Does Location of School influence Job prospects?

[brinswan]

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[math123]

No. Look at placement records for your program and/or ask your potential adviser. To think that an east cost uni won't hire you because you went to an east coast school for grad school is absurd, to say the least.

[brinswan]

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[math123]

Maybe, maybe not. How should anyone on here know? Ask why their placement history is skewed toward midwest schools.

[brinswan]

What do you mean, how should anyone on here know? How do you know anyone on here shouldn't know? In lots of other programs - such as law and other professional degrees - there's a tendency for schools to place within their geographical area. It's not "absurd" of me to wonder if there isn't a similar phenomenon within PhD programs as well. So you don't know the answer to my question, or you think it's irrelevant - maybe somebody else has a different opinion on the issue.

[IrishHistoryKid]

No. Look at placement records for your program and/or ask your potential adviser. To think that an east cost uni won't hire you because you went to an east coast school for grad school is absurd, to say the least.

Jesus man, go easy. Why be so mean? This person is just asking some basic questions. Why the need to be rude about it?

[goose2009]

It is really hard to tell why people tended to get jobs near the school. It could be that they have contacts at the surrounding universities because they were near by, or maybe they just tended to apply to near by universities because while in grad school they started families or decided they liked the area and didn't want to move far away. I would definitely contact the program and see what they say about it.

[drpsych]

It could, but it could also be that a person choosing to go to a school in the Midwest also wants jobs in the Midwest afterward, so it might not really mean that it limits your job prospects after you leave. I think you should definitely ask about connections and such if that is your plan. Sometimes if you choose to get a PhD at a place where you'd like to end up (and want to stay in academia), it could actually limit your options in staying there afterward since schools tend not to take their own. Also, job prospects depend on so many factors-- including if there are jobs in your field in the locations you're looking at, so it's tough to say that location of which school you go to will influence that, if that makes sense?

[was1984]

Well, you will probably have more opportunities to network with people from schools on the east coast if you are going to school on the east coast. So at the very least, there is that small amount tipping the scales toward going to school where you want to end up.

OTOH, if the school in the midwest is much more likely to send you to conferences, you might actually have an easier time getting a job on the east coast (or anywhere for that matter) from that school.

So I don't know what to tell ya