Another help with choice post!

[nugget3]

I'm looking at math MS programs at two schools with comparable (full) funding and number of faculty I'd like to work with. (How did I get so lucky??) I'm living abroad, so haven't been able to visit, though have emailed with some current students at each school. The deets:

 

School A:

- Got $20,000 fellowship for first 12 months - don't have to work at all! Could start research early. TA the second year.

- There's an institute affiliated with the department that would be a great resource.

- Students attend a summer workshop with said institute, which is good for experience and networking.

- Also a summer internship to get started on a research project with faculty.

- Location sounds good, but winter weather isn't great - cloudy and snowy (I'm from the north, so would like to experience something different!).

- Classes are a bit more general - applied math vs. my area of interest.

- Requires several weeks of summer TA training, which doesn't sound like it will be very fun.

- MS only, which I am perfectly happy with.

 

School B: 

- TA for the first year, and I'd imagine the second as well (though not strictly guaranteed like at School A). TA'ing is not a con.

- Classes are more focused on my specific area of applied math.

- I'm afraid the location would feel more suburban than School A (even though it's also in a city), but I can't really be sure of that. Weather sounds nice - warm in winter! 

- Program director trained with expert in the field.

- Seminar offers opportunities to keep up with latest research.

- MS with option to transfer into PhD, although I don't know if I'll continue in this exact path for my PhD, and don't necessarily want the pressure to do so. Most MS students transfer to the PhD program.

- Program doesn't have a real "home department", so it might not feel like we're a part of something.

- Opportunity to work with faculty at nearby universities. 

 

I think that's everything... agh, such a hard decision! Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

[zabius]

Well, both schools sound fantastic for what you want to do! I honestly think that either one would be a great choice… it's a good position to be in, because you can't "lose" no matter which you choose.

That said, neither one is a "clear winner" over the other; they're both strong. It all depends on how much you weight you personally put into each selection criterion. What are the most important aspects of a potential program in your mind? If you think that specialized training is the most important thing to you, you might want to choose School B for its highly focused curriculum. But if you think that networking and experiences for your CV are more important, you might want to choose School A for the internships and workshops at the affiliated institute.

 

Do rankings matter to you? I personally don't really place that much emphasis on them. But if one of these schools is consistently much higher ranked than the other (say, a top 10 school vs. a "barely in the top 100" school), then maybe you might want to just choose the more prestigious one? Also check out the job placement records at each school. Do they both have a good record of placing graduates in the type of career that you're interested in? From what you've said, it sounds like they're good schools so they probably do. But it's worth checking out... if you want to go into, say, industry and one school is much better at placing graduates in industry than the other (perhaps the other school focuses more on getting its grads academic jobs instead?), then perhaps you may want to use this info as an important criterion in your decision.

Personally, based on the info that you've provided, I would choose School A... primarily for the money (always nice) and the affiliated institute (sounds like a great experience, and networking is very important). Then, if you decide that you do want a PhD after all, you can apply to School B in two years! On the other hand, if you decide that you don't want a PhD, then School A will probably have provided you with plenty of good resources and experiences (internships, workshops) to help you land a good job.

Of course, if your gut is telling you that you prefer School B, by all means go there (don't be afraid to let subjective gut feelings play a part in this decision). It doesn't sound like a bad option at all! The lack of a "home department" is potentially the only downside to B. I find that a good department dynamic can make all the difference in a graduate program. Your department is, in a lot of ways, your academic "support network," and at the end of the program you'll likely be more a product of the whole department than you are a product of an individual lab. That's my take on it anyway. I may be biased, though-- I did my undergrad in a fantastic department (which was very supportive and provided me with a lot of resources outside of my lab) but then went on to an MS in a pretty poor department. The second experience was definitely less than ideal.

Good luck with your decision! A lot of people would be very envious of your situation. :-)

[nugget3]

Thanks for your thoughtful reply! Yeah, there are so many positives to each program, just different ones, so it's hard to choose and know what's best for me at this point. I don't even know what I find most important now, since I already filtered out a lot of universities that were in an undesirable location, or didn't have enough research going on in my field of interest, and didn't apply to those. I was left with 3, and was just hoping to get into ONE school!  

 

Good point that I could go on and do my PhD at School B later. That is also how I rationalized declining my third school's offer of admission. Man, rejection sucks, even if I'm the one who's giving it out!

 

Now I'm going to re-read the current student opinions I got and see if I can get a generalized feeling from those. Unfortunately I wasn't able to visit either campus. That probably would have been the deciding factor - or maybe would have made it even harder after getting to know everyone... 

 

Thanks again!