<p>Vermont is ranked 63 overall and 30 in Research and Utah is ranked 72 overall and 52 in Research.</p>
<p>So far I have been rejected from UCSD and UCSF and U of Mich, and am still waiting on UCLA ACCESS, UCI, Chicago, Columbia, Stanford, Minnesota, Iowa, and Johns Hopkins.</p>
<p>Assuming I don't get any more interviews, what are peoples thoughts on attending Utah/Vermont for a PhD in Neuroscience given the rankings? How much will this impact my career? Granted they are still a Top 50/Top 100 school, but in terms of research, will this affect my Post-Doc? I realize the facilities a school has might not be as good as lets say Standford or UCLA, but they are still good are they not?</p>
<p>This is most likely field-dependent. I recommend messaging someone like molliebatmit, who might know more about your field. </p>
<p>In fields I am more familiar with (pen and paper, no labs) there’s not much reason other than simply that “big names attract strong faculty”, that you won’t find great faculty resources at schools below top 10. </p>
<p>Postdoc -> tenure track -> tenure is progressively harder than grad school admissions, as far as I can tell. </p>
<p>The real question is whether the PhD is worth it to you even if you didn’t get any position in academia. There is definitely a high probability that many at a top 50-100 school won’t get the job in academia they want, because it’s already hard for those who attend higher ranked schools. There’s also the question of how much your PhD will help you in getting non-academia jobs.</p>
<p>Also, consider that if you get a research assistantship with a professor who is well known in his or her field, that might make up for the “low” school ranking.</p>
<p>Understand, that there are probably HUNDREDS of Neuro programs out there; USN does NOT list them all. I would say if a program is even listed, that is a count in their favor. However USN only presents one side of the story. You seriously need to check out NRC or Phd.org to see how these programs REALLY measure up. </p>
<p>The biggest issues you realistically should have is: what kind of research are they doing, and what is their funding situation -</p>
<p>Are you still in college? Talk to some professors in your field. Also, you can talk to Utah and Vermont and see what their placement rate looks like. Do graduates get jobs in your field after graduation? Where?</p>