Indecisiveness.

[ejuliast]

I'm in the amazing (and, by me, unexpected) position of having 7 choices of grad schools...and I'm stumped. Thrilled, but completely stumped. I've been trying to make spreadsheets comparing the options, thinking about the environs of each place, and emailing like crazy with current students, professors, etc. And I'm just frozen when it comes to actually eliminating one of the schools from my list!

Does anyone have any advice on what to do? Any "questions you ask yourself" or other reality-facing mechanisms like that?

[liszt85]

Have you visited any of these? I guess the major question must be if your research interests match with the faculty's. The stipend offered is another concern if you're in the unenviable position of having to support people other than yourself. The place and the atmosphere is of great relevance as well. For me the music scene has to be great.. That way, I'd prefer Chicago (Northwestern) over say Columbus (OSU) but then I have to support my wife on my stipend, so OSU holds greater attraction that way because its an inexpensive place to live in! Only you can decide what would be the relevant questions to ask yourself

[lotf629]

I agree about the visiting.

I had exactly the same number of offers as you, and I finally had to tell myself that while I felt a little safer with all of my options open, I was wasting my own energy and was going to have to start making commitments. I emailed my most trusted advisor and said, "I'm about to decline offers to X, Y, and Z places: you wouldn't advise me to do anything different would you?" and he wrote back and said, "No, turn 'em down." So I forced myself to type the emails and hit "send."

My guess is that, although you have seven offers, they're probably not all real options...not even all schools that you would want to visit. Don't you have two or three that are *clearly* the bottom of the list (for reasons of funding, clear advisor mismatch, significantly lower rank, etc.)? Keep three or four to visit, but cut the others loose. Remember: you will be doing some other student on a wait list somewhere a huge favor! Picture somebody else learning a few days early that they will get in to a dream school, and maybe it will be easier.

[ejuliast]

Yes, I'm visiting as many as I can, which is probably why I'm getting antsy: I'm trying to evaluate them while waiting for those trips...

Thanks for the responses! I'm hoping to let some offers go soon...but it's harder than I thought to do so!

[ewurgler]

ejuliast:

I am also in soc and think there are some important things to consider, and that will make a difference in me deciding:

1) Are you funded? How long? What types of jobs? Any summer funding?

2) Research Match? Who has the people you most want to work with? Will they stay at X University? Do their current students have good things to say about them? Do you click with them personally?

3) Cohesiveness of the department? Does the faculty get along? If you work with X, will Y automatically hate you? Are there major fractures? Do the quant people hate the qaul people?

4) If you want to do mainly quant or qaul, is that respected there? Are they known for that?

5) COurse work: How much is there? Is that how much you want? If you have a clear idea of what your diss will look like, lots of coursework will be annoying.

6) Teaching: Do they ever let you teach your own class? Is that important to you?

7) Size of department: Do you want to have a lot of attention, or do you want a large department?

8) Time to completion: How long is average for this department? (I know berkeley and Madison have a rep for taking longer).

9) Placement: Ask what this years PhDs have waiting. Are they good at placing at R1 AND top liberal arts (if that is something you MAY want)? Are these positions tenure track?

10) Do the graduate students seem happy? Are they well supported? DO they get along/socialize together? (A big one for me as I want some friends )

11) Can you live in city X on your stipend the way you want to? There are clearly big differences in cost of living on your list. Can you be comfortable with your pay?

These are obviously LOTS to think about, but on my last visit to indiana, I asked them to talk about other schools I am considering (some had gone there) and what they think is different about their school. They tended to be honest, saying "its a really strong program, and if you like this type of program, there would be better."

For me, it will come done to whether I like my potential advisor (his work and him personally), whether I get along with the grad students, and what department is supportive and not "strike out on your own type of place." I am not totally clear on what my eventual diss would look like, and I don't want to be in a sink or swim place.

Also, at my visit to indiana, they all said Berkeley has A LOT of hits, but a lot of misses, and it is a sink or swim department. It is up to you to make it, there is very little support. (I got rejected, but they all felt the need to tell me about it).

Also, I am from CA, and LA is incredibly expensive to live in. UCLA is in a rich area, all of LA has horrible traffic, so unless they give you 25k a year, you will be living in a dump or spending 2 to 3 hours a day commuting (seriously!). Berkeley and Stanford are also both in really expensive areas (Stanford in one of the riches areas in the US).

I also had an undergrad prof who went to NYU who siad they have big problems with support of grad students and completion times are long.

Ok, probably more than you wanted, but there you go. I am a big believer in going somewhere I think I will flourish at rather than somewhere that has produced the most superstars. You obviously have an amazing list to pick from, so now you have the luxury to grill the grad students and faculty while you visit. But trust your instincts on your visit. You will be able to tell whether or not people are happy, enjoying being around each other, etc.

[socialpsych]

Wow...you and I clearly have very different decision-making styles. I can't wait to get my options narrowed down and make some commitments.

One of my friends advised me to notice my gut reaction when I got the acceptances. Of course you will have been happier about your first acceptance, etc., but are there any schools you feel like you should have been more excited about, that in the end you just didn't care about when you heard you got in? I think that would be an important thing to pay attention to. If you're not feeling it...don't go. That said, visits can really change your gut feeling, so visit first!

My strategy has been to ask my advisors. If you are talking to people from the schools you're looking at, they will not be able to compare your options to one another, which is what you really need at this point. But go to your letter writers and ask them for advice. I think they will be happy to advise you, especially if you have specific questions about the reputations of the programs you're looking at.

One last tip: I've heard that the single most important thing to ask current grad students is how they like working with the profs in that program.

Definitely visit as many places as you can, though! That should really help you get a sense of how the schools compare to one another.

[Lizard]

Yes, I'm visiting as many as I can, which is probably why I'm getting antsy: I'm trying to evaluate them while waiting for those trips...

I think you will gain a lot from your visits. A program can be completely different on paper than it is in person. The department's overall feel will say a lot about how it runs, how well you fit (or don't fit) and how happy/productive you will be. Several people have mentioned how important it is to speak with current graduate students. This is so true! They will (generally) give it to you straight, so don't shy away from asking them anything and everything you feel is important in your decision making.