Graduate Programs

     This past fall (Fall 2003) we had 15 students enrolled in our MA program and 28 enrolled in our doctoral program. [1]  53% (23 out of  43) of the enrolled students were male, 47% female. Nine students (21%) are students of color, up from 13% a year ago.

Cohort Quality

   Looking at incoming graduate students, quality as reflected in GRE scores has fluctuated somewhat over the past three admission cycles, but appears to reflect solid student quality. Looking at matriculated students for Fall 02 and 03, and admitted students for Fall 04, the average total GRE scores have gone from 1110 to 1230 to 1141 (medians: 1080, 1260,1125).  The breakdown of GRE component scores, verbal and quantitative, appears below for the three cohorts. The first figure shows the median component scores, since medians are usually a better indicator of the "middle" of a distribution with a small set of non-normally distributed scores. The following figure shows the average.[2] 

   The average component scores immediately below indicate we are doing better than the national average for incoming criminal justice graduate students in the Fall of 03. For criminal justice, the average GRE Verbal score is 461 (sd=105) and the average GRE Quantitative score is 516 (sd=133). Our Fall 03 cohort is about one half of a standard deviation above the national average in the discipline.

   Compared to all incoming graduate students in the College of Liberal Arts, our Fall 03 cohort looks markedly above the average for Quantitative scores (677 vs. the CLA average of 581) and slightly below the average for Verbal scores (553 vs. the CLA average of 579).

Student Involvement in Research Projects
   Our graduate students continue to be actively involved in research projects. For the academic year 03-04, a total of 19 graduate students held funded positions. Of those 19:

• six held positions on externally funded research projects;
• three held positions on internally funded research projects;
• six were funded as teaching assistants by CLA
• one was funded on an externship within the department
• three held fellowships supported by the Graduate School

The sources of external funding for our graduate students seemed to be smaller in 03-04 than in 02-03, due in part to a phasing out of a longstanding research project headed up by Phil Harris and Peter Jones, and the ending in January of another multi-year funding project, the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) Program, by the National Institute of Justice.[4]

   Students' research involvement leads them to present or co-author journal articles and presentations at national conferences. At the November meetings of the American Society of Criminology, graduate students appeared as co-authors on numerous papers. Three different graduate students presented findings (Monica Williams, Rob D'Ovidio, and Brian Lawton).

Doctoral Degrees Produced

Although no doctoral degrees were granted during AY 03-04, by the end of summer 04 two students completed all the requirements for the degree: Rob D'Ovidio, who currently holds a position at Drexel University, and Jeff Monroe, who currently holds a position at Xavier University.

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[1]  This excludes additional students who are enrolled in the program but were not taking credits this semester.
[2]  These numbers do not match the Temple University Graduate School numbers for FA 03 new registered graduate students (GRE Verbal=539 average; GRE Quantitative=622 average). Their numbers are based on 9 students; ours are based on six. The Graduate School numbers were distributed with a memo from Graduate School Dean Aquiles Iglesias on 2/13/2004.
[3] The CLA average scores were supplied in the memo referenced immediately above.
[4] NIJ ended all ADAM sites in January of 2004.