State school, junior PI vs. Elite school, famous PI

[ItPhBeLikeThatSometimes]

Alright y'all, I'm in a serious pickle. I'm lucky to have two great psych PhD programs to choose from, but I feel like I could very easily fuck this up and regret it for the rest of my life. Any insight would be appreciated.

Program 1 profile: Elite private school in a cool city. Relatively well-known PI who is friendly with my undergrad advisors. PI's current and previous students have nothing but great things to say, and I think her mentorship style is a good fit. Female PI (my general preference) who seems super nurturing and has already expressed interest in my personal life. Super small lab. PI has a longitudinal project wrapping up this summer that would be all mine to analyze & write up. Flashy stipend. Visit weekend was super disappointing (barely had a chance to talk to any grad students, was forced to talk to several unenthusiastic, uninformative faculty, felt like the school thought they were too fancy to have to try to impress us).

Program 2 profile: Large state school in a not-so-cool "city." PI is newly hired, so I'd be their first grad student.  I originally applied to a different PI and was deferred to this one, but it turned out to be a good fit. Male PI who said he would "not ask me about my personal life," but that I could always "pop in to talk" (not sure how to interpret this).  The PI I did apply to is lovely and made it clear that she'd be happy to collaborate on projects, and that her senior students would be there to support me. Good stipend; lower than program 1 but livable and I got a small extra scholarship. Visit weekend blew me away. The program head made it her personal mission for us to love it there. Our schedules were thoughtfully planned: only a few interviews with faculty whose interests overlapped with ours, lots of time alone with current students, and scheduled in breaks. 

I actually think I prefer the more down-to-earth vibe at the state school -- but will I regret not choosing the more elite program down the line? I feel like I'm lucky to have been accepted there and would be crazy to turn it down. I also like the idea of being someone's first grad student, rather than being taken on by someone who is probably set in their ways...but that's also a huge risk, since no one can tell me what they're like as a mentor.  Both PIs were actually trained by the same person, so they're pretty close research-wise.  Is feeling vaguely better about school 2 a valid reason to turn down school 1, which admittedly looks better on paper?

 

 

[juilletmercredi]

If you don't have enough information to make a decision, try to recover some of that. Reach out to Program 1 and see if they can put you in touch with some current graduate students (including ones that work for your PI) and schedule some chats with them to talk about their experience. If you didn't get a chance to talk to your PI or some other faculty that you wanted to talk to, set up some time with them. Usually once you are an accepted student, the department tries at least a little bit to sell you, so you're more likely to get positive responses to attempts to chat with the faculty.

But overall...while reputation is important, what's more important is a department that supports you and actually wants you there. I did my PhD in a cool city, but at an elite department that also felt like the school was too fancy to impress us. I'd treat these as yellow flags at least: unenthusiastic faculty at an elite school can sometimes mean you get faculty who are too self-impressed to spend much time mentoring their doctoral students. (At large, prestigious universities, they are not exactly rewarded for that.) Not getting to talk to any grad students on a visit weekend a glaring red flag, IMO; that's kind of the whole point.

So yeah, I'd try to see if Program 1 is interested in salvaging themselves in your eyes.

but will I regret not choosing the more elite program down the line?

There's no way to know this up front. More elite programs aren't everything. However, they can profoundly affect the trajectory of your career, especially in certain fields. Psychology is a little less sensitive to that than, say, English literature or history. However, if your aspirations are academia, take a look at the professors at the types of schools you'd like to teach at someday and see where they got their PhDs. Are you noticing a pattern? You can also ask the PIs at school 2 about their placement record. Where do graduates end up? Do their jobs look like jobs you'd like to have?

Also, 'large state school' means nothing to me in this case, because there are a lot of prestigious psychology programs at large public universities.