Does rank matter?

[mechengr2000]

Does rank matter?

Edited April 4, 2011 by mechengr2000

[kdilks]

Only if you use it as a guideline for getting a rough idea of what's generally considered top tier, second tier, etc., in addition to what you hear from your professors.

[Behavioral]

As kdilks said, only to distinguish general tiers.

If you're comparing a Top 10 versus a Top 100, for example, I'd be hard-pressed to justify choosing the latter. If you're comparing something like a #8 school versus a #19 school, I wouldn't sweat it as productivity in given doctoral subfields varies a lot.

[BKMD]

As other have said, there are certainly different "tiers" and rankings can roughly define them, but individual differences in rank are generally not important or even statistically significant. Even large differences in ranking may not matter when you consider a particular subfield.

The problem with rankings is that they are for an entire field, whereas the perceived prestige within specific research areas is often different. Keep in mind that when you apply for PhD-level jobs, the people who are going to be making hiring decisions will be researchers who are already familiar with your program, rather than HR people who will be impressed by the name of your school. They will know your advisor, they will have seen you give talks at conferences, and they may have already worked with you through internships or collaborations. All of these things are more important than the overall prestige of a department.

Looking at a particular lab's placement record might be more useful than rankings. I ended up choosing a #25ish school over a #1 school, which was a hard thing mainly because I couldn't get over the ranking. But honestly, my program has a better placement record (for both academia and industry) than the other program, and many of my advisor's students were directly placed in assistant professor positions at other universities (including the #1 univ that I declined). So it really just depends. And this isn't to say that placement records are the most important factor either, since ultimately what matters is finding a good fit with a lab and an advisor.

[Behavioral]

As other have said, there are certainly different "tiers" and rankings can roughly define them, but individual differences in rank are generally not important or even statistically significant. Even large differences in ranking may not matter when you consider a particular subfield.

The problem with rankings is that they are for an entire field, whereas the perceived prestige within specific research areas is often different. Keep in mind that when you apply for PhD-level jobs, the people who are going to be making hiring decisions will be researchers who are already familiar with your program, rather than HR people who will be impressed by the name of your school. They will know your advisor, they will have seen you give talks at conferences, and they may have already worked with you through internships or collaborations. All of these things are more important than the overall prestige of a department.

Looking at a particular lab's placement record might be more useful than rankings. I ended up choosing a #25ish school over a #1 school, which was a hard thing mainly because I couldn't get over the ranking. But honestly, my program has a better placement record (for both academia and industry) than the other program, and many of my advisor's students were directly placed in assistant professor positions at other universities (including the #1 univ that I declined). So it really just depends. And this isn't to say that placement records are the most important factor either, since ultimately what matters is finding a good fit with a lab and an advisor.

The school I was weighing against was a Top 75 for "Business Ph.D." (published ranking), Top 50 for "Marketing" (published ranking), but the placements for the particular line of research was really "Top 10" (comparison of placement history) for placements in my specific research area. Shows how little rankings can matter.