How are you deciding which offer to accept?

[posi+ivity]

I know there's a thread for this somewhere else on the site, but I thought I'd start one specifically for anthropology. I also thought we could separate this discussion from the main 2018 thread to be respectful of those who are still waiting or who didn't make it this year.

I'm curious about the factors that are primarily influencing the decision-making of those who received more than one offer. Are you asking for advice from anyone? Who is helping you decide?

In my case, these are the things that I'm considering, in order of importance.

1. advisor and committee: What would my relationship with my prospective advisor be like? Which in the faculty can serve in my committee?  
2. funding package (assuming all options are fully funded): How does the stipend compare with the cost of living there? How heavy is the teaching load? Is there funding for field visits, language training, and conference participation? 
3. location: Do I really want to live there for 6+ years? What would my life outside the university be like? (Or, would I have one at all?)
4. graduate placement: Where are their graduates now? In addition to academia, are there other industries where there graduates have ended up in?
5. academic culture: What's the relationship between faculty and students like? What activities are there in the department beyond the curriculum? 
6. university resources: What centers or institutes does the university have that could provide me with additional support?
7. prestige: How are the university and the department regarded by peers?

What do you think? Would you add anything to the list? Or would you put those things in a different order?

Oh and, congratulations to all of us! I feel like we've been together through such an emotional roller coaster ride!

[phyanth]

This is a great list! I wouldn't have much to add, but these are things you may want to take into consideration, depending on your circumstances:

1. Research: What is their research output? Are students putting out first author publications, or are they more in a supportive role? Quality of publications (e..g where they are publishing) is obviously important too. 

2. Grant Support: Being able to secure your own funding is important if you want to go into academia. Do the faculty hold workshops? How big of a push is there for you to try and secure your own grant funding? This, coupled with research are practical skills that are going to be crucial for a job in academia.

3. Proximity to Air Travel: If you're far from family, or just want to be able to travel with ease, take nearby airports into consideration. How much are flights out of those airports to the locations you would be frequenting the most? If you're in a smaller/more remote town, cost of air travel goes up by multiple hours and hundreds of dollars!

4. Health: I can't stress this enough. We are all going to be in mid to late twenties, and probably in our thirties by the time we are done with a PhD program. This is about the time when health issues start developing/revealing themselves. Make sure your funding covers health insurance, and make sure you have great health insurance. Also, make sure you have a competent and reputable hospital nearby. You don't want to have health issues during your program and receive mediocre treatment that will lead to complications down the road (this almost cost me my life, fyi). 

[waltzforzizi]

A big thing for me was the reception I received from the POI after emailing them. Unlike what most people have posted, I had established communication with my POI MONTHS before the app was due. I had an hour-long Skype chat with one professor 6 months before I applied. Everything was great, but they weren't the best at communicating. They took several months reply to my emails and confirm a date to Skype. They have a large-ish family, but still. It was a perfect fit for me adviser and program wise. I still hope to work with them in the future.

My other POI, however,  is AMAZING and had steadily replied to my emails with an unbelievable amount of detailed information. They weren't concise at all though, haha. They answered every question imaginable three months before I applied. I am still in close contact with them. They continue to provide assistance, praise, reassurance, and encouragement. I can't put into words how much they changed the application process for me. I actually feel capable of doing well in a Ph.D. program because of them. I know that the department will be everything I need or want. They are just..amazing haha.

I was accepted into both programs but withdrew my application from school 1 on the day they sent me the acceptance letter. Crazy, right? 

Anyway, this was a factor because I want to feel accepted and know the true inner workings of a program before going. It also let me know how hands on my POI would be and how much they care about supporting me. 

[hats]

Are there any financial issues that are likely to gut your institution? If private, is enrollment/the endowment moderately stable? If public, is a state-wide budget crisis roiling your university system, leading your university administrators to ask to put tuition waivers on the chopping block? If public, is the governing political party in your state on a crusade to filet their university system? (Note: this isn't a warning against every university system in a state with a Republican administration; compared to the upper midwest, frankly, most of the south is feeling relatively tranquil right now.) Is there a graduate student union? If so, how established and/or powerful are they? What kinds of concessions have they won from the university recently? This answer will be awfully similar to 'what kinds of benefits are there': I've asked it as a separate question, however, because if you have the kind of administration to really jerk the graduate students around, a strong union will reduce how much of that actually ends up applying to the grad students.

[posi+ivity]

Thanks for your great responses, everyone!

@phyanth I definitely agree about the importance of health insurance and the accessibility of a good hospital. I never considered that--thanks for pointing it out!

@waltzforzizi I actually wrote a separate discussion thread about that (see link below). UPDATE: My main POI in school #2 has finally replied and we're going to Skype soon. They were extremely encouraging in their email and agreed to work with me should I go there. Apparently they read my application very closely and told the department they should definitely get me. It's just that they are away doing fieldwork so they couldn't reply right away. Now it's become even more difficult for me to make a choice!

@hats Both of my schools are large public universities, but I never thought of considering the political climate affecting state funding as well as the importance of a graduate student union. Thanks for telling me!

 

[posi+ivity]

Oh, and what do you think of university and program rankings? Do they matter at all?