<p>Ok, I have a question about choosing grad schools to apply to because some of my professors say that you should pick a program because of its reputation because professors can leave, get sick, die, etc. Others tell me that you should pick based on the professors there because their interests have to match yours. It shouldn't be about the "name."</p>
<p>Does prestige come in at all? Do USNWR and other rankings matter at all when it comes to grad school? Do faculty interests come before the name of the school?</p>
<p>I mean, it wouldn't make sense for a person who studies Ecuador to go to a school where no professors are familiar with Ecuador even if it was a top school, but besides that?</p>
<p>Depends on the field of study. Medical school, for instance, generally doesn’t matter. However, in ultra-competitive fields like business, the name on your MBA is going to make a world of difference.</p>
<p>You should select based upon both. What kind of graduate school are you talking about? How much each will weigh into your decision depends largely upon what kind of school you are planning to attend. If you are going to a professional master’s program, the reputation of the program (and, to a certain extent, the university) will matter more than the actual professors themselves. If you are going to a science PhD program, then the professor/advisor you work with is probably the factor that most influences your academic experience and your first job out of grad school.</p>
<p>If your goal is a PhD, then the reputation does matter to a certain extent. Graduates of top programs have an easier time finding jobs - both inside and outside of academia. This is especially true if you are entering a saturated field - if you want to be a professor of English, history, philosophy, etc., then it’s especially important that you pick a top-ranked, well-reputed program. Prestige per se isn’t the important part; it’s the reputation of the program amongst other scholars in your field. Penn State, for example, may not be a very prestigious place but they may have one of the top 10 programs in your field.</p>
<p>But the reputation of your advisor and the research they do is also of paramount importance, especially in the sciences. Sure, professors can get sick, die, and leave - which is why you should choose a department where there is more than one person doing something related to/interesting to you and your own interests. That way, in case Professor X gets poached by Harvard, you can still work with Professor Y (unless Professor X decides to bring you to Harvard with him). Still, you should assume that the vast majority of tenured professors are probably going to stay put for a couple of years, and you should be selecting programs primarily on the basis of your research interests. It’s better, IMO, to go to the #12 program that has the top person doing the research YOU really want to do than it is to go to the #1 program where there is no one doing your work. Otherwise, you may be forced into working on something that is disinteresting to you, and a PhD is hard enough without being forced to work on boring work.</p>
<p>So the tl;dr version is that both matter, but if a program is well-reputed enough (e.g., top 20ish) I would pick based upon interests over ranking.</p>
<p>And the USNWR rankings are kind of eh for PhD programs. I’d go with the NRC rankings.</p>
<p>ok thanks! I’m specifically wondering about a PhD program for anthropology.</p>
<p>^Yep, then all of the above applies. Anthropology is a competitive field to get a faculty position in, so you want to go to a well-reputed program (top 20-30 at least, I would say). But you also want to work in someone’s research group/lab/whatever who can supervise you in the kind of work you want to do. The closeness of topic is less important in a field like anthropology, in which your work is a lot more independent and you’re expected to do your own fieldwork for a year or so (as opposed to a STEM field, where you might use some of your advisor’s data in your dissertation). Still, though, you need someone who is familiar with work similar to yours. Plus, that person’s network is useful when it is time to find jobs.</p>