Princeton Review: Gourman Report of Graduate Programs, 8th Edition: A Rating of Graduate and Professional Programs in American and International Uni ... in American and International Universities) [Paperback]

Jack Gourman (Author)

Book Description

Series: Gourman Report: Rating of Graduate and Professional Programs in American and International Universities | Publication Date: September 16, 1997

A Rating of Graduate and Professional Degree Programs in American and International Universities

Why do thousands of professional education counselors and college administrators depend on The Gourman Report?

It is the standard system of rating graduate programs.

Only The Gourman Report assigns a precise numerical score in assessing the strengths and shortcomings of the top programs in 105 disciplines.

It reflects thorough evaluations of graduate programs' effectiveness.

Among the major factors that influence a program's or a school's rating are the caliber of its faculty and facilities and the breadth of its curriculum. The Gourman Report also studies the hundreds of other critical considerations that affect the quality of education.

It constantly reexamines programs and updates its ratings.

The ratings in The Gourman Report reflect the constant changes that take place at institutions of higher education. Increases or decreases in funding, shifts in curriculum, and modifications to research facilities all affect the quality of a program or school. The process of thorough, ongoing reassessment makes The Gourman Report the most authoritative, accurate, and up-to-date book of its kind.

Latest Ratings: The all-new 8th edition contains the very latest changes in graduate and professional degree program ratings. If you're looking for the most recent information on the best programs, you'll find it here.

The Gourman Report includes ratings of:
-- Leading institutions for 105 programs
-- Professional programs including law, medicine, nursing, dentistry, and pharmacy
-- Leading international universities in Europe and Asia
-- Graduate research libraries
-- The top 50 schools for engineering, MBA, and doctoral programs in business and management

Jack Gourman, Ph.D., has been preparing assessments of education for over thirty years. He is a former professor of political science and is now an educational consultant to several major corporations, institutions, and government agencies.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

A Rating of Graduate and Professional Degree Programs in American and International Universities

Why do thousands of professional education counselors and college administrators depend on The Gourman Report?

It is the standard system of rating graduate programs.

Only The Gourman Report assigns a precise numerical score in assessing the strengths and shortcomings of the top programs in 105 disciplines.

It reflects thorough evaluations of graduate programs' effectiveness.

Among the major factors that influence a program's or a school's rating are the caliber of its faculty and facilities and the breadth of its curriculum. The Gourman Report also studies the hundreds of other critical considerations that affect the quality of education.

It constantly reexamines programs and updates its ratings.

The ratings in The Gourman Report reflect the constant changes that take place at institutions of higher education. Increases or decreases in funding, shifts in curriculum, and modifications to research facilities all affect the quality of a program or school. The process of thorough, ongoing reassessment makes The Gourman Report the most authoritative, accurate, and up-to-date book of its kind.

Latest Ratings: The all-new 8th edition contains the very latest changes in graduate and professional degree program ratings. If you're looking for the most recent information on the best programs, you'll find it here.

The Gourman Report includes ratings of:
-- Leading institutions for 105 programs
-- Professional programs including law, medicine, nursing, dentistry, and pharmacy
-- Leading international universities in Europe and Asia
-- Graduate research libraries
-- The top 50 schools for engineering, MBA, and doctoral programs in business and management

Jack Gourman, Ph.D., has been preparing assessments of education for over thirty years. He is a former professor of political science and is now an educational consultant to several major corporations, institutions, and government agencies.

Product Details

• Paperback: 302 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Review; 8 edition (September 16, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679783741
• ISBN-13: 978-0679783749
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,564,217 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Tell us your secrets, Jack!, October 24, 2000

By 

Diego Banducci (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Princeton Review: Gourman Report of Graduate Programs, 8th Edition: A Rating of Graduate and Professional Programs in American and International Uni ... in American and International Universities) (Paperback)

Jack Gourman is a former professor from the University of Michigan who compiles his rankings by calling professors in various departments at different schools and asking them which programs they think are the best in their field. Not a bad way to rank schools and programs if your sampling is statistically valid, but since Jack is vague about his methodology, we'll never know that. What we do know is that his rankings are noticeably skewed in favor of large state universities and especially the University of Michigan. For instance, most observers rank Harvard Stanford and Yale among the top three law schools, with Michigan between fifth and ninth, but Jack consistently ranks the Wolverines in the top three. (Hey! They've got a great football program, haven't they?)

This approach produces ludicrous results in his rankings of undergraduate institutions (a separate book), but is less of a problem with graduate programs which are (1) the province of larger universities, and (2) subject to fewer constraints in their acceptance of out-of-state residents.

The book is especially useful as a checklist of all of the major players in a particular discipline. Just remember to move all Big Ten schools down one to two notches, and the University of Michigan down three to four, and you'll end up with some pretty decent rankings.

15 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a good book to determine the academic reputation of a school, August 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Princeton Review: Gourman Report of Graduate Programs, 8th Edition: A Rating of Graduate and Professional Programs in American and International Uni ... in American and International Universities) (Paperback)

I think that this book is good for assessing the academic reputation of a school. It is highly correlated with the National Research Councils report on graduate schools. This is good because, for universities with graduate schools,and this includes all schools except liberal arts schools, their reputation is reflected in the quality of their Phd programs. Compared to the US News Report survey, it is a more accurate assessment of faculty quality. The US News survey includes reputation in its survey, but the method that they use is highly inaccurate(surveying deans of admission), so the reputation score is extremely biased and since it counts for 25 % of the score creates an unusable report. The only downside to the Gourman report is that it does not weigh student factors as heavily as it should.

12 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The most objective school ranking reference, January 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Princeton Review: Gourman Report of Graduate Programs, 8th Edition: A Rating of Graduate and Professional Programs in American and International Uni ... in American and International Universities) (Paperback)

I've used several major ranking references. I have found the Gourman Report to be the most accurate in rating educational institutions in terms of faculty quality and library - an often over-looked yet the MOST important resource for research in graduate schools and professional schools such as med schools, business schools and law schools.

By contrast, other ranking reports tend to put too much emphasis on subjective opinions (mostly gathered via opinion polls) in their ranking calculations. Some put almost no emphasis on the size of the library; and some calculate a "library size to student population ratio", making a lousy library of a small school seems better than a good library of a big school.

I have encountered many disenchanted students at small private universities who are disappointed at the lack of library resources and the small selection of classes in their particular programs. Their research is slowed down or made impossible because of the inadequacy of these resources. They would have avoided such disenchantment if they had used the Gourman Report.