Same Place as Undergrad vs. Different One

[Abyss21]

I've heard non-stop debates about this and I just want to get some more opinions.

 

I'm a Canadian student that goes to McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario right now for my undergraduate degree in English.

 

I've applied to a Masters in English at McMaster and through many terrible bureaucratic failures, I have yet to receive my official offer.

 

The other university that I've already accepted is Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario. It's a much newer university and therefore has less prestige, but it's more innovative and in a better location.

 

Now, McMaster has realized that they forgot to send me the official offer and are going insane trying to keep me. However, Ryerson has been much more organized and showed interest in me much earlier so I have already officially accepted it.

 

Both universities are offering very generous funding and both programs seem interesting so I would really like to hear some thoughts on this.

 

Thanks in advance!

[icedcoffee]

Pick the one that will give you many opportunities within the grad program. For example, scholarship, teaching, etc.

[tspier2]

Why is this even a question if you've already accepted an offer?

[Abyss21]

Why is this even a question if you've already accepted an offer?

The place that screwed up is trying to get me to cancel my acceptance to the other one.

[JTMurray]

So aside from the bureaucratic mishaps, the broader question is whether it's disadvantageous to go to the same school for grad school as your undergrad. I'm also in Canada. I did my BA at Carleton and my MA at Queen's. I've discussed this with a professor of mine when I was deciding whether to do this and she said basically that it doesn't matter where you do your BA because most Canadian University programs are pretty much interchangeable. It does matter where you do your MA because some programs are better than others, but if a good program is at the same school you did your undergrad at, it looks fine. BUT you should NEVER do your Ph.D at the same school where you did your BA if you also did your MA there. In short, pick the program that has the best reviews and/or the best funding. 
 

[gr1277]

When I applied to MA programs, I was accepted to 3/5 and ending up accepting the offer from my undergraduate university. They made me a more competitive offer ($2,000 more for the same teaching responsibilities).

 

I somewhat regret my decision because I don't think I've been challenged enough. I think that I would have been pushed more at another university. However, I was given research/academic support by a lot of the professors (partly because I had established relationships with many of them already). Because of this, I was able to get a book review and a conference proceedings article published. Also, I've presented at 5 conferences that were completely funded by my department/university and/or the grad funding from the conferences. 

 

The answer: it depends. 

[userforth]

I asked some of my professors about a similar situation, and they all suggested going to a school different from your undergrad for the reasons that: you'll experience better academic diversity (your influences, the ideas you're exposed to etc) and because, and this is just what one of my professors said, it's supposedly more difficult to gain a professorship down the road if you don't diversify, so if that's what you'd like to do, I might weigh those pieces of advice in with you decision making.

[gr1277]

I asked some of my professors about a similar situation, and they all suggested going to a school different from your undergrad for the reasons that: you'll experience better academic diversity (your influences, the ideas you're exposed to etc) and because, and this is just what one of my professors said, it's supposedly more difficult to gain a professorship down the road if you don't diversify, so if that's what you'd like to do, I might weigh those pieces of advice in with you decision making.

 

I agree with userforth for the most part. It's important to grow as a scholar and avoid "inbreeding" too much. I think this is more important on the PhD level though.  

[rising_star]

I would go to another institution. Partly it's about academic diversity, partly it's about growing and being challenged, and partly it's about showing a willingness to take on new experiences. 

[travelgirl125]

I agree with what everyone else has said (that you should go someplace new), but also for the fact that you should go to a school that is organized and has been committed to you from the beginning!

[Chiqui74]

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Edited March 8, 2015 by Chiqui74

[juilletmercredi]

There's also the detail that you've already accepted Ryerson's offer.