Rankings vs good fit when selecting schools

[gurumaster8899]

which one is more important....if there's a school you really think is a 'perfect fit' and are really enthusiastic about but it is very low in the rankings....will it be a good choice to attend for a Phd (engineering)?

thank you for all your help...

[noojens]

You're going to be there for like 5 years, so yeah, I think it's important for the school to be a good fit.

Anyway, the advisor you work with is as important as the reputation of the school you attend. Maybe more important. So go where you'll be happy.

[Stories]

A good fit will give you a far better opportunity to be accepted, especially if you can demonstrate the fit in your personal statement.

[fuzzylogician]

Fit >>> ranking.

You'll have better chances of being accepted and funded by a program you fit well in. Not to mention that with an adviser and program that are better suited for your interests, you are also likelier to produce better work. Overall rankings of a program aren't always indicative of its strength in a specific subfield.

[rising_star]

Fit is way more important than ranking. If you won't be happy there (due to the advisor, your peers, the weather, distance from home, or any other factor that matters to you), do NOT go there. And, if possible, avoid applying there (though sometimes you can't know that you'll hate a place until after you visit which I don't think you should do unless you've been accepted with funding). Then again, there are no recent rankings for my discipline, at least not until the new NRC ones come out. As I say a lot around here, those 96 rankings were *published* in the year my advisor earned a PhD. He's written 2 books and published in every top journal in the field since then... Needless to say, my department is not highly ranked then (around 20) but has worked throughout this decade to add talented faculty and graduate students and make ourselves into *the* place to be for certain fields of study. That said, if you hate hot weather, you can't come here since it'll be 105-115 for the next three months. So definitely take those kinds of things into consideration.

As far as how to factor things into fit, here's how I rated them:

1) Advisor (do we get along, interested in my research, interaction with students, mentorship abilities)

2) Weather (I can't stand snow. In fact, I only ever applied to one cold weather place and it snowed during my visit)

3) Communication with advisor's students (I always contacted students of my prospective advisor to get the real deal. Students are very forthcoming via email, phone, and during your visit)

4) Interests match well with those of others on campus (it's always good to have interdisciplinary connections and I have to have them for my work)

5) Distance/cost to get home (I have sick family members so I need to be able to get home affordably on a regular basis so things far away weren't always a good "fit" for me)

[Minnesotan]

Yeah. Rankings don't often even consider proper sub-fields. I'm a rhetcomp guy, and the only thing to go on as far as rankings go s a general sense of a program's reputation.

Even if there were rankings, though, I had other factors that were far more important:

-Who would I be working with? Is their research helpful to my own? Are they productive and well-admired in the field?

-Will I get enough money to live via fellowships and assistantships?

-What is the cost of living in the area, compared to my stipend?

-Are there enough universities nearby for my partner to get a job and continue her studies?

The list could go on.