Pregraduate Advising Office Pregraduate Advising Office Arts & Sciences and Trinity College Duek University

Selecting a Graduate Program

Choosing a graduate program goes well beyond knowledge of the institution; students should seek departments and programs with faculty who are good matches with their intellectual objectives and who represent good prospects for advising on a suitable doctoral thesis project. If you have selected or been assigned to a major advisor who contributes regularly to the specific field of study you have selected, you are very fortunate since this person will be an excellent source of advice about the best graduate programs for you. You should also seek a diversity of opinions from your professors and graduate student acquaintances. Talk with as many people as possible to learn the current status of the programs of interest to you, and be certain that there are faculty in those programs whose research interests match yours.

Departments and programs at Duke have named a faculty member to serve as a Ph.D. advisor for Duke undergraduates who are interested in pursuing an advanced degree within the broad subject area of the major. Advisors’ and professors’ guidance about selecting specific graduate programs can be supplemented with information from guides and directories, which are widely available online. Examples include: