Exam 1 Scheduled
Exam 1 will be on Mon Feb 2 (for MW students) and Tue Feb 3 (for TTh students).
Author: Justin
Exam 1 will be on Mon Feb 2 (for MW students) and Tue Feb 3 (for TTh students).
The first set of blog posts will be graded Friday, January 30th. Please have everything posted and up to date by end of day Thursday, Jan 29.
The Wall Street Journal has a “Professor” website and an “Assessment Tool” with test questions on various types of news items. I’d like to try it out. Don’t worry – it’s only an experiment at this point – your grade won’t suffer if you answer questions incorrectly. But I would like your participation. Please sign up using the link below.
http://wsjassessment.com/examiner/invited_student_procedure/NTY5LzkwMS8zMTcy
I haven’t created any tests or anything yet. Just a course page. Let me know if you have any trouble signing up.
Thanks!
Wed, Jan 21
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Thu, Jan 15
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“I want to explain to you that there were six killer apps that set the West apart from the rest. And they’re kind of like the apps on your phone, in the sense that they look quite simple. They’re just icons; you click on them.But behind the icon, there’s complex code. It’s the same with institutions. There are six which I think explain the Great Divergence. One, competition. Two, the scientific revolution. Three, property rights.Four, modern medicine. Five, the consumer society. And six, the work ethic.”
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If you’re looking for extra help in BUSAD 360:
Mon, Jan 19
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Thu, Jan 15
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Jared Diamond’s theories on economic development presented in Guns, Germs & Steel
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Wed, Jan 14
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– Scatter Plots
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Hard to believe it’s already been 3 years since 2012 when I published my first set of geography graduate program rankings, based on NRC data. I followed in 2013 with a survey-driven set of rankings. Last year I produced rankings of traditional GIS programs and on-line GIS programs. These four posts have generated approximately 175,000 pageviews, so far. I seem to have filled a void.
This year I’ve decided to cobble together a variety of lists and categories with some new twists. Here are my notes for the 2015 rankings.
Over the past year I’ve come to the conclusion that, when in doubt, you’re likely better off attending a graduate school at a large major University, especially one that serves as a flagship public institution for the State. The reasons for this are varied but I think it’s a combination of (1) availability of top minds/resources/courses from related fields on one campus, (2) career-enhancing name recognition and (3) a superior University experience in terms of affiliation and alumni networking. Two and three sort of go together. You may notice a few tweaks in department tiers/rankings reflecting this idea.
I’ve produced several categories of rankings this year. Following on my 2014 GIS rankings and in response to some calls for separate Human/Qualitative rankings I’ve created a “Best Overall” category and several sub-categories. Hopefully this will be helpful for students seeking information for a particular field of study or area of emphasis. Programs listed under the “Best Overall” category provide a balance in terms of Human/Physical/Technical geography offerings and should accommodate most anyone aspiring to a spatial career. If you have a strong interest in one of the sub-field categories you should also consider the programs listed in each category. For potential PhD students the choice of a faculty advisor is the MOST important decision. Program/University is still crucial, but secondary.
The overwhelming majority of programs listed here offer a PhD. I favor PhD-granting departments because they attract the best faculty and because you never know what twists and turns might come along. It’s nice to have the option to stay in place if the scope of your studies expand.
You may notice none of the programs listed have a numerical rank order. I did this for two reasons. First, it’s sort of splitting hairs. How much better is #6 versus #7? I’m a quant guy but I don’t really know. I think these tiers make more sense – programs within each tier are ordered alphabetically. Second, I want to avoid misinterpretation by a bright student who thinks they must go to the #1 program…even if the #4 program would be a far better fit. And, this makes a good segue to my standard disclaimers and warnings about selecting a graduate program:
So here we go – the 2015 rankings. Ta-da!
Best Overall Programs
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3
Tier 4
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Human Geography
Physical Geography
GIScience/Computation
Cartography/Visualization
Remote Sensing
Spatial Analysis/Statistics
Medical/Health
On-Line/Hybrid (Master’s only)
Who did I miss? What did I get wrong? Who invented liquid soap and why? (sorry, random movie quote. couldn’t help myself.)
Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Happy new year!