<p>Hello Everyone,</p>
<p>I have been accepted into both a top 13 and top 30 school for my PhD. I am currently at the top 13 school and I really like what I do. But some very interesting research is going on at the top 30 school that I've always wanted to do and it will be with a world-renowned professor. My current advisor is fairly new, but he has a lot of recognition as well. My end goal is to be a professor and I understand that the rank of the school can play a big factor. Does anyone think that the rank will be that important in this scenario? Am I seeing everything clearly here? Are there factors that I am not taking into consideration?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>What PhD program are you interested in doing?
What are the names of the school?</p>
<p>The ranking does matter a bit but when you’re talking about menial differences like No. 13 and No. 30 or something I’m sure they both are very prestigious and a lot of research going on.</p>
<p>@Ctesiphon Thank you for your response. I am interested in Computer Science. Machine learning, specifically. I’d rather not give the names because I don’t know if that is considered good etiquette or not.</p>
<p>But there is definitely great research at both institutes!</p>
<p>The general rule of thumb is that it is better to change universities from B.S. to Ph.D. There are a number of reasons for this but the most important is that you broaden your experience.</p>
<p>Don’t fret the rankings, between 13 and 30 there is not a lot of difference and the faculty mentor is more important than the school ranking.</p>
<p>
Lose this ranking mentality once and for all; it does not flatter your approach. You can’t live your life this way (top 14 wife, top 18 state, top 22 company). Which dept. is the best match for your research?</p>
<p>Believe me, I don’t like the ranking mentality. But, talking to some of the professors at my school, they say that ranking is unfortunately used as a metric. Now, they might be exaggerating its importance because they want me to stay. But I’ve heard from impartial professors (professors who my decision doesn’t affect) that it is at least somewhat a factor. I think the top 30 school is best for my research.</p>
<p>Yes, ranking is used as a metric, but there are other things that are important. In many fields, the reputation of your PI/advisor and your lab are just as or more important. In my field, working with a world-renowned researcher at a top 30 program wouldn’t be any worse, and possibly better, than working with a relatively unknown advisor at a top 15 program. Also, of course your productivity is an important factor - publications and grant funding being of paramount importance in hiring. A well-published graduate student from a mid-ranked program will stand a better chance at getting hired than a grad student with no publications from a highly-ranked program.</p>
<p>I think with small differences, you should go wherever the research fit is the greatest. Yes, ranking is important to a certain extent, but that’s when you’re comparing like a top 5-10 program to like a top 50 program or something. There aren’t substantial differences, I would say, between top 15 and top 30 - not if you are working with a famous professor at School B. It also depends a lot on the field - some fields are impacted and so you need to go to a very highly ranked program to stand any chance of getting a tenure-track position, because there just aren’t a lot of positions. But in a lot of fields (and maybe CS is one of them), a lot of the students go to non-academic positions and so there’s less competition for tenure-track jobs, which means students from a wider range of schools get positions.</p>
<p>Here’s an exercise for you: go to the department homepages for computer science departments at the kinds of schools at which you might like to teach, and look where their professors got their PhDs. If you never see the top 30 school pop up, but the top 15 school pops up all the time…well, that’s something to take into consideration.</p>