<p>Has anyone else gone to UCSD instead of a higher ranked or more prestigious institution for a CS PhD? I chose UCSD over UCLA because one of my professors thought UCSD was a better school, and because UCSD has in recent years had a better overall publication record, but now I am worried I made the wrong choice. In fact quite distraught, cannot even sleep at night. Can anyone give some reasons why UCSD might be better than UCLA, or another more prestigious school, for CS? I am considering reapplying next year to UCLA and other schools, but maybe I should just go to UCSD... :(</p>
<p>In the case of a PhD, your advisor/lab is more important than the program.</p>
<p>In what way?</p>
<p>-placement of graduates?
-publication record?
-niceness?
-number of grants?
-practicality of the research area?
-prestige in the field?</p>
<p>Your advisor is the one who’s going to be vouching for you and writing your most important recommendation down the road. Your department name/location doesn’t matter that much.</p>
<p>-placement of graduates
I would say this is most important if you want to stay in academia after grad school. If a lot of alumni in the lab got post-doc positions in great labs, and/or are current faculty members, then - as astrina mentioned - the professor will likely vouch for you too. If you want to go into industry or do something not in academia, it’s not as critical.</p>
<p>-publication record
Yes. This is one of the main things I looked at when considering potential advisors. Especially look at the publication record of previous grad students. Again, if the advisor is able to mentor his students well enough to have them get good publications, it is likely he will do the same for you. </p>
<p>-Niceness
This depends on the person. I personally wanted an advisor who was approachable, and not someone who gave me fear or anxiety (I am a fairly emotionally-sensitive person). However, some people are fine having an advisor who is a great scientist with a lot of funding, even if he is a jerk. It just depends. </p>
<p>-Number of grants
Well, not necessarily number of grants, but the amount of funding overall is definitely important. I have heard of grad students who had to switch labs because the PI didn’t have enough funding. Make sure to ask about this. </p>
<p>-Practicality of research area
I think this is mostly important if you want to go into industry after grad school. Are you worried about doing a ton of research and not being able to apply what you learned afterwards because it’s not that popular of a field? In that case, I guess you could look into fields that are newer and more “cutting-edge”. I think picking a field that you are very passionate about is the most important, though. </p>
<p>-Prestige in the field
I suppose this is important, but it’s correlated with some of the other factors you mentioned (placement of graduates, publication record, number of grants).</p>
<p>I am not too familiar with the CS department at UCSD. But I’m pretty sure there are several CS professors at UCSD who would fall into these categories, and be great advisors.</p>
<p>astrina – thanks, that makes sense.</p>
<p>TwylaBloo – thanks again!</p>