Does reputation matters?

[giuseppe44]

Cornell University v.s. The University of Wisconsin-Madison ?

 

Biomedical Engineering PhD.

 

Both programs have excellent and comparable research opportunities.

 

Madison is fun.

 

Cornell is Cornell. Ithaca is ok.

 

Thanks for you inputs and answering according to the question in the topic title

[grad_wannabe]

both schools are extremely well-regarded. UW-Madison is generally considered on-par with many Ivies if I'm not mistaken. 

[eeee1923]

Since they are both pretty comparable - it will come down to whether you want to live somewhere fun for a couple years or in as you put it, an "ok" place. You should strive to do good science during your PhD, but you also want to be somewhere where you could have fun since you won't be locked away in a lab 24/7 for 4-5 yrs.

[juilletmercredi]

If they are otherwise equal professionally, then live in the fun place. I don't think Cornell is more highly regarded in engineering than Wisconsin - both are very well regarded on the graduate level.

[Argon]

I'd say reputation matters, but both of those schools have equal/comparable reputations in the field. Congrats!

[lyrehc]

I think both have equal reputation.

 

I would hesitate to go to Wisconsin right now, though. I have a friend who is a full professor at UW-Milwaukee and the cuts being pushed by the governor are affecting everyone dramatically. 

[giuseppe44]

Thanks guys for you inputs! I now have to add Boston University to that list, which makes things even harder… :\

[giuseppe44]

I think both have equal reputation.

 

I would hesitate to go to Wisconsin right now, though. I have a friend who is a full professor at UW-Milwaukee and the cuts being pushed by the governor are affecting everyone dramatically. 

 

I read that the governor wants to cut millions out of the UW system. I don't realize if it's just a political move with only temporary consequences or something that will a deeper impact in the long run.

Edited March 14, 2015 by giuseppe44

[bindlestiff]

I read that the governor wants to cut millions out of the UW system. I don't realize if it's just a political move with only temporary consequences or something that will a deeper impact in the long run.

I recently attended an open house at UW-Madison and the department (of communication sciences and disorders) briefly addressed the funding cuts issue. 

 

The department chair said that they understood that many of us would be concerned, but that they wanted to reassure us that the cuts wouldn't affect us as graduate students. He said they'd make sure that any funding cuts would come from elsewhere... the lack of specifics adds to my worries, but I guess he wouldn't announce that their salaries (or whatever) were being cut during an open house presentation.

 

It was good to hear, but I'm still anxious about it. However, I am currently a student at the University of Kansas in Brownbackistan, where the governor is in full-out war with public education. So I think that for me, UW is the lesser of two evils. 

 

I'd still really like to hear some other opinions on the situation at UW, though.