<p>I applied to two schools - Cornell and Georgetown for their PhD programs in Arabic Linguistics. Now I can't decide between them -- Georgetown has quite a bit of prestige within the field -- Cornell has a smaller department but faculty includes some well-known professors. Cornell is offering a much better financial package than Georgetown - even though the two packages are almost identical numerically, Ithaca NY has a much lower cost of living than D.C. so while I'll be living comfortably on both, I'll be living QUITE a bit more comfortably in Ithaca (and it is a 5 year thing & finances are important because I'm not in a position to fund anything at all, or in a mood to take any loans.)</p>
<p>Cornell is a bit isolated and less known internationally while Georgetown is in D.C. and is quite well-known internationally (I'd heard of it quite a bit before I moved to the US, while most of the Ivies I'd never heard of.) Cornell has more prestige here in the U.S. though I think.</p>
<p>The faculty at Cornell so far seems like they'll "pamper" me more - they afford much more liberty to their grad-students and I'll be one of 5 in the department (the others are in their 3rd of 4th year) - Georgetown has a much more "structured" program with about 27 graduate students in the Department of Arabic and Islamic studies (not only linguistics) - they have a much wider array of set courses (on subjects that I would have to do one-on-one independent studies w/ profs at Cornell). They really do a lot of the work when it comes to organizing your studies for you, but at the same time give much less latitude to the graduate students (or so it seems.)</p>
<p>So -- any grad students at either university have any advice? (or anyone else with a knowledge of the field).</p>
<p>I asked a colleague in Islamic Studies, and he told me that in general, Georgetown carries much more weight than Cornell in terms of academic employability in your field. As a side note, he mentioned that Georgetown's SAIS resources are excellent, and can absolutely be exploited to your advantage while there.</p>
<p>But, I should add that I usually advise most aspiring PhD students to Follow The Money -- not just to stay out of debt, but because by offering such support, a department is demonstrating its confidence in you, and its commitment to seeing you through the program. Given this, I would advise you to check into Cornell's recent placement record. If you know who your advisor will be, inquire as to how well s/he places his/her advisees.</p>
<p>Of course, all of this advice assumes your goal is the professoriate.</p>
<p>Not too helpful, I realize, but there it is...</p>
<p>How do you like the faculty that you'll be working with? That's pretty key, along with the money considerations. If you really click with one advisor vs the other, then you're going to be a heck of a lot happier (and possibly a good measure more successful) if you go with the one that you like.</p>
<p>A happy grad student is a prolific grad student...!</p>
<p>Hi Prof. X and Aibarr -- thanks for the advice!</p>
<p>Georgetown is definitely a much more well known school in my field (I've read numerous articles/books published by faculty there OR published through their university press) -- the faculty there has been in touch and seems very nice, but I just get this feeling that I'll be a little lost in the crowd (considering its a big department). At the same time though, I know it carries a lot of "umph" to have a degree from there in Arabic linguistics.</p>
<p>Cornell has a much smaller program but it seems to be a bit more within my comfort zone -- the faculty has been taking a lot of personal interest and there are whisperings that my to-be-adviser has been approached with a large endowment to really develop the program there -- as far as I know, I'll be the only PhD student in that area so is that a good r</p>
<p>You said it yourself you would be living much more comfortably in Ithaca. The program will also be smaller and has the Ivy league endowment making conference funding easier and more available. I would go with Cornell. Anyway, it's Ivy league</p>