Going forward, I am only going to take ads from programs that I think are worth considering (the PGR will be a pretty good benchmark for that, but schools should feel free to ask me). Because many prospective students look to the blog for guidance on quality, including the quality of programs, it occurs to me that I should not accept ads from programs that I would not myself recommend as worth considering for some students. I’ve had to tell a couple of programs that already, but to save time, I thought I should adopt an official, public policy.

Cyberspace is big, of course, and there are certainly blogs that will advertise any programs willing to pay and without regard to merit. But here, at least, if an ad for a program appears, it will be one that, in my fairly informed opinion, is worth taking seriously. (I am not applying that standard to books, since I can’t read everything and outside my areas of expertise, no one is reading this blog for my book recommendations. I have on rare occasion declined to run a book ad when I thought the subject was not appropriate for this blog’s readership, but that has happened only rarely.)