Great Program vs. Famous POI?

[socialpsychg]

I'm currently deciding between two choices. I feel heavily slanted toward the first, but I feel I don't have enough information to make a firm decision.

1. The first is top-ranked in my field, and I felt I had great research fits with both my POI and other faculty in the area when I visited. Additionally, the program has a highly collaborative environment, so that I'd be able to work with multiple well-known faculty (and consequently, get multiple good LORs in the future).

2. The other one, however, has a POI that's more well-known in my field, but the social area at her institution is...not so good. There's only 3 faculty in the social psych area - one may be denied tenure soon, and the other has a very bad reputation as an advisor. Thus, collaboration would be much less likely. There is also no contingency plan if something falls through with POI 2. I'm also less familiar with her work, as much of my research background has focused on the stuff in POI 1's subfield. In contrast, her work has been much more generalist and broad - so I've often heard of her work, but haven't read through it as much.

Lastly, I haven't had enough contact with her to form an impression. Despite being her top choice, I've been waitlisted. Although she had planned to fly me over to visit in late March, the visit was canceled when the prospect of my acceptance became dimmer. I have also tried setting up a phone call since then, but she's been unresponsive (or forgetful). I've heard great things about her advising, and she's had a more established record of placement (which may be attributable to her later stage in her career).

Looking at their H-indexes (a rough measure of research impact and productivity) shows mixed results. Although POI 2 has a H-index about 50% higher, re-calculating it so that it only counts work since the start of POI 1's career shows a different story. In that case, POI 1 has a slightly higher h-index.

In short, I know that I'll have a good future at Program 1. But I don't feel as if I have enough information on Program 2 (if they choose to accept me) to make a rational decision. In this situation, I don't know if it will be possible to - especially since I haven't visited the campus and decided for myself. Even if I do end up talking to POI 2 and really clicking with her, I don't know if a 30m-1hr discussion can rightfully compare to a weekend visit + phone calls.

Edited April 9, 2010 by socialpsychg

[cogneuroforfun]

The conditions in the rest of the department are pretty important. Honestly, two or three labs in your area of interest probably isn't going to be good. Have you looked at the cognitive psych faculty at program 2? Some of them may be doing research that is somewhat relevant. If not, that will be a pretty lonely department to be in, I think. Given the overall strengths of program 1 and your great fit, this really shouldn't be too hard of a decision Keep an open mind if you do get a chance to see program 2 in person, but I think you should be leaning pretty heavily towards program 1.

[socialpsychg]

The conditions in the rest of the department are pretty important. Honestly, two or three labs in your area of interest probably isn't going to be good. Have you looked at the cognitive psych faculty at program 2? Some of them may be doing research that is somewhat relevant. If not, that will be a pretty lonely department to be in, I think. Given the overall strengths of program 1 and your great fit, this really shouldn't be too hard of a decision Keep an open mind if you do get a chance to see program 2 in person, but I think you should be leaning pretty heavily towards program 1.

Yeah, I'm aware of at least one developmentalist who's doing related work to what I'm interested in. But Program 1 has around 9-10 faculty, and I can say I'm interested in doing research with basically all of them. I've been heavily leaning to Program 1 really hard - practically verbally committing, even. But I'm having trouble pulling the trigger - the grass is always greener on the other side, perhaps?

I guess a better question for my situation would have been: What steps should I do to be certain on my choice? I figured putting it down some pros/cons on text might help, and it has, but there's still this uncertainty that I guess most of us face. So maybe I can't be certain - and I should just commit. I had a period of 1-2 weeks where I was set on Program 2, but my recent visit has really plunked me down in Program 1.

Alright, new question!

Should I withdraw my waitlists? I'm kind of curious to not do either and see if I get accepted (and then decline). I'm not particularly worried about screwing someone over or wasting people's time, as I'm always tied to email on my cell phone or computer.

[BKMD]

I guess a better question for my situation would have been: What steps should I do to be certain on my choice? I figured putting it down some pros/cons on text might help, and it has, but there's still this uncertainty that I guess most of us face. So maybe I can't be certain - and I should just commit. I had a period of 1-2 weeks where I was set on Program 2, but my recent visit has really plunked me down in Program 1.

You probably won't ever feel absolutely certain - I wasn't at all certain when I finally made a decision, but I realized that I had all of the information I was gonna get on the schools, and it was simply time to choose the one I was leaning toward. Trust me, once you make a decision, you'll be excited about your new school, and you'll be glad to stop thinking about this.

Now, if you really feel like you need to learn more about the second school to make an informed decision, then you should keep looking into it, but it sounds like a visit isn't an option at this point (only a few days left) so there's not much you can do but look at the publications of your POIs and see if the research is a good match. Having a well-known advisor can be beneficial if you want to go into academia, but even more important is the work that you do yourself, which will be helped by a good advisor (which isn't the same thing as a famous advisor).

Personally it doesn't seem like there's any compelling reason to choose school 2 over 1. I think it's important to have more than one safe option for an advisor (which ended up being the main factor in my decision). Also, I think I'd want to attend a school that was interested in me enough to admit me rather than to put me on a waitlist...

Edited April 9, 2010 by BKMD

[socialpsychg]

You probably won't ever feel absolutely certain - I wasn't at all certain when I finally made a decision, but I realized that I had all of the information I was gonna get on the schools, and it was simply time to choose the one I was leaning toward. Trust me, once you make a decision, you'll be excited about your new school, and you'll be glad to stop thinking about this.

Now, if you really feel like you need to learn more about the second school to make an informed decision, then you should keep looking into it, but it sounds like a visit isn't an option at this point (only a few days left) so there's not much you can do but look at the publications of your POIs and see if the research is a good match. Having a well-known advisor can be beneficial if you want to go into academia, but even more important is the work that you do yourself, which will be helped by a good advisor (which isn't the same thing as a famous advisor).

Personally it doesn't seem like there's any compelling reason to choose school 2 over 1. I think it's important to have more than one safe option for an advisor (which ended up being the main factor in my decision). Also, I think I'd want to attend a school that was interested in me enough to admit me rather than to put me on a waitlist...

Ha, you're right - I pulled the trigger and picked program 1 (UVA). Although at first I harbored a grudge over being waitlisted, she had noted to me that it was purely budgetary (as others were in greater need of advisees than her). I think I gave her more thought than I should have because she was the advisor to three POIs I was thinking about applying for (and one I actually did apply for).

[cogneuroforfun]

Congrats on your decision!