USU education graduate program 35th in nation
Substantial funding and exceptional faculty put USU’s College of Education and Human Services graduate program among the top 50 schools in the nation for the eighth consecutive year.
According to U.S. News and World Report’s 2007 edition of “America’s Best Graduate Schools,” the USU program was ranked 35 in the nation, ranking higher than 12 schools, including Cornell and Purdue.
“We are the only college of education in the intermountain region and desert southwest to have achieved and sustained this recognition,” said Carol Strong, dean of the College of Education and Human Services.
Strong said one aspect that makes the program so successful is the opportunity students have to “connect with great faculty.”
The college’s continued achievement attracts quality professors, Strong said, many of whom are national scholars who conduct research on campus and give students the opportunity to “learn on the job while they’re learning in the classroom.”
Barbara DeBoer expects to earn her doctorate degree this December in early childhood development. She worked closely with professors who taught her how to research, she said.
“All of them have been extremely helpful,” she said. “I’ve met such wonderful, high-caliber people.”
According to the college’s mission statement, the administration is concerned with “… establishing and maintaining nationally visible research centers to advance knowledge and professional practices in education and the human services.”
Psychology professor Karl White is an example of the research achievement within the college, Strong said. His research on newborn hearing screening is the reason 95 percent of babies born in the United States are checked for hearing loss, Strong said.
According to the magazine’s rankings, the college’s student-to-faculty ratio is 2.8, one of the lowest and best on the list.
The research opportunities grad students have are available because of sizeable funding, Strong said. USU’s College of Education ranked third in the nation for funded research according to U.S. News and world Report’s findings, with more than $30.5 million for 2005, and ranked second among public institutions.
Strong said the external funding comes primarily from grants through the federal and state departments of education, the National Science Foundation and other corporations.
There are eight departments within the College of Education and Human Services, all of which offer master’s degrees, and seven offer doctorate degrees.
The college will continue to grow, Strong said, as the number of doctorate students will “steadily increase.” A new building to house all early childhood development research is in the planning stages.
As one of the biggest colleges of education in the nation, there were 670 master’s students and 270 doctoral students enrolled in the 2005-2006 school year. 173 and 24 of which received their degrees, respectively.
The quality of the graduate program makes it very competitive, as the report states it has a 15.2 percent acceptance rate.
“It’s a long process to even get in,” DeBoer said, noting the application takes hours and several interviews are required before admittance.
“We enroll the top quartile of students,” Strong said. “We take the very best.”
Five of the 10 Huntsman Awards for Excellence in Education for 2006 were awarded to people who received degrees or endorsements from USU’s College of Education and Human Services.
“It’s just a demonstration of the quality students that we are graduating,” Strong said.
Assistant director of Career Services, Jennifer Loscher, said the college is very successful in the job market, as almost all of the education bachelor and graduate students are placed in jobs within one year. She said the school districts that come to USU to interview students are very impressed with the experience they gain and feel USU’s graduates are well-prepared.
DeBoer received her bachelor and master’s degrees from Weber State University. She said the director of early childhood development at Weber, Rosalind Charlesworth, who has written a number of books on the subject, recommended DeBoer attend USU for her Ph.D.
“When she said USU was one of the best, I knew it was wonderful,” she said.
DeBoer teaches an undergraduate early childhood development course and said students from across the nation come to USU for its Education and Human Services college because they hear it’s excellent.
“The word is out there,” she said.
Many undergrad and grad students alike have families of their own, Strong said, and it takes them longer to receive degrees, since some work full-time as well as attend school.
“They want to improve the opportunities for their own children,” Strong said. “Education changes lives, and I’m proud of that.”
mof@cc.usu.edu