If you want to build on your education by attending grad school, you will have a variety of options available. While returning to your previous or current university might seem like the easy choice, another school might have a better reputation or curriculum. This page gives some tips on how to choose a grad school.

• While you should apply to several grad schools, you might not be able to apply to all that interest you, if you have many different ones in mind. Regardless of how many schools you do apply to, you will eventually need to make a decision on which one to choose. Be prepared by having a priority in mind before the acceptance letters (hopefully) start arriving. For more information on how to improve the chances of acceptance letters in the mail, see Mahalo's guide on How to Get Into Grad School.

Before you even begin to look at grad programs and research them thoroughly, do yourself a favor and know exactly what the accreditation status is of the university, and of the program itself if there is any. Why? There is no point in discovering after the fact that your degree will have to be retaken because that university accreditation will not be accepted by other graduate programs or in the workplace for jobs you want. But that is not fair you say, I didn't know - well now you know that there could be a problem and this one step could save you a lot of money, time and headaches so you need to get it right.

This is further complicated by the fact that there are many accrediting bodies and how do you know which one is best? The one that is accepted for what you want to do is what you need. A simple way to do this if the accrediting body issue becomes too complex to figure out, to be sure simply ask your employer and other universities do they fully accept qualifications from that university or program?

For example almost all jobs for librarians need an American Library Association accredited degree. If yours is not you miss out on probably 90% of the jobs as an estimate and maybe more, or are paid less than a fully qualified librarian. I will add more information about accrediting bodies either in this section or below when I have the chance because it is so critical.

It is true that you may indeed be doing a final graduate degree and not need to use the qualifications for the workplace and that is alright. You may be perfectly happy with a regionally accredited program about a topic you like, in fact it may be the best choice for you personally and it also may not matter to you that online degrees may not be as readily accepted for some jobs as classroom degrees. Accreditation is an attempt to keep quality up and maybe the program you choose is high quality but cannot qualify for national traditional accreditation for various reasons that do not concern you. But what I am saying here is that you need to be clear about the facts so that you can make your decisions with the information you need to make the right choices. Remember also, that once you get into it you may decide to go on and do more education when you did not plan on it before so leaving your options open can be a good idea for some.

The grad school or schools you choose to apply for and hopefully get accepted at will change the entire direction of your life. It is therefore very important to really know who you are, what you want, what you are capable of, what resources do you need, can you get the support you need, what internal and external factors will impact your decision, and how do the program choices mesh with all of this to give you the best options for success and happiness too. A tall order! I will start a brief checklist of things to consider, which you can expand on to fit your own situation so that you can write down clearly on a page the pros and cons of each option you are considering to help you and relevant people recommend what is best for you.

• Depending on your situation and budget, you might be open to any grad school or you might need to limit your choices to a state or area. If you have a family, attending the closest grad school might be your only option. If you don't have any specific limitations, consider the reputation of the school before the location. Grad school is for a few years, but you will make use of your degree for many years to come.

• Choosing a grad school is a process that includes several steps. Before narrowing your choices, you should research as many schools as possible.

1. Ask faculty at the university where you got your undergraduate degree for tips on good schools.
2. Research different schools' reputation in the field where you want to work after graduating. The reputation of the school will be of more importance to some fields than others.
3. Determine how much you can afford to pay for grad school.
4. Ask for information packages from schools that interest you.

• After researching the schools that interest you, it's time to narrow down your choices. Apply to several grad schools and expect several acceptance letters, but make a personal decision on which schools you would prefer to attend. There are several factors to consider.

1. What is the faculty's experience in the field they are teaching? For some academic fields, academic experience is the only experience necessary. In other fields, hands-on experience will provide faculty with better knowledge to provide you guidance and knowledge for your career path.
2. Find statistics on alumni, such as what types of fields they work in and how soon after graduating they find a job.
3. Does the grad school focus on theoretical or practical experience?
4. What kind of research do the department conduct? What area in your field to they focus on?