<p>okay so, for undergrad in engineering, i think prestige and ranking matters up to a certain extent because the better programs tend to have better students, harder workloads, harder exams, and cover more material...leaving the student more prepared for work and more especially...grad school...</p>
<p>but i feel like once you get to grad school, that line disappears...i think anyone doing a thesis / research based MS or even more, PhD program in engineering is a top student...regardless of the schools they're at...workloads are the same...classes are VERY specialized...students spend hours and hours in the lab trying to figure out solutions to tough problems...all pretty much regardless of where they go...</p>
<p>what does everyone else think about this??</p>
<p>It matter a little, but much more important is who your advisor is. If you work for a well-known advisor in your field at a less-known school, that is better than an unknown advisor at MIT. Of course, those great advisors tend to be found in greater densities at the better schools.</p>
<p>right…like i feel that the rankings / prestige of graduate engineering programs are more based on the research potential of each school…so if you end up finding the research project of your dreams (and get the stipend funding money) at a lesser known school…it’s a win-win situation…</p>
<p>Again, having that well-known advisor helps though. Your advisor will be your connection to a lot of job opportunities, so having a good one is important. This is especially the case if you want a faculty position anywhere.</p>
<p>^ Absolutely true. Another thing to consider is the research grant you’re working on. It is likely to be far better, for example, to be working on an NSF contract at a so-called “second-tier” school than working unsponsored or on some minor program at a “top-tier” school.</p>
<p>There are only two real advantages of department prestige of which I am aware. </p>
<p>The first (as some have mentioned) is that “better” programs have a higher density of great advisors and funding opportunities - so MIT might have 12 great advisors out of 20 in a given department, but South Central Louisiana State (go Muddogs!!) might only have one out of 20. This is an especially big point if (as happened to me) you discover that your initial advisor choice was a mistake, and need a new “great advisor” to take you on.</p>
<p>The second is that at some point in your career you are going to be asking for something from people who will not reasonably be aware of your specific field or advisor. This happens quite often in non-academic hiring - while Penn State might have someone who knows the heavyweights in your specialty, getting a job in industry often requires the approval of one or more people who aren’t even engineers. This is also true on funding requests - organizations that shell out grant money cannot be expected to know who EVERYONE is. In these cases, people refer to the prestige of the department or school - if you tell a non-engineer that you went to MIT, they’ll be impressed even if you were the worst student of the worst advisor in the least competitive department there.</p>
<p>The other positive for being in a really strong school are the peers you’ll have. They’re going to be people you’ll probably know for the rest of your career, as well as great sources of inspiration for things to work on/collaborate with while you’re in school.</p>
<p>Everybody’s talking about advisors here, but nobody has asked the question “what do you plan on doing with your grad degree?” If you work in academics, being advised by Dr. Supergenious is going to be a lot more important than if you work in industry where its doubtful you’ll find someone who cares.</p>
<p>Except part of being an excellent advisor is having good connections in industry. A good advisor will be able to get you into academia or industry fairly easily.</p>
<p>Another consideration for me in my grad school search is to step up from my university.</p>
<p>
true. it also helps having people semi outside/veryclose to your immediate field to talk regarding research. you likely won’t see your advisor more then a few hours a week, so having someone to talk to about your research, and is familiar with the field, can help.</p>
<p>and consider the resources the university has available to them. if you want to do super advance particle physics research, its going to help having super computers on campus. like wise, if you’re field involves lots of field work in (say) marine biology, probably not a great idea to head to (say) university of nebraska.</p>