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LinkedIn's New Graduate School Rankings: Taking the Guesswork out of Grad School Decisions

With graduation just around the corner, hundreds of thousands of students are anxiously preparing to either launch into their careers or head to graduate school. We have some exciting news to share today for the latter group, but first, a little story. In March 2009, I was working as a Product Marketing Manager in an 80-person Israeli software company that develops software solutions for travel businesses. After two years in the role, I was ready for my next play and was looking for ways to accelerate my career towards my longer term goal - building great consumer products that would improve the lives of millions of people around the world in a meaningful way.

Like many other recent graduates and young professionals, I had to decide between extending my higher education (going to graduate school) or pursuing more practical experiences. It was a tough choice, but ultimately, I chose grad school. It was the right decision for me, but it opened the door to a new challenge - determining which school was right for me.

No two graduate programs are the same. Going in, you should have an idea of what kind of investment will be required, both in terms of time and finances. Be prepared to ask questions - what have other graduates gone on to do? Who hires graduates like me? What are the top schools for my area of interest? Where can I find alumni from these universities to get honest feedback on the program I’m considering?

Six years after my graduation, finding these answers is about to become easier than ever because today, LinkedIn is introducing Graduate School Rankings based on career outcome data.

By analyzing the employment patterns of over 347+ million LinkedIn members from around the world, we were able to determine which graduate schools are the most successful in launching their graduates into successful careers at desirable companies. In other words, these rankings are based not on what happens before or during school, but the career outcomes that follow graduation.

When coupled with tools like LinkedIn's Alumni Tool, Field of Study Explorer, School Finder and Decision Boards, you can get a more complete picture of what potential career paths after graduation could look like.

So, if you or someone you know is in the market for a grad school, check out LinkedIn’s new Graduate Rankings tool. Our goal is to provide our members with tools that remove the guesswork from this extremely important decision and I am extremely proud to be part of a team at LinkedIn tasked with making it possible! Take a look and let me know what you think in the comments section of my LinkedIn post.