Priorities

[mwash]

For those trying to decide between schools in the top 10 or 15, what factors do you think are the most important: prestige, job placement, fit, quality of education, size of stipend, quality of life...? How are you making your decision and why?

[plisar]

With your list below, I'd almost certainly go to Berkeley, no question.

[natofone]

Berkeley!

[mwash]

Thanks for the advice. I think I'm leaning that way right now. But I was also wondering what factors are motivating your decisions. Maybe I should add to the list: preference of significant other, climate, and common interests with other grad students or professors.

[Lex]

I haven't really figured out how to weigh those priorities, but I'm thinking about all of them!

It breaks down a little like this: I need to have a certain baseline level of professional support (decent stipend, some professors I want to work with who are also nice people, reasonable job placement records, etc). I don't expect the classes at grad school to be half as good as my undergrad classes, so I'm not too worried about it, though I'd like to have other grad students around who seem intellectually and socially compatible with me. I didn't get in anywhere I would've hated living, so that's cool. I figure I'll do most of my learning on my own, with other students, and with my advisor or advisors. But how to weigh slightly better professional qualities versus much better personal qualities? That I don't know.

[ep2175]

i'm having similar prioritization troubles. though, i think it's getting easier the more people i talk to at each school.

i was offered roughly the same funding package at each school, so that's not weighing too much into the decision. not sure what your funding deals look like ... but putting aside for a second that variable:

berkeley was a top choice of mine from the start, but then (after a series of conversations) i found that the professor i'd most likely be working with is very hard to deal with, and is taking her research in a new direction which does not align so well with my research interests. because of that, it's further down on the list. i'm still going to visit and am putting off a final decision until i've met face to face, but that's how i feel about it at the moment.

on the other hand, stanford, which i had not really thought a good match initially (because it is so quantitatively-focused and my background is in qualitative) has become one of my 2 tops owing to my conversations with faculty & current grads. they've been able to more fully explain the way their program works, and the areas that they currently specialize in - which happen to align really well with what i want to do.

i think the specifics help quite a bit here - what is your subfield? and your specific interests within that subfield? which school has the best people to work with on that? and which school has been doing the best job of placing people? for me, most other factors, important though they may be - location, etc - come after that.

hope that helps a bit!

[catchermiscount]

Bear in mind that there's a lot of correlation going on here. Good places do well across categories, and they cluster. If you're in one school that is clearly one cluster above the others (for example, Berkeley for the original poster), then I generally would advise to take the top cluster school. For comparing within clusters, I think it's important to examine some relative things and also some smaller issues that fall through the cracks when we look at departments more broadly:

1) Does the department place well relative to its rank? Some places overachieve, and others underachive.

2) Coauthoring. Don't just ask. They'll tell you there's a hearty culture of it. Go look it up.

3) Balance of TA/RA responsibilities. It's bad to only TA. It's bad to only RA. Ideally, you RA a little more than you TA, but you get to teach at least one class of your own.

4) Collegiality. Does the department have a uniting idea or method? If so, will you be able to expand yourself enough? If not, is there currently a methods war going on?

Those are some of the things I'm thinking about, anyway.