BA/BS and PhD at same institution?

[TheMercySeat]

Much to my surprise, I saw this quite a bit at interview weekend in one specific university.

Thoughts?

I thought there was a really bad stigma against this.

When I see it, what does it say about the program?

Is it safe to assume 'checkmate' if you're a total stranger competing against the prof's favorite?

Edited February 19, 2015 by TheMercySeat

[EastCoasting]

At my institution a few students completed their undergrad their as well. To my knowledge, the only stigma there is, is against getting a tenure track position as your doctoral institute.

I don't know who the prof would choose, but the student may not necessarily want to go there. Also, recruits don't always apply to study under faculty they've priviously worked with, and often undergrads don't really cultivate meaningfull relationships with the lab's PI.

[PsychandPhilo]

It's not checkmate but if they made it to the interview phase then it will most likely be an advantage to them. That being said, it's not absolute and at the end of the day the professor wants the best researcher/fit for the program.

[Username_92]

I think it depends on the university and the professor. My current supervisor has a slight preference towards students from other universities, another professor who I volunteer for wants someone he has already worked with/knows 

From what I have seen (applying in the US and Canada) it seems that stronger programs tend to prefer students from other universities - but that is just my experience 

[FantasticalDevPsych]

As someone who actually really wanted to remain at my undergrad insitution and with my current PI (well known in my area and someone I've enjoyed working with), from asking around my undergrad department (top 15), I learned that my current departement only admits undergrads there under exceptional circumstances. Though I also observed the preference for someone they know vs someone who is from another university seemed to be very professor specific as some mentioned expiclity about not wanting UGs to remian at their UG insitution and some told me to try and apply anyway.

 

On my interview I think there were some undergrads from the school there interviewing but the number was small from what I can remember. My POI there actually also did not want me to remain at my undergrad insitution (even though my PI was my POIs advisor). 

 

So from what I observed there is a really bad stigma about this.

[TheMercySeat]

As someone who actually really wanted to remain at my undergrad insitution and with my current PI (well known in my area and someone I've enjoyed working with), from asking around my undergrad department (top 15), I learned that my current departement only admits undergrads there under exceptional circumstances.

On opposed to the external applicants who are not exceptional?

Thanks, all! On second thought, literally all of the current PhDs I met at an interview day did their UG at the same institution. It would have been silly to think I would stand a chance :x

[mb712]

I applied to a program at my current institution. A lot of people in the department know who I am but I didn't work closely with them, I did research elsewhere on campus. I've been accepted, so the stigma can't be too bad!

I've been told applying to your home institution is frowned upon more in clinical, but I also know of a clinical student at my current institution who did undergrad here. Case by case POI preferences probably reign supreme over any sort of university preference for these kind of situations.

As much as we may not like it, connections are important now. I'm not sure knowing a POI personally would help anymore than something like a LOR writer having gone to grad school with your POI, but connections matter/help nonetheless. We all need to put our networking pants on, haha.

[FantasticalDevPsych]

From what I can tell it all seems to boil down to being an exceptional applicant and professor and department preference regarding staying at your same institution!

As well as the stigma being a stigma: it also seems to vary depending on who you are talking to!

Edited February 19, 2015 by FantasticalDevPsych

[TheMercySeat]

To reframe my concern, interview candidates (I.e., people who were hand picked by the department as finalists) were from the same institution. Kinda defeats the purpose of interviewing external candidates when you have 4 slots and half of the 15 interviewees were from the same institution, eh?

Edited February 19, 2015 by TheMercySeat

[FantasticalDevPsych]

I actually like that they did interview these candidates and not just admit them because they were known.

But you are right, that does seem very high! And I agree that kind of defeats the purpose of interviewing external candidates at all!

[TheMercySeat]

I actually like that they did interview these candidates and not just admit them because they were known.

But you are right, that does seem very high! And I agree that kind of defeats the purpose of interviewing external candidates at all!

Valid point on the former comment.

Moreover, nearly all of the current PhD candidates I met on interview day went to the same institution for UG, so there is a strong precedent for it at this institution.

I'm the sucker who fell for it and took two days off of work for interview day

Edited February 19, 2015 by TheMercySeat

[TheMercySeat]

Speaking of, I just looked at profiles of PhD students I didn't meet and realized that the majority of them got a terminal MA in a different program at the same institution prior to being accepted into the program I applied to for their PhDs.

Now I have no idea whether I should apply to get a terminal MA at this institution, too, seeing as that seems to be the ticket into their PhD program... Which kinda sucks because I already have a MA (fully funded) from a different university

Edited February 19, 2015 by TheMercySeat