<p>Hi All,
so I'm having a bit of a dilemma in deciding what to do with respect to graduate school. I am a BME major with a neuroscience minor, and I'm trying to pick which graduate schools to apply to. I have around a 3.8 GPA and have worked in a research lab for the past two years, although admittedly I have no first authorships to show for it, only abstracts. Regardless, I work in the lab of a very respected professor, internationally renowned in his field, and know that staying and working in his lab is an option. I'm interested in the research quite a bit, but have heard many negative comments with respect to going to graduate school at your undergraduate institution. How does everyone else feel about this? Does it look that bad?</p>
<p>I'd take a look around elsewhere and see what you can find. If there's nothing else that seems promising, then it shouldn't be that big of a deal if you stick around with the same professor through your schooling career.</p>
<p>Just keep in mind you'll lose out on a bit of networking and some life experiences of living in a different area than you've been for the past four years.</p>
<p>Usually professors from your department like to see you go to another school for Graduate work. I think its due to the fact that they'd like you to network and I also see it that if your dept lacked in something(my undergrad dept lacked in polymer science) and you stay there, you may end up deficient in that as compared to others. So it'd be good to go to another school for Graduate work.</p>
<p>In your case, it seems that at least the one professor you work for would be fine with you doing your grad work there. If your program is good, you think its the best fit, and you're working with a person and research you want to, you've at least got one of your three top choices. On a side note, you should look at other programs and people you'd like to work with; what's better than having worked with one world renowned professor? Having worked with two!</p>
<p>In my experience, it is less of a stigma in engineering than in some other fields. At my undergrad alma mater, pretty much all the engineering departments accepted their own undergrads for grad programs preferentially - some <em>extremely</em> preferentially.</p>
<p>Already having an adivsor that you work well with and trust is such a huge benefit, such a big leg up over so many people. People get abused, exploited, and delayed by their grad advisors all the time, including at top schools. And here, you have someone where you know what you're getting, and what you're getting is good! That doesn't necessarily mean you should stay, but if I were you, I'd have to have some awfully good other options before I'd leave.</p>
<p>Don't worry about how it looks. Think about how happy you'll be, and the quality of education you'll get. Personally, I wouldn't stay at my undergrad institution for anything short of a full-tuition-remission-and-fee-waiver-$30,000/year stipend w/ extra for travel fellowship and complimentary laptop. I don't like the town and it would be uncomfortable to cross the line between "introductory chem lecturer" and "personal adviser and career shaper for the next 4/5 years." But if you're happily situated and know this potential adviser relatively well (and are already familiar with his research, have made it into the list of names at the top of one of his papers etc.) go for it. Just make sure to go to plenty of conferences to make up for the networking lag :)</p>
<p>Thanks I appreciate all the advice. I don't think I put the name of my institution - it's duke - if that changes anyones opinion. But all in all I found the advice very useful and I'll be sure to explore my options but I think the general consensus, and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, is that not going to a school solely because it was your undergraduate institution is not a particularly reasonable decision.</p>