Research vs Everything Else?

[CarmenCarminis]

What should I prioritize when choosing between multiple offers for a PhD program? I’d assumed it would be the research, but now I’m having second thoughts. 

Here’s the dilemma. I’ve been waitlisted at my top choice school, and while I’m hopeful that I’ll get in, it’s an extremely competitive program, so I’m not counting on it. I have other offers, but I didn’t like any of them as much as the school that waitlisted me, and I’m having a difficult time deciding between them:

School A — I really enjoyed my interviews here. A lot of the faculty here are doing research in the specific area I want to study, and I left several of the interviews thinking that I’d be interested in rotating in their lab. While I liked the professors, I didn’t feel that I fit in with the other grad students as well. Additionally, it’s in a location that I don’t like (both in regards to the climate, and the fact that going there would require me to get a car, which I really don’t want to do). This school does seem big on preparing students for the kind of careers I see myself in, but they don’t have the exact degree program I wanted. 

School B — Maybe it was just because I was really nervous (these were my first interviews), but I didn’t enjoy the talking with the faculty here as much. Most of their research didn’t seem as interesting to me as I’d expected. (Admittedly this is only for the faculty who I interviewed with.) But I like the school, the program, and location better than school A. It’s in a city (which I like), though I’m concerned about the safety of the area. 

Not that it really matters, but school B is far more prestigious than A. 

And both of these offers are funded, so I’m not worried about money. 

I guess what I’m wondering is whether the fact that I liked pretty much everything else about school B better outweighs the fact that although they’re doing great research, not much of it stood out as very exciting to me. 

[juilletmercredi]

These are all very personal decisions and considerations. It's really up to you what you think is most important, and it depends on your level of tolerance for certain things. I know people who would rather live in a hole in the wall in order to do the exact research they want to do, and others who are more willing to make compromises so they can live somewhere exciting for five years. But let's dig apart your impressions.

I am having some difficulty understanding how you say that you like the school and program at School B better than School A, when you had great interviews and love the research at School A but didn't like talking to the faculty at School B. In graduate school, your department basically is your experience; the overall university matters a whole lot less and is mostly important in terms of resources to allow you to do your degree (e.g. libraries, facilities, connected departments). What is it that gives you the impression that you like School B overall better?

As for the degree program - I'd need a little more information about that, because it might not matter depending on what the coursework is. For example, one could be a PhD in organizational behavior and the other could be in industrial-organizational psychology, but at the core the coursework, research, and post-graduation opportunities might be nearly identical. So it wouldn't matter than the exact program name is a little different. But you might have something like "business analytics" vs. "data science," which could be functionally very different even though they have some similarities - where a data science degree typically gives you more technical education and prepares you for different kinds of positions than a business analytics degree.

As for your concerns about safety - most big cities in the United States are actually quite safe, and concerns about safety in specific areas are often due more to unfamiliarity than anything else. Not saying that your concerns are not valid, but I'd talk to some students who live in the area to get their thoughts.