How to Select Your University?

There are many factors that come into  when selecting your university. Here are some of the common factors i consider in selecting a university

Research Area.
                    This is the obvious thing by which you choose your university. You should choose an university where there is good emphasis on your research area. Read the papers of some of the professor to get to know what they are doing. It would be best if your research area and research interests of the professor match. This is one of the criteria how Grad Students are selected for Unversities.

No of Professors in your research area.
                  This is one of the important factor that graduate students forget to think about. Some of them don't even see the no of professors. It is better to have more than 3 or 4 professors in your field of study. Don't go to a University just you want to work under a single professor. If that single professor turns out to be a jack ass? or if he is not interested in doing research or he does his own research without any funding? or if he has all positions filled already he is guiding a large no of students. You will be in big trouble. There will be no funding for you. This is a dangerous situation. So don't choose a university just because you like a single professor's profile.Always keep a spare.


Percentage of income from Research to that institute.
            This is also a very important factor. IF the universities major source of income is tuition fee then drop it there itself. Because you might not get any funding from that university. Ofcourse it depends on the professor also, but most of the time fresh graduates students gets Teaching assistant ship. So its better that you choose a university which has more income from resources other than tuition fees.

Tution Fees
              This goes without saying, IF you cannot afford for paying tuition fee of this university even for one year then avoid applying for that university. This is just a waste of your time and money. Generally private schools are expensive in comparison with public schools

No of people graduating every year from that university.
              If this number is low then avoid it all costs if you don't want to waste your money.

Labs in your research area.
              This is important if you are planning to do a research in you research area. The university must contain a lab associated with your field of interest. IF there is no lab then there is no emphasis or no research going on your Research Field.