Decisions about Programs

[sociologygradgirl]

Is anyone else facing a difficult decision between two (or more) programs? What is swaying you in one direction over the other? Or any other criteria youa re using to make your final decision....

[FertMigMort]

I'm already in grad school, but I faced a similar decision when I was applying to grad school between two very similar programs. I found these listed as criteria in another thread and I'll share my two cents about them looking back on my decision:

Research/Academic Fit: Both of my programs fit this well, but one was better than the other. I personally think this is the most important critereon of all. You should try to pick a place where you have at least 2 people you can work with and where others share your research interests. The people who dropped out of my cohort all cited fit as one of the reasons why.

Advisor: This played into my decision in a strange way; I hated my potential advisor in one department and the other I finally chose was an unknown. I decided that the devil I didn't know was better than the one I knew. He was just awful and I could never have seen myself working with him.

Financial Package: This was one of my final considerations, but not my first one. It made it easier to choose between the two schools because the one I was leaning towards offered me a financial package that was financially unfeasible to live on. They were also unwiling to negotiate.

Geographic Considerations: I used this when I applied to schools. I didn't apply anywhere that I didn't want to live, so this wasn't a final consideration.

Placement record of Department: One department was more open to non-academic jobs than the other. That drove my decision here, because I was interested in non-academic jobs when I graduated.

Vibe of cohort: This didn't matter to me at all. If it had, I wouldn't have picked the school that I did. I found students and people I liked outside of cohort.

How quickly I can finish: This was pretty important to me. One program's time to completion was 5 years, the other was 7. I didn't want to spend 7 years in graduate school.

Program resources: One school really just had fantastic resources for students that the other did not. Travel funding, summer support, etc. This was probably the final thing that really tipped the scales the way that I went.

[princesspi]

Thanks for this!

[quantitative]

I just made my decision between 2 great schools. I used the same sort of criteria as FertMigMort, now that I think of it.

[socscholar]

I have too many choices.

These are my criteria:

1. Food quality at visit days--how tasty was the food? Were alcohol and dessert served?

2. Number of shopping malls/outlets in 40 mile radius of campus. I like my bargains.

3. Square footage of potential office space for grad students.

4. Chipotle. Is there one? I like Chipotle.

5. Undergrads. How annoying will they be to deal with as a TA?

[That Guy]

My friends and I had this discussion and attempted to come up with a list of the worst reasons to pick one school over another. This is what we got:

Which mascot could win in a fight?

Which faculty could win in a thumb war, pie-eating contest, or free-style rap battle?

Is it a dry campus? (Wait....this one might be legit. #dissertation)

The ratio of coffee shops or cafes to student population.

The willingness and/or ability for a student riot.

Which college has had the best famous person go there?

[socscholar]

Those are such helpful criteria. Updating my excel spreadsheet right now!!

[splitends]

I've also been advised to keep track of how hot the other students are.

[sciencegirl]

I am picking based on how good their football team will be

[ItsFreezingUpHere]

I'm actually basing my decision on a very simple proportion:

The average number of steps I'd have to climb everyday up to the department vs the average number of judgmental looks I'd get for taking the elevator....

[ohhello]

Diversity is actually an issue I'm staring to think about... As superficial as it may be interpreted, I'm not sure I would feel comfortable being the only minority in my cohort.

[msafiri]

ohhello, don't discount that! I did and it has definitely been awkward being one of the only minorities. There are 2 in my cohort including me but the other doesn't really self-identify as minority...

I used many of the criteria already listed. Other things I considered:

- Cost of flights home

- Cost of flights to visit my best friend

- Access to funding for conference travel

- Collegiality of the grad students

In the end, I went with a piece of advice from my mother: Go with the best advisor, assuming you don't hate that person.

[surefire]

Those are such helpful criteria. Updating my excel spreadsheet right now!!

^ THIS

Great thread, I need all the help I can get with this decision.

A recent consideration that has entered the fray is the qual/quant dicotomy. How are these emphasized/represented by the faculty/students/department? I didn't really even think much about this until a Prof. that I was seeking advice from mentioned it. Oddly, this now has me favouring the department that intends to MAKE me take social statistics courses... I have always favoured qual. methods (and these are well represented in this program) BUT I'd ALSO like to have the benefit of a varied methods toolbox at my disposal (and, let's be clear, it is hard to self-impose a stats. course if it's not a requirement).

My contribution to the just-kidding-but-not-entirely criteria:

1) Grad student lounge: Is it sequestered (read: inaccessible to undergrads) but also not completely isolated/isolating (read: coffee dispensing unit nearby, frequented by other grad students from whom I can leech empathy)? What I'm saying is, can it pass the "snuggie test"? Optimally, I should be able to sit in the lounge in utter comfort (i.e. a snuggie) without fear of constant interruption/judgment, but when I DO see people, I can rest assured that they will default to understanding (as opposed to scrutinizing the snuggie).

Edited March 12, 2012 by surefire

[giacomo]

availability of local brews

[splitends]

Ohhello, I don't think there's anything superficial about your concerns. Diversity is a totally reasonable criteria for evaluating a school-- nobody wants to feel isolated or tokenized in their department.

I wish I could seriously consider socioeconomic diversity when looking at schools, but realistically academia is not home to many poor kids at all...

[sciencegirl]

@splitends - it's also quite hard to judge socioeconomic diversity and its a very awkward subject to broach for departments and schools as a point to highlight. Students often who are at the graduate level from such backgrounds are also very adept at covering that status and don't often talk about it as their primary identity (and it would also not be acceptable for the chair of a department to say something like - "tommy over there comes from a poor family too" in a conversation).

Quite a few of my friends in academia are first gen college students and/or from working class families, and you would never guess it unless you knew them really well. You can't really just look around a room in the way you can with race or gender and judge diversity in that way. Anyway, my point is that my impression of sociology departments is that they are quite aware of the challenges of SES factors in higher education and are much better at recruiting such students than maybe other departments and disciplines but it might not always be evident at first glance.

One good suggestion is to contact a diversity point person at the university you are looking at and to meet with them about any and all your concerns.. a lot of universities have specific positions whose job it is to look out for people from diverse backgrounds at their school and who know the numbers and have the license to share them and point them out to you. This is most likely out of the dean or provost's office, and you can probably find the right person by just asking your department if there is a specific person in the dean's office that could meet with you about your concerns about the diversity in the program/school.

[ItsFreezingUpHere]

In all seriousness, I'm approaching this decision making process by looking at which program will provide the best training for the area in which I'm interested. The primary factors I'm focusing on are my potential advisor(s), the quality of the training generally, and the ability to build my own CV through publishing, conferences, etc. Other than that, the rest, like funding (unless it's ridiculous and impossible to live on), location, etc., are all secondary for me. This is a temporary stop toward a long term career, and I'm going to grad school to be trained by some great sociologists, regardless of whether or not I'll be eating ramen noodles or I can go to the beach year round.

But then I'm from Minnesota, so the beach is never really a concern for us up here!

[Darth.Vegan]

Well my partner and I are trying to get into programs (she is applying to Poli Sci) in the same city, so if that actually happens, that will be the deciding factor for us.

[abc123xtc]

Diversity is actually an issue I'm staring to think about... As superficial as it may be interpreted, I'm not sure I would feel comfortable being the only minority in my cohort.

I'm somewhat worried this will be an issue no matter where I go...

Also, I think research fit and funding will be deciding factors for me. There are two universities right now, and both would be perfect. I'm still waiting to hear about the financial details of one university.

Edited March 13, 2012 by abc123xtc

[RunMilw]

I did not think to consider this until I got an offer from a school--fellowships. One of my choices offered me a 1st and 5th year fellowship, in which I would not have to TA, instead focusing just on my coursework or writing my dissertation.

Ultimately, it will not make or break my decision. But, if two schools are equal in all other respects, it could sway me

[FertMigMort]

I have too many choices.

These are my criteria:

1. Food quality at visit days--how tasty was the food? Were alcohol and dessert served?

2. Number of shopping malls/outlets in 40 mile radius of campus. I like my bargains.

3. Square footage of potential office space for grad students.

4. Chipotle. Is there one? I like Chipotle.

5. Undergrads. How annoying will they be to deal with as a TA?

Hahaha, I love this! It sounds like you're leaning toward those quality of life factors. My program is missing some of those, although we do have Chipotle. Besides, Amazon will ship anything to you overnight, so I got over the shopping.

[FertMigMort]

Diversity is actually an issue I'm staring to think about... As superficial as it may be interpreted, I'm not sure I would feel comfortable being the only minority in my cohort.

Our program has a diversity problem (the lack thereof). I'm a hidden minority and I've started counseling minorities on our recruitment weekend that they should think carefully before coming here. A lot of students who are a minority here aren't very happy and have a higher dropout rate. I try to only convince people that I think will be happy here to come here. Don't discount this.

[FertMigMort]

I did not think to consider this until I got an offer from a school--fellowships. One of my choices offered me a 1st and 5th year fellowship, in which I would not have to TA, instead focusing just on my coursework or writing my dissertation.

Ultimately, it will not make or break my decision. But, if two schools are equal in all other respects, it could sway me

Sorry I went back and answered these individually, I blame the jetlag.

I didn't mention this in my original criteria, but it's an important one. Our school is almost exclusively RAships and that played a big role in my choice. That's why our matriculation time is much faster than the other school I was comparing it to. More research experience is better, unless you want to be a professor at a liberal arts college. In that case, take as many TAships as possible.

[starbucks_lattie]

In all seriousness, I'm approaching this decision making process by looking at which program will provide the best training for the area in which I'm interested. The primary factors I'm focusing on are my potential advisor(s), the quality of the training generally, and the ability to build my own CV through publishing, conferences, etc. Other than that, the rest, like funding (unless it's ridiculous and impossible to live on), location, etc., are all secondary for me. This is a temporary stop toward a long term career, and I'm going to grad school to be trained by some great sociologists, regardless of whether or not I'll be eating ramen noodles or I can go to the beach year round.

But then I'm from Minnesota, so the beach is never really a concern for us up here!

I agree wholeheartedly!!!

[abc123xtc]

I think location totally matters. If I hate where I live, I won't be happy. That said, I do think research fit and CV building opportunities are the most important factors, and one should be flexible on location. However, if there was a great program in Alaska, I still probably wouldn't apply there -- the Alaskan climate doesn't appeal to me and I wouldn't enjoy living there (visiting is another story). So location should be a factor in decision-making -- you'll have to live there for several years!