Prestigious School vs Prestigious Fellowship

[grlu0701]

I'm just wondering if I can get opinions from some of you who may have a bit more experience than me in the realm of academia.

I will be graduating with a BA (History and English double major w/ German minor) and entering into a history grad program this fall. I have received quite a few offers and narrowed my choices down to three. Of these three, the pros and cons of the offer are so different that I am having difficulty making sense of their comparative worth.

First offer: PhD program with good research fit and the university's most prestigious doctoral fellowship. However, this university as a whole is less prestigious than the others.

Second offer: PhD program with a good research fit and full funding but at a larger and more prestigious university.

Third offer: MA program with a fantastic research fit and one of the leading faculties in my subfield. However, this program requires an MA to even be considered for PhD admissions and I'm not sure how they feel about internal "promotion" to the PhD program. This last option probably has the biggest "name" in terms of the university, and, like I said before, has a faculty dedicated to and well-known in my subfield.

Broadly, I'm looking for any advice that you all can give me, or even just thought-provoking questions that you can throw at me. However, I also have a specific question: In your experience, which is more meaningful, the prestige of an institution or the prestige of a fellowship? (Of course, I know that in terms of the job market these are all trumped by the quality of one's scholarship, but lets just put that aside for now.)

[coonskee]

I'd say program > fellowship, if only because... Well, say youve been admitted to two programs. One is th best in the world; you'll be the worst student there, but you still beat out hundreds of people for your place. The other is the worst program in the world, but you'll be the best student there. Which would you pick?

Obviously, this is taking the example to extremes, but that's the reason I'd go for the more prestigious program - obviously it's prestigious for a reason. I'd prefer the challenge of distinguishing myself from the students in the "better" program than coming into a program already on top.

As for the Master's --> PhD thing for your third option -- I'd say, ask straight out if it's possible to join the PhD program after completing the MSc. then, take it from there

Good luck and congrats on all of your acceptances!!

Edited March 11, 2012 by coonskee

[fuzzylogician]

You talk about the "prestige" of the institution and it's not clear to me if you mean the university or the specific program and POI you'll be working with. Name recognition is important, especially if you are considering non-academic jobs in your future, but if you plan a future in academia then what matters is the quality of the program you're in. Rankings aren't that important and it's hard to tell what you mean by "less prestigious."

As a whole, I'd say research fit is the most important: how well you got along with POIs, how many options you have for advisors/committee members at a given university, what kind of resources are offered, what classes are offered, how you got along with potential peers, and the general atmosphere of the research community you'll become part of.

Find out (ask point blank) about procedures for going from the MA to the PhD at School 3. After that, ask yourself about research fit at each school and go from there. From the information you've given here, I wouldn't be able to give you any ranking of your schools.