myUface Blog

The most important people in terms of your university education in the U.S. are going to be your professors  – the men and women who will guide your academic program.  Yet, when it comes time to research possible universities, most international students spend absolutely no time researching the professors at the departments in which they’re interested.

Now, there are some good reasons for this.  Researching individual faculty members is difficult, a lot harder than researching an institution as a whole.  And of course there’s no guarantee that you’ll take classes from a particular professor.  But if you’re seriously considering a particular university – or, better yet, a department within that university – it’s not a bad idea to look into their faculty, particularly if the department is fairly small.  At the very least, doing so will give you an idea of the kind of topics you might learn at that university and in that department.

So, here’s how you can do some basic research about the faculty at a particular university.  I’m going to use my own alma mater – Pomona College – as an example.

1. Go the main web site.
2. Find the page that deals with individual departments, often called “majors.”  It will often be under the heading, “Academics.”
3. Click on the major or department that you’re interested in researching.  Generally speaking, this will give you a link to more information about the major.  In my case, I’m going to choose my old department, English, and I am sent to the department’s own web page.
4. Look for a list of courses in order to see the subjects taught at the department.  Also look for a list of faculty to see the names of the professors.  Often the faculty list will include information about each professor’s interests.
5. At this point, you’ll already have access to a lot of information about the department in which you’re interested.  You’ll know what courses are offered and a little about the professors in the department.  If you want more, though, try Googling the name of a faculty member.  For example, if I Google a particular professor (one of my favorites from my own college days), I find a link to an article he wrote for the LA Times. Reading it gives me some insight into his interests, his style of writing and thinking, and his opinons.  For really advanced research, you might even go to Google Scholar and type in a professor’s name.  This will show you  publications a particular professor has written, and sometimes provide free links to those resources.
6. Finally, you can find out what students think of a professor at ratemyprofessor.com.

The bottom line is that, in this day and age, you don’t have to settle for only the most basic information about a university.  You can use the internet to do very detailed research about individual departments and even professors.  Doing so will give you a wonderful insight into the academic life at a U.S. university.

For your consideration: Do you know what subjects you are interested in studying in the U.S.?  Have you looked at the faculty and courses of that deparment at any individual U.S. universities?

Posts in this Series

1. Conclusion - How to Choose a U.S. University - 02 Jun
2. Activities Around a University Campus - 01 Jun
3. Check Out U.S. Universities on iTunes U - 26 May
4. Extracurricular Activities - 25 May
5. Get to Know Your Potential Professors (This post)
6. Don't Forget Your Life! - 20 May
7. What Do You Want to See in the U.S.? - 19 May
8. How Many International Students go to your Chosen University? - 18 May
9. The Problem with University Rankings - 17 May
10. Using Facebook to Research Universities - 14 May
11. Look at the Surrounding Neighborhoods When Looking at a U.S. University - 13 May
12. How Weather Should Factor Into Your Search for a U.S. University - 12 May
13. Looking for a University in the United States: Cost of Living - 11 May
14. Looking for a University in the United States - 10 May

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Tags: how do I research professors?, research about study in the U.S., researching departments at U.S. universities, researching faculty at U.S. universities, researching professors at U.S. universities

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 21st, 2009 at 3:37 am and is filed under Choosing a Program, Choosing a University. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.