djh101

I've been working on a few questions for the open houses. For Faculty/Professors: Where do grad students tend to go after graduation? What are you currently researching? What are some open questions that would make good dissertation topics (maybe open house is a little early to be asking this)? What equipment does University X have (particle accelerators, mass spectrometers, etc.)? What sets University X apart from other universities (if you've been accepted to multiple schools, you're now in a buyer's market)? General questions about the city (weather, commuting, restaurants, etc.). For Graduate Students: Why did you choose University X? How would you describe your experience at University X and in research group Y? What are living expenses like relative to your stipend? Even if you've already researched one particular question, an actual professor or graduate student might be able to give you more insight than you were able to get from simply looking up the answer. For instance, I can easily look up the research of any professor at any school, read through their publications, etc. but it might still be helpful to hear from the professors themselves what it is they're working on.

I'll join the no debt allowed camp. In the physical sciences, full tuition and stipend is standard practice. Regardless, I consider post-undergrad to be the time that I wish to become financially independent, start actually making money (if only a little), and begin and start enjoying life. I do not consider grad school to be just an extension of undergrad (a debt-filled speedbump delaying the start of adulthood) and would prefer to do what I can with my bachelors to going through undergrad part 2 (had anyone gone on Ghostrider at Knott's Berry Farm where after you finally get to the end of the queue line, you go up some stairs only to find yourself at the beginning of another queue line?). My parents were kind enough to pay my tuition, so I am currently debt free and can't really speak from the perspective of someone burdened by hefty student loans (I did commute over an hour to UCLA by bus and attended community college my first two years, though), but tuition is getting to the point that (and this is at UCLA, private tuition is already past that point), were I to do it again, I might just take the coding experience I obtained during high school from a web design hobby and tried to find an entry level software job somewhere without even getting a bachelors, let alone a Ph.D.

To add some additional advice to that, be sure that what you do actually will make you happiest (both long term and short term). A loan will take away a lot of happiness, so there had better be a lot to going for that school to balance it out. Personally, I don't see how any one school could be that much better than any other marginally worse school, but I guess it's possible.

Rank certainly helped me decide which schools to look at (I wasn't going to look through every single school listed on U.S. News), but after that I didn't consider it at all except for estimating my chances of acceptance. There are certain factors that tend to correlate with rank (better known professors, more expensive equipment, etc.) but once you've honed in on individual schools, you can determine all those factors exactly (either the professors there are known or they aren't and the school either has a particle accelerator or it doesn't). Correlations are what you use when you don't actually know the information that you're trying to extrapolate. There are still some factors that may not be known exactly enough, such as chance of acceptance and future job prospects (if you believe in such a correlation and it applies to you), though, where taking rank into account would be appropriate.

Personally, I wouldn't bother with a Ph.D if it wasn't fully funded. I would like to be a physicist, but not if it means 5-6 years past undergrad accumulating debt. As for prestige, I'm more concerned with fit than reputation. If I get accepted to Colorado State and MIT and Colorado State is a better fit, I'll be going there. Of course, all the schools I applied to are more or less balanced so that does leave a lot of freedom for choosing.

Research Interest Cost of Living Weather/Location Distance from Home Everything Else Distance from home is the only above factor that didn't disqualify any schools. I would like to take all my stuff with me without any hassle (TV, computer, clothes, books), so I would very much like to go somewhere <1000mi. I would also like to live close to my family, but I live in the Los Angeles area so this directly conflicts with cost of living and weather. Anywhere outside Southern California is flying distance to me so might as well all be the same. There's enough schools out there with good whether (I prefer cold to hot) that I mainly applied to those. Washington, Oregon, and Colorado were my top picks for weather. Arizona was not eligible for my list (I have no desire to live in Phoenix). Stipends seem to factor in the cost of living, so this isn't a huge issue. There were some significant differences, though. At MIT I might be sharing a minuscule two bedroom while in New Mexico I could get my own fairly large two bedroom with a balcony and swimming pool for a similar price (adjusted for stipend size). I would like to live comfortably during grad school and I'm willing to make sacrifices in other areas for this. I intend to bring my girlfriend along, so I would like to have a second bedroom separate from the living area that I can turn into a study. Weather, cost of living, etc. are all important factors, but the deciding factor is always going to be research interests. I'll live somewhere less than optimal and will abstain from somewhere wonderful for the sake of research interests. That being said, all of the above are important enough factors that they could end up overpowering any of the others. Most of my schools were pretty even in all areas, so it's going to be a tough call for me. Optimally, I would like a few professors with similar research interests in a mountain town, 20-80°F, <1000mi from L.A. with affordable two-bedroom apartments and politically similar people/government. If I could take U. Michigan or U. New Mexico and stick it in Boulder, that would be perfect.