<p>I'm graduating next May so I'll start grad school either in May or September. I've been talking to Profs at a few schools. </p>
<p>One of them is from a middle of the pack school but has great industry connections. </p>
<p>Another is form a top 5 school but this particular Prof doesn't seem to have very good industry connections. </p>
<p>I'd say I'm not significantly interested in 1 project over the other. </p>
<p>Heres the real kicker. The Prof from the mid level school wants to know whether I want to work for him at the beginning of September. </p>
<p>The Prof from the top 3 school won't take me unless I win a national scholarship which will provide almost all of the funding meaning he will not have to pay me from his own funding. A big problem is that I don't know if I will win this scholarship until April, which is months after the mid level school wants to know. </p>
<p>Honestly, I’d go with the mid level school professor. Connections are solid gold, and working with someone that wants to work with you means that you’ll get good reviews and recommendations.</p>
<p>However, I would ask why you think the top level school’s professor doesn’t have good industry connections.</p>
<p>I was looking through the top level Prof’s projects and it doesn’t seem that any of them are working with industry. I asked him about it and he said that most of his projects are in collaboration with other schools or funded by the government instead of industry. However, maybe he knows people in industry personally but i get the sense that the mid level school prof knows a lot more.</p>
<p>Connections and experience matter. I would probably go with the mid-level option. Even if the top professor was the better option (which I don’t think he is), you are not important to him. Also, it would be a huge risk to hang your hopes on winning a scholarship.</p>
<p>i didn’t mention in my first post that one of my long term goal is to be a Prof. Would going to this make going to a big name school a better choice while still considering the circumstances above?</p>
<p>Then industry connections don’t matter. Go with the professor whose work interests you, who you can work with for many years, who will allow you to publish and who will help you to make connections in academia.</p>
<p>I still think that waiting for a possible scholarship is really risky.</p>
<p>thanks a lot for responding to my threads, lkf725.</p>
<p>I’d still keen on industry connections as I’m thinking of working for a while after my masters, then getting a phD to teach. </p>
<p>I still have 1 more year in undergrad and i don’t know if i can cut it as a Prof. I’m thinking that if i go for a Prof with more industry connections it’ll be safer if my goal of being a Prof doesn’t work out.</p>