<p>Question is in the title. I kind of shot myself in the foot on this one, guys, since the college I'm currently attending arguably has the best program in the country with regards to what I want to study. As I know it's frowned upon to apply to, much less attend, the same school you graduated from for a PhD program, does anyone out there have any advice?</p>
<p>I've been told that I should apply to an MA program at another school and, after getting a degree there, to reapply here and hope I get accepted into the PhD program. Unfortunately, I'm not sure my wallet can take such a big hit; I was sort of counting on that stipend that comes with most PhD programs to either pay for me or to cushion the blow a little. (Yes, yes, I know. Counting chickens before they hatch and all that, yadda yadda.)</p>
<p>Any ideas or suggestions would be welcome! Thanks.</p>
<p>Talk to professors in your department and ask them what their policy is on accepting their own undergrads. If it’s one of the best in the field, then I believe that’s an exception to that rule, but it really depends on if the department will enforce that rule. For example, it’s not uncommon for an EE at MIT stay all the way through to a PhD. A lot of my professors here are also lifers.</p>
<p>@ mramypond The idea is that you’ll go somewhere else and learn different things from different people. As a scholar, you’re supposed to be exposed to many different ideas. It’s like how, in the old guild systems, a journeyman would go on a journey to learn from different masters.</p>
<p>I’m applying to my own undergrad institution, although honestly it’s not really where I want to end up. However, in your case, if your undergrad university really is the top in field, then I imagine it won’t be too much of an issue.</p>
<p>There was another thread about this exact issue, and one of the replies was about MIT. The poster said that there are many who attend MIT as an undergrad, then as a grad, and some even go on to become “lifers” by becoming professors there. If your university has <em>the</em> program, or one of the best, then it would be understandable that you’d want to continue there for grad school.</p>
<p>Academia may be global, but every department has its own quirks, and every professor has their own biases and beliefs they tend to indoctrinate their students with.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. I’ll get to talking to the undergraduate advisor of the department.</p>
<p>Well. Whenever she decides to answer my email, that is. On that note, how rude would it seem to throw another email her way if it’s been two weeks and she hasn’t bothered responding?</p>
<p>You haven’t said what field you’re in. In some fields, people don’t have qualms whatsoever about undergrads staying for grad school, whereas in others, people seriously discourage it.</p>
<p>Ancient Near Eastern studies (Mesopotamia; probably Assyriology, but possibly Hittitology), with more of an archaeology bent than a philology bent, though honestly, I’m pretty interested in all the subfields.</p>
<p>I think the humanities are one area where it is more important to go to different places for your degrees, although I’m a science person so I may not know what I’m talking about! Especially in the humanities, departments can have pretty clear ideological and methodological biases that you may not realize at all until you get some training elsewhere.</p>
<p>Your field is one where people often complete multiple degrees at the same institution. Every good archaeology department has a bunch of “lifers”!</p>
<p>It happens, but it is generally frowned upon. Usually it is a matter of balancing the marginal stigma of academic non-diversity with the reduced quality of the alternate schools. If the #2 school is almost as good, I would go there. If the #2 school is a pale shadow of #1, then just stay where you are.</p>
<p>The stigma, by the way, is that (as others here have noted) you experience fewer different systems, fewer points of view, etc. There is also the patronage problem - some students find professors who help them all the way through the PhD despite an otherwise mediocre talent. This is less common these days, but it still happens.</p>
<p>Happymomof1, your experience must be different than mine, but my professors have stressed the importance of attending a different school for doctoral studies, albeit for midwest archaeology. I understand that old world archaeology is a very different animal.</p>
<p>I also thought that actual departments of archaeology are quite rare in the US. Maybe that isn’t the case elsewhere?</p>
<p>Yup, “Old World” and “New World” are two different animals. Given that there are relatively few undergrad programs in Classical and/or Near Eastern Archaeology, and that they tend to be at institutions that also offer the better graduate programs, there are a fair number of students who stay for an M.A. or who leave for an M.A. but come back for a Ph.D. Back in the last century, the people from my department lined up for Toronto, Oxford, Cambridge, and Chicago depending on their specific interests, but several did “come home” eventually. I also know of a current faculty member who completed all three degrees in my old department, albeit with extensive field experience abroad in the region of interest.</p>
<p>Well, if you were an undergrad at, say, Yale, it’s certainly not a bad thing if you remain there for grad studies. Going to a top notch uni for an MA is important, but the most important thing is to go to a top 10 for a PhD. I will never ever understand what people are thinking when they are doing PhD’s in places like Uni of Arkansas, or Ball State, when at job applications, PhD’s even from Duke, Rice, Notre Dame, Cornell, Brown, UPenn, Northwestern etc are most likely to be neglected. Not because these are not fine institutions, because they are. But when you have to complete against people with PhD’s from HYP, you’re chances of being accepted are close to zero. Of course, with great publications, presentations, etc, you can raise your chances, still, what happens when the people from HYP also have great and numerous publications and that stuff? </p>
<p>Simple statistics: the best way to have a picture is to go and see plenty of departmental homepages, from where the professors received their PhD’s? After a few dozen pages, you will have a nice picture, and you will see, that usually the same institution names appear…</p>
Umm, only if Yale is the undisputed top school in the field you are pursuing for a PhD. As long as there are other equally matched programs out there, some fields will strongly suggest (or even force) that you pursue PhD studies at a different institution.</p>
<p>Yeah, keep in mind this is totally field specific. If you are going to stay at the same place for multiple degrees, make sure it is because the school is strong in your field. It doesn’t really help to stay at a place like Yale for a grad degree in engineering or computer science, for example, when you could go apply to places like Stanford, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, etc etc.</p>
<p>Of course, it always depends on the subject, still, it only makes sense to have a PhD from a top notch institution -which is particularly good in your field. Say, Yale is truly not the best in engineering, that’s true :)</p>