Meeting and Working With NAGAP

Robert Morse gives his presentation at the NAGAP conference. (USN & WR)

I just returned from the National Association of Graduate Admissions Professionals' (NAGAP) Winter Institute for Advanced Graduate Admissions Professionals, held in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

I gave a presentation titled "America's Best Graduate Schools Rankings: How They Are Done and What's New." My talk covered the methodology and processes used in the medical, law, engineering, business, education, Ph.D., and the other graduate rankings done annually by U.S. News. The new graduate school rankings will be published at the end of March.

Attending these professional conferences is very important because we get feedback—both positive and negative—about the rankings. Being at these meetings also enables us to learn more about what is going on in higher ed from those who work directly in those fields and provides us with an opportunity to explain how and why we do the rankings. One idea that came out of the meeting was that NAGAP is considering creating an advisory committee to work with U.S. News on the various grad school rankings. NAGAP's members are uniquely qualified to play such a role, since they work in admissions in all the disciplines that U.S. News ranks. We welcome the creation of such a committee by NAGAP and look forward to working with its members in the future.