Even After Visiting. More Confused than ever

[purplepepper]

Hey guys,

I took everyone's advice and visited the top 2 schools that I am considering, and well, my visits have left me more confused than ever while the April 15th deadline is fast approaching.

Help!!!

For the time being, I'd like to put location, funding etc. on the back burner because both schools, A and B seem to be very similar in these regards. I've considered all of these external factors (I know funding is huge, but these schools are wealthy) and cost of living, and these aren't helping me choose. I've got to choose by considering the different tenors of the departments.

School A: I attended a prospective student weekend and talked about the state of the field that I"m in to several people and it got me thinking about how I want to approach my own research. My prospective adviser, a senior scholar in the field, has an extremely unique and interesting approach; one that if I did incorporate into my research, could make my research very very rich in many ways. This adviser's approach is not strange or out there, but in a way, this adviser I feel, largely controls the actual direction of the field and pushes it forward, if that makes sense. I think something crazy, like 95% of this adviser's students have found jobs, and I hear that I wouldn't have been accepted if the adcom didn't feel like I'd have a chance at a job at the end.

The drawback. I actually didn't feel very welcome. This adviser didn't really make the effort to speak with me all that much (only for about an hour out of the whole weekend) and even then, it wasn't one-on-one. I've heard this is not typical, but I don't know how much stock to put in this. I feel in a way that other faculty outside my subfield have tried to get me to come more than this prospective adviser, so I don't quite know what to make of it.

School B: My prospective adviser is a great person. A family person. I was even invited over to their house for dinner to speak about the program and to meet the family. This is important to me because I feel like I will have many of these same personal issues, i.e. how to balance family with academics. While I'm free to work with several other profs in related fields with related interests, I would be emulating more conservative approaches. While I would have the tools to do great work, I"m not sure I could do the excellent work that everyone from school A turns out. With that said, I felt nothing but welcome at school B, and everyone was genuinely interested in me and hoping that I would accept the offer. I would actually be this adviser's first grad. student. A new prof. to the university, but hired as a full prof. with tenure so there is no worry there (before at an undergrad institution). The prof. at school A. is this prof.'s good friend.

When I say approach by the way, I dont' mean just reading the profs' publications and incorporating their methodologies. I mean the actual hands on advising, and how they teach the student to deal with the material in the field.

It's a hard decision. Help!!!!!!!!!!!!! helllllppppppp!!!!

[Stephen33]

May I suggest that you initiate a follow-up correspondence with the professor at school A? It is entirely possible that he was having a bad or unusually busy weekend, and/or perhaps he simply assumed that you will be attending school A. A respectful e-mail inquiry regarding your proposed research might generate a further conversation that could either allay or confirm your concerns. In short, I think what you need is more information, and I think the best way to obtain it is to deal with the professor directly.

[engguy]

school a.

first off, you are rarely going to be totally happy with one school, especially if you're having to choose between two or more programs you were at least excited enough about to apply to.

you're not doing this to be part of a family. that would be nice, as you mention, but it's not the main goal here. in this day and age, in the field you're entering, the cold-hearted efficiency of A is what you want.

and by all means, take the previous poster's advice and try for a follow-up chat with this adviser to see what the deal is.

[fuzzylogician]

I think something crazy, like 95% of this adviser's students have found jobs

That clinches it for me. You'll get to work with an influential person in your field and you'll be very likely to get a job after you graduate. I can understand not relating to an adviser. In fact, I had a meeting with a potential adviser once that made me realize that I could never work with them, which eventually turned me off a school that had previously been a top choice. But if that wasn't the case for you and you can see yourself working with this adviser, then it's a great opportunity. Take Stephen33's advice and follow up with an email to see if you can't connect better with this professor. Personally, I've attended open house days at some schools and visited on my own at others, and generally found that people had more time for me when it wasn't during an open house. During those there's always a tight schedule and profs have to meet many students one after the other, which can be stressful at times. Those who only met me on a given day (and not ten prospectives in a meeting-marathon) could give me more time and attention. Maybe that's what happened to you at school A.

[TulipOHare]

A. I second that the job placement rate says it all.

[vern23]

I also think school A sounds more promising. I'd be a little nervous about being advisor B's first grad student, that means he doesn't have the same experience with evaluating work, keeping you on track, perhaps the steps/classes/techincal things required by the particular school, etc. I think advisor A's experience and job placement rate is really more important than feeling welcome. I mean obviously they want you to come if they offered admission but maybe he/they just aren't as friendly, which may not be as fun but keeping things purely professional and all about work seems fine.

[liszt85]

I tend to disagree with the advice given here, but maybe I'm biased because I did something similar: opted for the young friendly adviser and I'll probably be amongst his first crop of students too.. so he will also be motivated to guide my work such that it turns productive. Like yours invited you to his house for dinner, mine invited me to play cricket with him! That clinched it for me, you may call me silly.. but I believe that a relaxed atmosphere is very important to foster creativity. I'm a physics major and I've found that sometimes you work well under pressure but I really don't think that holds for a field like art history!

[purplepepper]

In case anyone is interested, or in case this could benefit future readers....

Firstly, thanks to all those who responded, I was able to look at the situation from the outside, and that did help in the end. But I did go against the grain and decided on school B. As most of you mentioned, school A would seem the most reliable choice for several reasons, and I really had no reason to turn them down.

A friend of mine said to me, "The future isn't always black and white (i.e. jobs are never guaranteed, and even if a prof. has tenure, who knows what might happen), so if you were an idealist, choose school A. If you were a humanist, choose school B.

To tell you the truth, I only half can figure out what it means, but I chose school B, for one major reason: Because the prof. is new (not a new prof, just new to the university, the prof. was hired as a full prof. with tenure), and this is what I found out that through various communications with several faculty, is that they are investing so much energy, or whatever you invest, in this new guy. They are really supporting him--giving him the reign of the department for the first few years, which in turn translates into support for me and plenty of opportunities to get involved in research projects. This was not the case at School A.

There were more profs that I could potentially work with at School B, and even though I'll have to be a bit of a trail blazer, that never hurt anyone, right? So that's it in a word..I suppose now only the future will tell if I made the right choice!

April 15th is really right around the corner, so good luck to those making last min. decisions.

[TulipOHare]

Sounds like you did a little more digging and found what you wanted. Good luck to you!