Most students, applying for an MS, make the mistake of selecting universities based solely magazine rankings such as US News Ranking. Though these rankings do provide a good starting point especially if you do not have any clue about universities, they should not be the only criterion for selection of a university. Rankings use their own standard for evaluation of universities which may or may not fit your background, needs and goals. So it is important that you spend some time reflecting on your goals and interests and carefully research schools that fit you.

There are many sources which can help you identify and research graduate programs. Some of the online sources include:
http://www.usnews.com
http://www.gradschools.com
http://www.petersons.com
http://www.phds.org/
http://gradschool.about.com/cs/programdatabase/

Once you have a broader list of universities using the above sources, you can narrow down the list. Some useful contacts to narrow down your list are:

• Alumni - Identify Alumni of your alma matter who are currently enrolled in graduate studies in your subject area. Even if you don’t know them very well, they might be more than willing to help you and offer advice.
• Personal Contacts – Poll all your personal contacts to see if they know anyone or have any information on the universities in your list. May be your dad’s friend’s nephew might have gone for higher studies and he might be able to offer some advice on good graduate programs in your area of interest.
• Professors at your college – Since most of the past students would be getting recommendations from your college professors, they might be a good resource to tap into to find out which universities do most of your alma matter prefer going to and they might even be able to provide some contacts of alumni.
• Professors at the school, you want to apply to – You might want to contact professors in target schools to find out more about the research and curriculum in your area of interest

Talking to past or present students not only provides you with a clear idea of what to expect during and after graduate studies and also enables you to make an intelligent and informed decision regarding the schools you want to apply. As an additional bonus, they also might give you good content to add to your SOP especially where you address “Why are you applying to this particular school”.