I went to a "lower-ranked" program (I guess? It was ranked somewhere between #25-#35 in USNWR, with its exact placement shuffling around every few years). I have to say that I would not attend that specific program now, knowing what I know and what I've been through.
I know people all over the place who didn't go to the world's greatest programs and still managed to find TT jobs. (Like anything, getting hired comes down to luck and nebulous ideas about "fit"--which are quirkier on the job market than in admissions). But yeah, it can be a lot harder to get a job. Or get into a conference. Or find the time to publish (since those who go to lower-ranked schools teach so much). And postdocs are extremely difficult to secure, because many of them are indeed "prestige obsessed."
But the worst thing about going to a low-ranking program is that you're always judged by where you got your PhD. Always. The obsessing over credentials and Ivies that goes on here? It doesn't go away after you start grad school, finish grad school, or get a job.
There are a lot of people out there who believe quite strongly in Top Ten or Bust. Thing is, they don't believe it just for them. They believe it for the rest of us too. So when you bump into that person at a conference ... or during a fellowship ... or, worst of all, on a search committee, they are going to be holding you to the standard to which they held themselves. They are going to be thinking to themselves, "Why did this person decide to go to Fredericksburg State for their PhD? Didn't they understand that it's Top Ten or Bust? What were they thinking? Or maybe they just couldn't get into to a good school? Then why did they even bother to go? I would have applied a million times over so as not to go to Fredericksburg State."
The most demoralizing thing of all is when the faculty at your own program feel this way about you and your fellow grad students. I actually ran into that a lot at my program. Like most R1 schools, our faculty was recruited almost completely out of Ivies. And there were a lot of subtle and not-so-subtle digs about our prospects. One guy who served as our JPO went to Berkeley--without funding. And he really looked down at us because of the program we were attending.
I know many people who went to the top programs and who hold varying attitudes about people who attend lower-ranked schools (or some of them are at least good about keeping their real feelings under wraps), but two of them stick out to me. One is a person who applied three times in order to go to a top program, actually "dropping out of life" completely while she was trying to get in and incurring a lot of debt in the process. She turned down solid and well-ranked programs on the way. I thought this was insane. In the time it took her just to get into grad school, I was already through coursework and exams at my lower-ranked program. But she did eventually get into her top choice, and she's by far the most ruthless person I know about all this. She'll definitely be on admissions committees and search committees in the future--IMO to the detriment of more "working class" or non-traditional people in the field.
The other person looks down on all people who went to a program outside the top 5. She once referred to Princeton as "not a fab English program." I kinda didn't know what to say to that.
But anyway--that's what you'll encounter out there with a degree from a lower-ranked school. The people you bump up against at this stage who don't think there's life outside the top 10? They don't go away, and they don't learn, and they aren't disabused of their notions. They stick around and get the good jobs, and from that vantage point they continue to replicate the same kind of attitudes that make it difficult for low-ranked PhDs in the first place.
That is what I wish I had known.
Most English programs allow you to take classes in other departments. All worthwhile PhD programs in the US are fully funded. If one isn't, it's predatory and it doesn't actually want you to attend.
This is a cute OP and I feel like it has purpose. That said, it's kind of hard to advise you because you don't say what your research interests are. That will guide your program choice much more than your desire to take classes in the philosophy department. Not to mention, philosophy departments, just like English, differ in focus and strength and the classes they offer. If your interests are sufficiently interdisciplinary, an English program might not even be the right fit for you and you might need to apply to interdisciplinary programs. That's only if you know for certain what your project is, because grad school really isn't the time for self-exploration for the sake of self-exploration.
As for lack for undergrad prestige, I'm not sure it's so much that that holds people in your situation back (though it is a factor, among hundreds of factors). The thing in common that applicants from low-ranked UGs and applicants from prestigious non-US universities seem to have in common is a lack of polish. Like, an OP from an applicant from a top US undergrad contains much different questions, assumptions, and information because they are more likely to know what's up. They have more information and support from their department in preparing for grad school. Presentation and register of your materials ends up mattering a great deal, and that's something most people struggle with if they didn't spend time in an environment that runs by those rules. Good news is, unlike prestige, that's all fixable.
