Getting a phd in a location you ultimately want to end up

[HopingforaSWphd]

Hi everyone,

I've heard time and time again to not go to a phd in an area or a school you want to end up in because schools don't like to inbreed. Given this, is it better to go to University A, which has a weaker department but name recognition. It has about 1 -2 professors working on your issue and less funding but not in the area you want to end up in. OR University B, better funding, one of the best departments, about 5-10 amazing professors in your field but in you want to teach at this place eventually (you hope) and stay in this area?

Thoughts?

[Gvh]

I don't know if that rationale is entirely true. I know plenty of people who did their PhD in one institution and either stayed at that institution or went to a different school in the same area for their post-doc. It may be that certain schools do not take their own, but I don't know if you can generalize this to everywhere. I would try contacting current grad students at the schools you're interested to see if that kind of culture exists at their institution.  

[fuzzylogician]

It is sometimes true that schools don't like to hire their own alums, but this is by no means a hard and fast rule. Even if it were true that going to school B meant you could not get a job there, I would still much prefer to go there given that it has better funding, scholars, ranking etc. and seems like an overall better choice. No offense, but the chances of anyone, regardless of how good they are, landing a job at any particular school are so slim that accepting a worse admissions offer just because that way you might (chances slightly > 0) get a job at the better school 5-6 years from now makes no sense to me. Choose the place that will give you a better education and better chances of success post-graduation--which sounds like school B, not school A. 

 

Now, this logic aside, seems to me that being in the area that you want to live in after graduation can have a lot of advantages, even if you don't end up with a job at the school you attend. You can spend your time making connections with nearby institutions, so that when you graduate you will have an advantage when you apply to jobs in the area. This will be harder to do if you attend a school that's far away. 

[GeoDUDE!]

You should go to the department where you will do the best work. That might include social/living stuff, but if you are making a choice based on a hypothetical, and getting a faculty position PERIOD is a hypothetical, then you are making the wrong choice.

 

Lets not paint pictures here; If you work hard you will still be very lucky to get a Tenure Track position (assuming thats what you want) ANYWHERE. Take the better school.

[Vene]

It is sometimes true that schools don't like to hire their own alums, but this is by no means a hard and fast rule.

Not trying to dispute you, I've actually noticed that for a number of universities they seem to disproportionately hire their alumni.

[juilletmercredi]

I think it depends entirely on what you want to do, but as someone who is about to graduate I am also questioning the wisdom of this advice.

First of all, some schools do like to inbreed.  Harvard, for example, loves hiring its own graduates.  Columbia does, too - many of the faculty in my department got their PhDs here.  Even many of our doctoral students got their master's degrees here.

Second of all, I have many friends who came to get their PhDs here (in NYC), decided that they wanted to stay, and made it happen.  I was actually quite baffled, because the common wisdom is that you can't choose where you want to live in academia - and while I think that's mostly true, it's not universally true.  In fact, I have quite a few friends who have gone exactly where they wanted to go geographically.  A friend wanted to return to Atlanta and is at Georgia State; another friend wanted specifically work at the University of Michigan (her undergrad alma mater), got a postdoc there, and turned her postdoc into a faculty position; a third friend got two different faculty positions in New York (moved from a great NYC institution to another great one).  The caveat, of course, is that they were all very accomplished and well-published individuals.

Thirdly - if your goal is not academia, I think getting a PhD where you want to end up is a really good idea.  You make connections in that city that are hard to form elsewhere.  For example, I was doing a site visit at an organization the other day that aligns well with my research.  Then I realized how many organizations my lab has partnered with in the city, at which I know people AND my advisor has partnerships and networks with.  You can even work part-time during the later years of your PhD at an organization that you want to work with (in fact, I interviewed for an RA position at a nonprofit and was told that they wanted to hire someone who was close to finishing and would want to continue into a full-time position after they finished).  I just talked with a friend who got a plum job at an international NGO because he started consulting with them part-time while finishing up.

In your case, I would DEFINITELY attend University B.  It has better funding, more amazing professors and one of the best departments.  You have a better launching pad there.