Prestige v. Location

[kayrlis]

Here's my current dilemma:

Let's say you have two offers from schools that would end up costing about the same amount of money. What do you choose?

School A: Very prestigious (top 5 in the country). Small program, close-knit community. Big, state university. Very structured curriculum, many clinical opportunities. Study through the summers.

BUT, the town is less than ideal. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere. I currently live in the state, and I'm frustrated by how hard it can be to find people I enjoy spending time with. I might be car-dependent. And the surrounding landscape is very flat.

School B: Fairly prestigious (top 25 in the country). Small program. Big, state university. A little less structured in the curriculum, many clinical opportunities. Summers off, and the area offers many relevant jobs I could have in the summers.

The town is pretty idyllic. I'll be visiting in a few weeks to see for myself. It's a more liberal environment, and there are mountains to climb up and ski down, and it's very bike-friendly (I want to sell my car). Of course, I run the risk of being surrounded by yuppie-hippies.

My degree would be very clinical (speech-language pathology) rather than research-based and I would be in a three-year program at either school because I lack certain prerequisites.

I just don't know how to weigh whether going to School B would hurt my chances of gainful employment after graduation, or whether going to School A would mean a miserable social life for the next 3 years, or if I'm over-thinking it. I know I'm very lucky to have this issue, but I'm afraid to choose wrong.

Any advice? I appreciate any counsel you have to offer!

[studentaffairsgrad]

Just judging from your descriptions of each school, it sounds like maybe you are leaning towards school b. Good idea to visit on the weekends!

I was kind of in a similar predicament...I wanted to stay in state, but was worried that if I didn't go to a top-10 school, my chances of employment would be less than ideal.

Here is what I would suggest...talk to some people who are already professionals in the field you are going into, and ask them if they feel like not going to the more prestigious would hurt you future job prospects. I did this, and found out that in the field of higher education, if you are looking to get into the field straight after your Master's, prestige of school does not matter nearly as much as the practical experience...I was told employers aren't going to be asking about coursework and that sort of thing, as much as they will care about your assistantship, internships, etc. I decided to not worry about rankings, and apply go to the school where I could get the most practical experience. Every field is different, obviously, so I would see what those in your field have to say about it.

Maybe you could also look at some places you would like to work in the future, and see where the people currently in those positions graduated from. I did that with my dream place to work, and found that a lot of people came from small no name universities, but had assistantships doing basically what they were hired on to do. It was easier, b/c I wanted to work for a university, and they have all the staff bios on the website... you might have to do some more leg work.

Best of luck!

[chaospaladin]

Here's my current dilemma:

Let's say you have two offers from schools that would end up costing about the same amount of money. What do you choose?

School A: Very prestigious (top 5 in the country). Small program, close-knit community. Big, state university. Very structured curriculum, many clinical opportunities. Study through the summers.

BUT, the town is less than ideal. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere. I currently live in the state, and I'm frustrated by how hard it can be to find people I enjoy spending time with. I might be car-dependent. And the surrounding landscape is very flat.

School B: Fairly prestigious (top 25 in the country). Small program. Big, state university. A little less structured in the curriculum, many clinical opportunities. Summers off, and the area offers many relevant jobs I could have in the summers.

The town is pretty idyllic. I'll be visiting in a few weeks to see for myself. It's a more liberal environment, and there are mountains to climb up and ski down, and it's very bike-friendly (I want to sell my car). Of course, I run the risk of being surrounded by yuppie-hippies.

My degree would be very clinical (speech-language pathology) rather than research-based and I would be in a three-year program at either school because I lack certain prerequisites.

I just don't know how to weigh whether going to School B would hurt my chances of gainful employment after graduation, or whether going to School A would mean a miserable social life for the next 3 years, or if I'm over-thinking it. I know I'm very lucky to have this issue, but I'm afraid to choose wrong.

Any advice? I appreciate any counsel you have to offer!

What are the 2 schools in question?

[dogfishing]

I'm also a medical speech pathology student, and in this case I think you should go with the place you feel more drawn to regardless of rankings. First of all, for speech at the Masters level I think rankings matter much less than they would at the PhD level. Like other people have said, I would focus more on things like practicum opportunities, possible intern/externships and whether they offer a program that will allow you focus on what you're interested in. As far as hireability out of college, when you look at the stats even tiny podunk prorams tend to have >90% hiring rates out of graduate school so I feel like that wouldn't be an issue if you were motivated and worked to make yourself a good candidate. For a field like speech pathology I feel like a student's overall preparedness, demeanor and experiences would matter more than whether they had a "gold-plated" masters degree.

Also, if you're really hung up on rankings... top 25 is pretty damn prestigious. I think you'll be okay.

Edited March 25, 2011 by dogfishing

[kayrlis]

Thank you all for the thorough replies! You're right that in my heart I'm drawn to School B. I'm visiting, and I'll do my best to let my gut decide.