Joe Strong realized medical school wasn’t right for him in the summer before his senior year of college, leaving him little time to think of an alternate path. Through his volunteer work in the hospital and job shadowing in neurology clinics and other healthcare facilities, he knew he enjoyed working with older adults and wanted more opportunities to do so, but he was disenchanted with the roadblocks the insurance industry seemed to introduce into the care of these patients.

Graduate education at UT earned high marks in the new U.S. News and World Report rankings, with programs in business, law, engineering, information sciences, nursing, and education listed among the best in the nation.

Three of UT’s overall graduate programs took big steps forward in the lists:

• The Haslam College of Business graduate program is now 29th among public universities, up five spots from last year.
• The College of Law is now 31st among public institutions, up five spots from last year. Its clinical training program ranks 11th.
• The Tickle College of Engineering graduate program is now 33rd among public universities, up three spots from last year. Its aerospace engineering program is 25th and its computer engineering program is 28th. Biosystems engineering, a collaboration with the UT Institute of Agriculture, ranks 21st.

The success of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers is significantly enhanced by established mentoring relationships with faculty. An instrument that can assist both faculty and protégés with developing a formal structure to the mentoring process is the Individual Development Plan (IDP). IDPs provide a structure for the identification and achievement of career goals.