'Reputation' of university

[Kleene]

I know that the standard answer here is that the reputation (inside and outside academia) of your (PhD) university does not matter as long as your work is good. But is this true in all cases? For instance, does an employer outside of academia care about your thesis or will he in general be more impressed by a fancy name? We have to be realistic, since not every PhD graduate ends up in academia. Does it depend on your field, perhaps?

[TakeruK]

I don't think it's true that "the reputation of your PhD university does not matter as long as your work is good". Even within academia, I think reputation does matter a little, and it's not just your university's reputation, but also the reputation of your department, your advisor, your advisor's group, and your own reputation (these latter things matter more than the university's overall reputation, I think).

 

As for the non-academic jobs, I think it does depend on field but also the type of job you are seeking. For example, if you are looking to work on a research-based job outside of academia, it's more likely that the employer will be interested in your specific research results/abilities than if you are looking for a job based on the general analytical skills developed in a PhD program. 

 

Personally, I ended up with a choice between a few very good programs that are highly reputable within academia in my field. But because I was not sure about my post-PhD career path when selecting schools, I did consider reputation inside and outside of academic circles when making my final decision. I wouldn't say it was the deciding factor, but I definitely considered "which school name would be more impressive to someone who didn't have a PhD in my field?" part of the decision.

[Icydubloon]

I know several people who chose Stanford Masters programs over a PhD at a top 10 school in their respective fields solely because of the Stanford name.

[dr. t]

I don't think it's true that "the reputation of your PhD university does not matter as long as your work is good". 

 

I also disagree with this premise. There are now many studies floating around that show that most R1 universities are mainly staffed by PhDs from R1 universities.

[smbtuckma]

Reiterating, all profs I've talked to about this topic, both at R1's and LAC's, said that nearly all their academic job interviews (for psychology) resulted from connections they had made while in grad school, either themselves or indirectly through their mentor. So it seems like who your advisor knows (and who thinks they are an impressive researcher) will heavily influence your job prospects.

Edited January 16, 2015 by smbtuckma

[snyegurachka]

What I have heard is that the name of the school matters but the person you study under has a lot of pull as well. So if you study under someone who is a top person in his/her field at a state university, that can be as good as the Harvard or Stanford name in certain contexts.

[Kleene]

Thanks for your replies.

 

My reason for asking is that I am currently doing an MSc in a world top 5/10 university in my field. I have applied for a PhD there, but obviously funding is scarce. If I end up not getting funding, I might want to do a PhD in the university where I did my BSc (a world top 100 university) or a related university. Both supervisors are awesome and recognized in their field. There are only a couple of universities of better standing than my BSc uni with a suitable supervisor, given that I would prefer not to go to the US. The question is whether I should take a gap year to apply to some of these 'slightly better' universities while I am not particularly keen on gap years.

[Chubberubber]

If I were in your shoes, given that you don't want to go to the U.S (were most top universities are, whether we internationals like it or not)- go with the institution you're already familiar with and have a good relationship with the Professor. "Slightly better" isn't worth a year's wait in my mind...