• List of PHD Programs Offered in the U.S.A.
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List of PHD Programs Offered in the U.S.A.

The Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) is the highest academic degree graduate students can earn in most fields of study. Students who earn this degree often go on to teach at the college level or pursue research positions. Prospective doctoral candidates can search for lists of Ph.D. programs by specialty, school ranking or graduate student population.

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How are Ph.D. Programs Listed?

Doctoral programs are available in most academic fields, including social sciences, natural sciences, humanities, arts, business, healthcare and education. Individual Ph.D. programs are highly field-specific and often selected based on faculty advisors as much as schools, so students seeking lists of Ph.D. programs may wish to narrow down a field of study first. Many students also select a specific focus within their fields, such as ancient history or molecular biology, in order to identify a school or program offering relevant faculty expertise and research opportunities.

Professional Organizations

Organizations for professionals in a specific field sometimes list and rank Ph.D. programs in their discipline in order to help prospective students choose the best program. For instance, a student who wishes to find Ph.D. programs in social psychology may consult the list maintained at the Social Psychology Network (www.socialpsychology.org), which also provides the psychology Ph.D. rankings from the National Research Council.

Survey-Based Ph.D. Ranking Lists

U.S. News & World Report ranks graduate schools based on peer reputation surveys and several data-based criteria, including graduation rates. The publication's rankings of best graduate schools are divided by subject, which allows students to find highly ranked Ph.D. programs in their fields.

The report's graduate school rankings include all graduate-level programs, but the graduate schools in the rankings all offer at least one doctoral program. The following schools offer Ph.D. programs ranked in the top ten of U.S. News & World Report's 2011 best graduate school rankings in multiple fields of study.

UniversityLocation
California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech) Pasadena, CA
Stanford University Stanford, CA
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA
Yale UniversityNew Haven, CT
Harvard UniversityCambridge, MA
Johns Hopkins UniversityBaltimore, MD
Carnegie Mellon UniversityPittsburgh, PA
Princeton UniversityPrinceton, NJ
University of California, BerkeleyBerkeley, CA
University of California, Los AngelesLos Angeles, CA

Population-Based Ph.D. Lists

Prospective doctoral students may also seek out lists of Ph.D. programs by size. The following universities are among the largest universities in the U.S. with Ph.D. programs.

UniversityTotal EnrollmentLocation
Arizona State University68,064Tempe, AZ
Ohio State University-Main Campus55,014Columbus, OH
University of Central Florida53,401Orlando, FL
The University of Texas at Austin50,995Austin, TX
University of Florida50,691Gainesville, FL
Texas A & M University-College Station48,702College Station, TX
Michigan State University47,071East Lansing, MI
University of Washington45,943Seattle, WA
Pennsylvania State University45,185University Park, PA
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign43,881Champaign, IL
Indiana University-Bloomington42,347Bloomington, IN
Purdue University41,052West Lafayette, IN
University of South Florida40,022Tampa, FL
Florida State University39,785Tallahassee, FL
Florida International University39,610Miami, FL
University of Arizona38,767Tucson, AZ
California State University-Fullerton36,262Fullerton, CA
Brigham Young University-Provo34,130Provo, UT
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