letsberealhere

Nothing IronicStatement said is horribly inaccurate, but let me at least provide a slightly different take so you can figure your own way depending on your priorities. 1) If you look through enough alumni, recent grad, and faculty profiles, the general trend is that in academia you place downward post-PhD in terms of institutional/program prestige. Do you want to stay in academia? Do you want to work at an R1 or is non-R1 fine with you? If you want to go R1, you should certainly keep this in mind. The downward pattern isn't just an observation on my part, I've discussed it with numerous faculty who say that it's inevitably how the market works out given applicant-opening ratios and academia reputational dynamics. I have had faculty mentors bluntly tell me that if it came down to two candidates of equal profile, one from Prestigious Private U University High Rank Program vs Big 10 U High Rank Program, they would go for the former, little doubt about it. I'm not saying any of this is right or wrong, I'm just making you aware it is a thing. 2) The one bit I straight up disagree with is that higher ranking schools pay tend to pay less. If anything, the higher ranked programs tend to have more resources and will be able to/often do compete with each other, matching funding packages if they want you, and pay better on the whole. For example, I hear Northwestern recently raised their funding package to $29k to compete with Penn Annenberg. Furthermore, some of the wealthier programs have the benefit of being able to provide annual personal research/travel purses as opposed to many programs where trying to get the school to fund anything is a struggle. That can mean the difference between being continuously tied to a faculty grant - which is great if you're really 100% interested in that work but can be hell if not - versus being able to dabble in some more specifically personal stuff. People are certainly right when they say it's your CV and list of pubs that matter most once you have your PhD. Productive people have come out of programs of all different prestige levels, but prestige and the resources that often come with it can mean that it's that much easier to be productive when you don't have to worry about certain things. That's all a bunch of more general advice, though. Sounds like you've found a program and fit that really excite you, you should apply to it. I personally don't think USF is any worse than GMU or UK.