Post Academic

Caroline passed along some information on thegradcafe.com, which is definitely a helpful all-in-one resource for propsective grad students–and a site where career academics could easily web-browse their time away during their office hours.  Basically a combination of the Academic Jobs Wiki and the WRK4US listserv for those just starting grad school or looking into it as a possibility, it’s a one-stop site that combines blogs, archived discussion threads, and the “Results Search” board, which compiles grad school admissions decisions uploaded by the site’s members.  According to thegradcafe.com home page, the database includes news of 85,358 decisions–and counting!  While the decisions aren’t categorized and sorted by discipline like the Academic Jobs Wiki is, the database is searchable by keywords.

And overall, the online experience of thegradcafe.com is probably more complete than a wiki or an email listserv, since the site is very well done and so easy and intuitive to navigate.  I definitely wish I had this, oh, 13 years ago when I was applying to Ph.D. programs, although I’m sure it would’ve been frustrating to constantly refresh the “Results Search” using my dial-up connection.  It just goes to show that next generation of students are probably a lot more tech savvy, and that (their future) teachers have a lot to learn from the (prospective) students.

The Grad Cafe