CUNY- what are your thoughts?

[anthrobound]

I'm interested in this program, just concerned that it's not a top tier school. Anyone have any insight? How would attending a school ranked 28 w/ US News and Reports, affect my graduate experience and career opportunities?

[barilicious]

I'm interested in this program, just concerned that it's not a top tier school. Anyone have any insight? How would attending a school ranked 28 w/ US News and Reports, affect my graduate experience and career opportunities?

My favorite professor from undergrad got his PhD from CUNY, and I would be applying there as well if they didn't have a foreign language requirement. I know he loved his experience there and got to work with some amazing faculty, plus it seems like they are doing some awesome research there right now. As far as career opportunities, he is TT at the university I went to (good private university - PM me if you want to know which school exactly), and it was the first job he applied for right after getting his PhD, so I'd say he at least did well. All this is just from one person's experience, but CUNY seemed to have done well for him!

Edited August 8, 2010 by barilcious

[anthropologygeek]

Cuny has a good reputation in anthropology. However phd is more about what you did there and who your adviser is since they can open doors for you. In that field rankings are to general so don't just rely on them.

[anthrobound]

Thanks for your input.

[CultureOfIdeas]

I don't know anything about their sociology program, but depending on your interests there are some fabulous anthro faculty at CUNY, at least in socio-cultural (I can't speak to the other traditional subfields, as I don't know much about them.) It really depends on what you are interested in more than anything.

[Tahl L.]

Don't let the language requirement stop you. It is not tha difficult. Good luck

My favorite professor from undergrad got his PhD from CUNY, and I would be applying there as well if they didn't have a foreign language requirement. I know he loved his experience there and got to work with some amazing faculty, plus it seems like they are doing some awesome research there right now. As far as career opportunities, he is TT at the university I went to (good private university - PM me if you want to know which school exactly), and it was the first job he applied for right after getting his PhD, so I'd say he at least did well. All this is just from one person's experience, but CUNY seemed to have done well for him!

[jacib]

Don't let the language requirement stop you. It is not tha difficult. Good luck

It all depends on where you want to work. If you do absolutely brilliant work at CUNY and are one of the absolute top students at the program, and especially if develop good connections with other New York area faculty, you will probably be competitive with students from anywhere. For example, someone at Wisconsin has their PhD from Brandeis, which is ranked lower than CUNY, if I remember correctly. However, a route like that is atypical and you will also have to realize that most people who end up at Harvard, Wisconsin, Chicago, and Michigan have their doctorates from the kind of places that USNWR ranks highly (you should also look at the old and new NSR rankings to get a more robust sense of CUNY's place according to the people who could later hire you). In that sense, yes it will affect your career opportunities. Additionally, your cohort will generally be a different group of students from say Wisconsin, Michigan, and Harvard and lower funding will probably mean you have a longer time to degree, both of which will affect your graduate experience. However, prestige, funding, and cohort are not important to everyone (and become less important if you have outside funding). If those things matter to you, email the school and ask them about their average years to degree, recent placements for the last few years (all of them if possible so you don't get a biased sample), funding, and what proportion of an entering cohort finishes their degree and why people drop out. You can additionally ask to be put in touch with current graduate students or recent graduates, who may offer you different answers to the same questions.

If there is a really prestigious person there who would work closely with you in exactly your proposed subdiscipline, that will affect your career opportunities (and possibly graduate experience too). If there is, ask them specifically about the placement of their recent graduate students. After a certain point, your work will speak for itself one hopes, but "names" (both of the school and the adviser) and social networks do help get your foot in the door careerwise, especially at the highest level. Top positions will have dozens and dozens, if not hundreds, of applicants. The only way to find out how people from any one particular school (and one particular adviser) stack up is to ask around and also check websites. Think of a few schools you could be happy teaching at, and look at their faculty to see where they got their degrees from.