Good Places for Doctorate Degrees Within the U.S.
To earn a doctorate, you need not earn a master's degree first, although you must prove expert knowledge of the material covered in the master's program. It requires seven years, on average, to complete a doctoral degree in the U.S. Many universities in the U.S. offer doctoral programs, but some graduate schools are greatly superior to others.
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Stanford University
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Leland Stanford Junior University, or Stanford University, offers over 65 programs in its seven graduate schools. Students pursuing a doctorate can attend a graduate school for one of seven primary disciplines: business, earth sciences, engineering, humanities and science, law, medicine and education. For those looking to focus on research, Stanford is ideal. According to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, as of 2010, Stanford ranks globally as the fourth best research university.
As a private university, Stanford isn't cheap: it costs about $39,000 to $40,000 a year to attend. But the school offers its students one of the best educations in the country, and achieving a doctorate from this esteemed college is nothing to scoff at.
Harvard University
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Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences offers degree programs in 57 different departments, including subjects such as biology, mathematics, engineering, physics, music and history. Although Harvard comes with a hefty price tag -- a full-time student can expect to pay upwards of $40,000 a year -- the university was ranked number one in Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings for five years, from 2004 to 2009.
On the other hand, as one of the top-rated ivy league universities, Harvard doesn't just accept anyone. The school accepted only 6.9 percent of applicants for the Harvard College Class of 2014 -- a record low for the university.
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University of California, Berkeley
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The graduate division of the University of California, Berkeley (also commonly referred to as UC Berkeley) offers doctoral degrees across numerous fields of study. Of the 52 ranked Ph.D. programs offered at Berkeley, 48 were among the top 10 range in their field based on the assessments of the National Research Council. The top-rated doctoral programs include epidemiology, mechanical engineering, physics, art history, history, German, civil and environmental engineering, political science, plant biology, mathematics, chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology, agricultural and resource economics, and astrophysics. UC Berkeley offers 87 Ph.D. programs in total.
Despite UC Berkeley's high standing -- the public school provides stiff competition for ivy league and private colleges like Harvard and Yale -- the university costs about $11,000 a year, which is about one-third the price of Harvard, Brown or Stanford. The school also has a higher rate of acceptance than the aforementioned private schools. The admission rate for the 2009 to 2010 class was 26.6 percent.
Georgia Institute of Technology
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Although humanities majors won't find much interest in Georgia Institute of Technology (or, as it's more commonly know, Georgia Tech), those looking to earn a doctoral degree in computing, architecture, engineering, management, science or some aspects of liberal arts (such as economics and international affairs) should look into the programs offered at the university.
Although some might not consider Georgia Tech to be as respectable as MIT, it has ranked in the top 10 of public universities for a decade, and its College of Engineering is the largest in the U.S. Despite its high rankings, the school doesn't leave as great a dent in your pocket book. Georgia Tech runs about $7,000 a year, as opposed to MIT, which costs about $38,000 full-time.
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References
- U.S. News & World Report: Best Graduate Schools
- "The Harvard Crimson;" Acceptance Rate Falls to a New Low; Julie M. Zauzmer; March 2010
- UC Berkeley News Center: National Research Council Ranks UC Berkeley's Ph.D. Programs Among the Nation's Best
- Georgia Tech: Georgia Tech Ranked Seventh Nationally Among Public Universities for Undergraduates; August 2008
