studies.
The best programs are  at major universites and  the liberal arts colleges

·          Amherst College

·         Columbia University

·         Duke University

·         Harvard University

·           Johns  Hopkins University

·          Middlebury College

·           NYU

·         Pomona College

·         Stanford University

·          Swarthmore College

·          University  Michigan Ann Arbor

·         University  Pennsylvania

·          University California – Berkeley

·           University Chicago

·          University Virginia

·         Williams College

·         Yale University

 A few schools focus on  International Studies with in Political scienc e namely

 Georgetown University, Tufts University and Princeton University.

Best Universities for Bio Sciences and pre-med programs

  Bio and Health sciences  with pre-med options are another popular ndergraduate track

Here is a brief list of some of the better programs:

·          Case Western Reserve University

·         Carnegie Mellon University

Dartmouth College
·         Duke University
·          Harvard University
·         Northwestern University
·         Reed College
·          Rice University
·         Stanford University
·          Swarthmore College
·         University of  Michigan – Ann Arbor
·          University of Pennsylvania
·         Vanderbilt University
·         Washington University in St. Louis
·          Wesleyan University

Best universities for computer science.

I looked at the best Engineering  schools a few days ago,   I am taking a closer look at Computer Science programs today.


 This set of  schools have the strongest   CS departments.
 The 4 universities in bold - CMU|MIT| Stanford and  Berkeley are    considered to be the best  but the others are  also very strong.

• ·         Carnegie Mellon University
• ·         Case Western Reserve  University
• ·         Duke  University
• ·         Georgia Tech
• ·          MIT
• ·         Northwestern  University
• ·          Stanford University
• ·          University of  Michigan Ann Arbor
• ·          University of  North Carolina – Chapel Hill
• ·         University of California – Berkeley
• ·          University of Illinois -  Urbana Champaign
• ·         University of Rochester
• ·         University of Texas Austin

Best Undergraduate Business Programs

 Business Studies is one of the most popular Undergraduate majors.


 Many of the bigger universities have strong   undergraduate programs alongside the MBA .


 The following is a list of some of the bes universities with Undergraduate Business programs

• ·         CMU
• ·         Duke University
• ·         Emory University
• ·         MIT
• ·         Northwestern University
• ·          NYU
• ·         Stanford University
• ·          UCLA
• ·          University  of California – Berkeley
• ·          University of  Michigan – Ann Arbor
• ·          University of  Notre Dame
• ·          University of Chicago
• ·         University of Pennsylvania
• ·         Washington University  St. Louis

Business at the undergraduate level is more holistic than the MBA  stage where students typically focus on concentrations.
 See my MBA  blog for  schools with strong Marketing and Finance programs.
 There are a frew speciality business programs at colleges like Babson and Bentley and most liberal

Best Engineering programs

   I had earlier written on universities with strong STEM programs  ( Science Technology Engineering and Math)

 The best universities for Engineering tend to be large research universities  with strong  research capabilities

 Below is a list of some of the best Engineering universities.

·         California Institute of Technology

·         Carnegie Mellon University  CMU

·         Case Western Reserve University

·         Cornell University

·          Georgia Institute of Technology GeorgiaTech

·         Massachusetts Institute of  Technology  MIT

·         Stanford University

·         UCLA

·         University of  Michigan Ann Arbor

·         University of  Pennsylvania

·          University of California Berkeley

·         University of Illinois Urbana Champaign – UIUC

·          University of Southern California

 It is a misconception that  one has to go to a major research university to study Engineering - this is only true for graduate students.
 Many smaller  universities and liberal arts schools offer excellent  opportunities to study Engineering.

·        Brown University
·         Dartmouth College
·         Harvey Mudd College
·         Olin school of Engineering
·         Reed College
·         Rice University
·         Rice University
·         Rose Hulman Institute of Technology

• 
  

Best Speciality Colleges - Arts

For students with a serious interest in the Fine Arts many of the best programs are at speciality  arts institutes. The advantage ard schools offer is  that it allows a student to truly focus on his or her craft without the  burden of a liberal arts core curriculum they are also very connected within the  artistic community- many major universities like Yale, NYU, USC, CMU,  Michigan, UCLA also have great fine arts departments.  This gives students to chance to broaden their horizons and  do exciting interdisciplinary work. For example graphic design students  I know  work as website designers.
Here is a brief list of some of the best speciality Arts colleges.

·         Academy of Art – San Francisco

·         Art Center  School of Design

·         Art Institute of Chicago

·         Art Institute of Pittsburgh

·          Boston Architecural College

·         Cakifornia Institute of the Arts

·         California College of Arts

·         Curtis Shool of Music

·         Maryland Institute   College of Art (MICA)

·         Rhode Usland School of Design (RISD)

·         School of visual Arts

·          The Julliard School Berklee College of music

• 
  

Top Liberal Arts Colleges

 Along with my list of some of  the best universities , here is a list of  recommended liberal arts. Once again the colleges. Once Again this is not based on any rankings but on an overall perception.  The list varies  for each person   so this s generic

 Once again  this is an alphabetical ordering.

·         Amherst College

·         Claremont McKenna College

·         College of Wooster

·         Grinnell College

·         Middlebury College

·         Oberlin College

·         Pomona College

·         Reed College

·         St. Johns College

·         Swarthmore College

·         Vassar College

·         Wellesley College

·         Wesleyan University

·         Williams College

 Many liberal Arts schools are small intimate environments -    identifying a "personal fit" isa very important part of the application .

Top Universities

 Now that the class of 2020 has been accepted , lets start working towards the  aspirations of the Class of 2021.


   Naturally the best way to start is by looking at the  best  universities.
 As always,  I do not subscribe to any of the mainstream rankings - selecting a University is a highly personal choice.
 I am listing 20 of the best   research universities-  Any intelligent motivated student should be able to find a home at one of these institutions.   They are listed in Alphabetical order

·         California Institute of Technology( Caltech)   -->2016 application overview

·         Carnegie Mellon University ( CMU)    -->2016 application overview

·          Columbia University   -->2016 application overview

·         Cornell University   -->2016 application overview

·         Duke University   -->2016 application overview

·         Harvard University

·         Johns Hopkins University  -->2016 application  overview

·         Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

·         Northwestern University   -->2016 application overview

·         Princeton University   -->2016 application overview

·         Rice University   -->2016 application overview

·         Stanford University   -->2016 application overview

·         University of California – Berkeley   -->2016 application overview

·         University of California – Los Angeles(UCLA)   -->2016 application overview

·         University of Chicago   -->2016 application overview

·         University of Pennsylvania   -->2016 application overview

·         University University of  Michigan Ann Arbor   -->2016 application overview

·         Vanderbilt  University

·         Washington University in St.Louis

·         Yale University

 I had looked at the admissions criteria for most of these in the previous year and will be updating  this for 2017 admissions  once the  applications are released.

End of the 2015/16 admissions cycle

 By now everyone applying to the class of 2020   has  heard back from their universities.
  Hopefully  you have all  hesrd back affirmatively and now are deciding whoch institution to  select. See my advice on this  on this post  as ewll as this one 



Students  I worked with have done well this year.
  Students were accepted at Harvard, Chicago, UCLA, UC Irvine, Berkeley,USC, NYU  and Cambridge (UK).
Simultaneously proud and happy for you  guys.  You are about to embark on a great adventure.
   Wil lpost on this as well.

Waitlisted? Now what?

 Now that all  university  decisions have been released , there is a  chance you are in the worst situation - having to deal with multiple waitlists.

 How should  you react to being waitlisted.

First of all - remain calm , it is not the end of the world.   If it is a  university  you  are very keen  about -   secure your place on the priority waitlist ( this implies that you will definitely join if accepted). If you are not so keen about the program or have been already accepted at a school  you consider better - do send a polite note to decline the waitlist offer. This way students who want to get accepted  off the waitlist have a better  chance

 Usually 15-35 % of students get accepted of waitlists at  universities. The odds depend on each  university but   you need to be realistic about your chances

  It is  Ok to call the admissions office and ask about your  chances.


 You can improve  your   chances by communicating   clearly and enthusiastically with the university.

 Let them know what you have done after sending n your  application.  Send an updated school transcript, talk about your extraciriiculars and summer plans.
 Present yourself as the type of person they would want on campus in September.