Proposed new group: soc.college.gradinfo
Replaces proposal for soc.college.grad and soc.college.grad.d
Replaces previous proposal for misc.grad-schools
Summary of the proposed new group:
soc.college.gradinfo To be used exclusively for periodic announcements,
in standard form, describing graduate programs.
On January 29, 1991, I initiated a CFD for a new group, misc.grad-schools,
for the dissemination of information about graduate programs. The
proposal concept received considerable support and no criticisms, but
there was a lot of discussion about the best name for the new news
group, both through e-mail and in news.groups. As a result, I posted a
second CFD, similar to the first in concept, but proposing two new
groups, (both under the existing soc.college hierarchy), soc.college.grad
for announcements, and soc.college.grad.d for discussions. This new
structure also received a number of criticisms, particularly through e-mail,
suggesting that soc.college.grad.d was unnecessary, and that followup
discussions could just be placed in soc.college. There was also a
consistent comment that soc.college.gradinfo or a similar name would
better describe the goals of the group than soc.college.grad.
This will hopefully be the final CFD for the new group, which I now
suggest should be a single group with the name soc.college.gradinfo.
Since there appears to be general agreement that there is a need for
the new group, and also that there is no clear cut name that the group
should have, this name at least seems to be as good as any other, and
I hope that we can agree on it. If there are no major objections,
I’ll issue a CALL FOR VOTES on Saturday, March 9th. As discussed in
the last CFD, this will be an unmoderated group, which reflects my
belief that groups should only be moderated if there are demonstrated
reasons to do so. To keep things in order I will post a regular
monthly posting that explains the group "rules", and will also send
polite e-mail messages to anyone who goes outside the spirit of the
rules.
Charter for soc.college.gradinfo:
This news group will be restricted to the dissemination of information
about graduate programs. Currently there are a number of relatively
expensive (and often ineffective) ways for graduate schools to distribute
information including fliers, Peterson’s Guides, professional society
student directories, etc. The proposed new group would provide an
additional, simple place for students who are looking for graduate school
information. In addition, for many international students it would
become the best way for obtaining information about universities in other
countries.
This will be an unmoderated group, but with a set of rules that are posted
each month. These rules would be designed to keep the group as effective
as possible as an official source of information for prospective graduate
students. There will be four conventions or rules:
1. Standard Subject line, listing the degree area and the university.
e.g. Subject: Computer Science, Montana State University
2. Standard format in the body of the proposal. Information to be
filled in should include:
(a) Name, e-address, phone, and snail-address for a contact point.
(b) Faculty names, degrees, interests, and e-addresses.
(c) Facilities available for graduate students.
(d) Availability of financial support.
(e) Degrees offered.
(f) Specific requirements. (e.g., GRE, TOEFL, TSE, etc.)
(g) Deadline for applications.
(h) Description of the university and location (150 words max).
3. No department will be able to post more than once each month.
4. All postings must specify a followup field of soc.college
This is a revised CFD for the proposed new group. In addition to
soc.college, misc.education, and other similar groups, I have cross-posted
to some of the larger overseas soc.culture groups since their readers are
likely to benefit from the proposal, but following the normal USENET
guidelines for group creation, all followups are directed to news.groups,
where discussion should take place.
Denbigh S.
star…@cs.montana.edu, star…@mtsunix1.bitnet
406-994-4780 (work), 406-586-7614 (home)