Once students finish their Masters courses, the next step for many of them is to join a doctorate program. Getting a doctorate in any field is very prestigious. But that prestige will only come about if the program is completed from a renowned university. The students then have to sit down and make a short list of all the best universities that they can apply to. The first thing that modern day students do is to go online because that is where most of the information is available.

For many students in India the website of the University Grants Commission is normally the first place that they would look. For students in the United States studying in one of the Ivy League colleges is a matter of great pride. Oxford and Cambridge are where you would go if your academic life was in the United Kingdom.

But these are not the only colleges that one has as options. There are many other colleges that one can go to which are equally good and whose name carries a great deal of value in academic circles. Some students focus all their attention on only the elite colleges and fail to pay importance to other colleges that might offer a good education, while at the same time being easier to get into.

Many students like to join a PhD program that is run by a reputed professor and that usually determines the college that they choose. However, it is not just enough to choose a college; one also has to get accepted in the college. In this regard the students have to check what the admission requirements for the PhD program are and make sure that they are able to meet those requirements. There are thus many factors that help students decide whether they can enter into a PhD program or not.