your school sucks (talking to a prof)

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>I've been looking at grad schools but the city i'm in has pretty low ranked schools. I have a pretty high GPA, research experience and a few publications so i think i have a good chance of getting into a top school. </p>

<p>One of the goals i'm thinking of is to be a Prof. I've noticed that most profs have come from high ranked schools. When i'm talking to the Profs at these low ranked schools (who came from high ranked schools), how do I bring this point up to them without offending anybody?</p>

<p>I'm trying to ask them why i should go to their low ranked school instead of a better one but i don't want to offend them.</p>

2

<p>You’re selecting your graduate school based on the city in which you live? That is incredibly short-sighted. </p>

<p>Academic positions are very limited in the engineering fields, and unless you attend a top university, it’s going to be very hard to get in anywhere. The top 5 engineering programs only place at around 50%. </p>

<p>I think you need to reconsider your career goals and priorities.</p>

<p>As for the original question, don’t say anything - you’re going to offend them no matter how you word it.</p>

3

<p>“You’re selecting your graduate school based on the city in which you live? That is incredibly short-sighted.”</p>

<p>I didn’t make myself very clear. I mean I’m looking at schools all around the country but I’m asking specifically for the lower ranked ones which have the benefit of staying at home. Although thats not my main criteria, the fact that i don’t have to pay rent does factor into the decision.</p>

<p>So i’m looking at top schools everywhere and low schools in my area. My questions is regarding the low schools in my area.</p>

4

<p>Eat ramen and live in a barn* like the rest of us did in grad school, dude. :slight_smile: builds character!!</p>

<p>*actually lived in a barn in grad school</p>

5

<p>anyway people already mentioned it and i think you noticed this by the way you described your professors…</p>

<p>the professors that teach at school ranked X, took their grad school at school ranked X+50</p>

<p>like at uFlorida, most of the math professors went to schools such as Uchicago, princeton, harvard, mit, Umichigan…and so on</p>

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<p>You might want to investigate doing a post doctoral research fellowship at one of the highly ranked schools. That way you get to put it on your resume, and you will have top notch references.</p>

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<p>Coming from a Tier 2 or Tier 3 school, it will be very difficult to find a top Post Doc position unless you get extremely lucky with your dissertation topic.</p>

8

<p>“professors that teach at school ranked X, took their grad school at school ranked X+50”</p>

<p>they must notice this too…so will they be offended if i bring it up?</p>

<p>“Coming from a Tier 2 or Tier 3 school, it will be very difficult to find a top Post Doc position unless you get extremely lucky with your dissertation topic.”</p>

<p>Is it the same difficultly to go from a say tier 2 or 3 undergrad school to a masters as to go from a tier 2 or 3 school after masters to a top phD school?</p>

<p>I’m finding that isn’t not too difficult to go from a crappy undergrad school to a top grad school at least in Canada.</p>

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<p>bump 10 char.</p>

10

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<p>No. We used to joke that MS degrees are the “sweet spot” at top colleges. It’s much easier to get into MIT for an MS than it is to get in for a BS or PhD. I’m not saying it’s a cake-walk, but it is easier.</p>