Education does not end for all college students on graduation day. Some to pursue graduate school before entering the job market.
UH has highly ranked graduate programs with social work, pharmacy, math and law all in the top 60 in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2013 rankings.
According to UH’s website, the Graduate Program in Creative Writing was ranked one of the top three in the nation in 2008. Kevin Prufer, professor of English and director of Graduate Studies, confirms that the general creative writing program is one of the prestigious of its kind in the U.S., citing its focus on academics and not just workshops.
“I think we’re highly ranked because of the academic requirements. It’s very important for us that the students that come through this program are not just taking a lot of poetry and fiction workshops, but also gaining a strong sense of the historical context of their writing and a good sense of the writers who have come before them,” Prufer said.
“It has a reputation of being an academically strong program as well as a program that has extensive contact with creative writers.”
The diversity of UH is well-known as it had a rank within the top 10 schools in that category by U.S. News in 2009. Prufer said that the diversity plays a large role in what keeps his program so highly ranked.
“I think a lot of that has to do with having a large and diverse faculty,” Prufer said. “It’s one of the best programs in the U.S. I would certainly encourage (UH) students to try and stay.”
While admission to this program may be difficult — accepting five or six applicants — the quality of education and the kind of environment make schools like the Graduate Program in Creative Writing so desirable, Prufer said.
“I would say creative writing programs come in personalities and I’d say the one here is very, very nice,” he said.
“It’s a program where all 11 faculty members get along and work enthusiastically with the graduate students.”
The C.T. Bauer School of Business is also highly ranked with its part-time Master’s of Business Administration reaching the top 30, according to the U.S. News in 2012.
This success is, in part, because of UH’s location and its ability to attract both academic professors and industry experts to teach at Bauer, said Daniel Currie, assistant dean for the graduate and professional programs and director of the Global Executive MBA program.
“Being in a large city like this, we have a lot of resources at our disposal to compliment what I would call our typical academic faculty. In other words, our faculty is a blend of people that went to a high-quality university, got a Ph.D. in a discipline and then maybe do research — the main part of their job is research and teaching; research in peer-reviewed journals,” Currie said.
“Beside them we have a lot of people who have worked 25 to 30 years in industry. Many of them still have Ph.D.s, but they have a lot of industry experience. We have a lot of those in the college, too, so you get a nice blend of people with deep expertise in their subject areas through study and research, and people with deep expertise in their subject areas through doing it. That results in a really powerful product.”
Students should not limit themselves professionally or academically, Currie said. Potential corporate employers will not care if an applicant has degrees from the same school. He said they care more about work experience, which the part-time MBA allows.
“I really don’t think that, in the business world, having two degrees from one institution is a negative. What’s important is that they have a good undergrad degree to build on, that they have some good work experience if they can get it, even internships, because an MBA is a generalist degree,” Currie said.
“We have an evening program if they have their first job or a full-time job. We have a full-time program for those that can be full-time.”
The sentiment that two degrees from one school is not a negative is carried in UH’s Law Center, said Craig Joyce, senior co-director in the Institute for Intellectual Property and Information Law at UHLC, which is ranked fourth nationally.
“Continuing from UH to the Law Center, students get opportunities no one else in the country has to gain jobs at the nation’s fourth largest city’s law firms and major corporations. Intellectual property or information law, health law, energy, there’s no better place,” Joyce said in an email.
Part of the program’s success is its practical approach to education.
“We’re indisputably the best IP and info law program between the coasts. We’re part of a law school that’s in the top quartile of all such U.S. institutions,” Joyce said in an email.
“If a student is planning to practice law in Houston or Texas, in the areas where Houston is preeminent, all other law schools in Texas take a back seat.”
