How are you guys deciding which school to attend? What variables are you considering?

[ucdude]

I made a bit of a list of some basic stuff I thought was important, and things that I thought I should consider.

 

I made a little excel spreadsheet obviously yet to be completed, and I was wondering if you guys can tell me things you guys are considering that will help be your deciding factor, as it might help us out in the decision process.

 

# of profs I would like to do research under

Can I start with those (^) profs over summer

# of potential/maybe profs cost of living stipend

How much tuition is covered

Medical insurance coverage

Requirements for PhD Candidacy

Requirements to receive PhD

Average Time Completion of PhD

# of Years Funded and How

 

There are my factors, not necessarily in order of importance. 

Edited March 16, 2015 by ucdude

[eeee1923]

You should also look at placement statistics and distribution of those that earn a PhD from the programs 

[bsharpe269]

I have a similar spreadsheet. I am also considering how close the profs I might want to work with fit my interests vs being a stretch, how well my personality clicks with profs, do I see myself enjoying hanging out with current students? What about the other prospectives?

[ucdude]

You should also look at placement statistics and distribution of those that earn a PhD from the programs 

 

How can you find these? 

[Eigen]

You're approaching it from a very quantitative perspective.... I found qualitative more useful.

 

Think of the PI's you're most interested in working for, and the department you found the most resource-heavy, and that had the best environment when you visited.

 

Lots of people underestimate environment, and the mesh of your personality with the PI, but I think those factors drive more people out of grad school than anything else.

[eeee1923]

How can you find these? 

 

Some programs have this data on their website and if not you can always email the program's DGS or coordinator to get that info

[ucdude]

@ Eigen - My instinct told me one school was superior over the other in terms of environment and how I felt there, but I'm hoping to quantify things, hoping that the qualifications my instinct gave me match up with the quantifications a simple pro/cons list will give. If both match, then great....if my gut tells me school A while all signs are pointed to school B then I guess I have some more soul/re-searching to do.

 

@ Eteshoe - thanks

[Eigen]

I get that.

 

I'd encourage going with your gut almost every time unless there's a really defined reason not to (obviously, what you're looking for here) .

 

Per capita funding is one thing I would look for (research dollars per grad student in the department)

Grad student access as a user to instrument facilities

[rising_star]

I would add factors like the travel distance to your home and the cost of getting there. Summer funding. Conference travel money. Average # of publications per graduating student. How often profs co-author with students. Success at obtaining research funding (both the PIs and of helping their grad students get NSF or other major grants).

 

More qualitatively, I would add things like the demographics of the university and the area, whether the hobbies I enjoy can be pursued there, and the outdoor opportunities.

[ucdude]

@ Eigen, Sorry for a possible dumb question, but why is research dollars per grad student important? My instinct tells me that its more qualitative than anything, as if the per capita funding is 0 lets say, then that means all your money is funded through TA'ing or scholarships...perhaps I am looking at it wrong.

 

@ Rising_star,

 

Summer funding is important, but does that come from the specific PI or from the graduate department itself? From my understanding (very little understanding, at that...) it seems like you get funded from your PI over summer, I thought this was a universal thing. Maybe it's not, as the grad student I work under TA'd during summer... 

 

I also figured that all professors have their named tagged at the end, I thought is just how things work (in the chemistry field)? I always thought it was, in order: Writer, various people that helped, undergrad, professor*. 

[rising_star]

ucdude, I'm not in your field so I don't know how pubs work. But you want to make sure that grad students are getting the chance to be lead author throughout their time there so you can come out with some first author pubs. You also want to make sure you're not always relegated to the middle/end of the author list. 

 

Summer funding really depends. Sometimes the PI funds you, if they have a grant. But, if they don't, you may have to TA over the summer to get a paycheck, assuming TA opportunities are even available. That's why this is something you should find out about. (And, while you're at it, find out if grad students who do research over the summer are paid as full-time employees or if they only get paid for 20 hrs/wk during the summer.)

[Eigen]

In Chemistry, funding is generally full 12 mos, so summer funding isn't a big worry. Authorship is usually pretty set and straightforward- tenure requires last author publications with students, so you usually get good publication opportunities. Number of ours per grad student per year is good to check, but it will be highly subfield dependent.

Per capita funding is important, because it's what will actually pay for your work. Having to shoestring together projects with ancient reagents and partially functioning equipment isn't a good experience. You want to make sure that PIs in the department are consistently winning large grants, as it indicates success of their research projects and goals, as well as money for you to work with.

Stipends are important, and even with no research funding you can still get paid.... But it makes research awfully hard.

[Maxtini]

If you want to find out how is your PI's funding going on, you could look at: http://grantome.com/

It's not really up to date but useful nevertheless.

[Eigen]

NIH and NSF also have searchable grant databases you can check- will show you total funding, per year, and how long the grant will last.

[Faraday]

I made a bit of a list of some basic stuff I thought was important, and things that I thought I should consider.

 

I made a little excel spreadsheet obviously yet to be completed, and I was wondering if you guys can tell me things you guys are considering that will help be your deciding factor, as it might help us out in the decision process.

 

# of profs I would like to do research under

Can I start with those (^) profs over summer

# of potential/maybe profs cost of living stipend

How much tuition is covered

Medical insurance coverage

Requirements for PhD Candidacy

Requirements to receive PhD

Average Time Completion of PhD

# of Years Funded and How

 

There are my factors, not necessarily in order of importance. 

 

You need to be weary of some of these official statistics. Schools will often spin them to look better than they might really be. For example, in most cases schools will define the "% of students who get a PhD" as the "% of PhD candidates (those having passed orals) who get a PhD", rather than all entering graduate students (a much uglier number). Other creative statistics which might go on would include using "average time to completion of PhD" data for the class that started ~5-6 years ago. Obviously the students in that class who are still struggling on through their 7th years are not included so the data can remain around the nice and pretty 5 year average...

 

On another note, I'd strongly advise against working the summer before you begin graduate school. This is the last summer you will have to devote entirely to relaxation and fun for the next 40+ years until you retire (or maybe for the rest of your life). Don't squander it in the lab.

Edited March 18, 2015 by Faraday

[eeee1923]

 

On another note, I'd strongly advise against working the summer before you begin graduate school. This is the last summer you will have to devote entirely to relaxation and fun for the next 40+ years until you retire (or maybe for the rest of your life). Don't squander it in the lab.

 

I agree, if you have the chance relax. Maybe do some light reading to keep the mind muscles from completely atrophying but take it easy.

[Eigen]

I actually started at my grad school a couple of months early, and really am glad I did. Was able to get all settled before most people arrived.

[epinephrine]

At some point I also felt like I'd reached a sort of equilibrium when it came to things like labs I wanted to work at, funding etc., and eventually started to consider just reputation, and that sort of thing. This is when I took advice from my current PI really very seriously. If you have a good enough relationship with your PI that's definitely something you should do.

[oskar]

Did you have a look at this:

http://grantome.com/blog/wasted-potential

 

In my school everybody talked about it and nobody wants to do a postdoc. Is that true that average PhD is over 8 years? 

[Eigen]

Average PhD in some fields is over 8 years, Chemistry is still around 5-6 average.