PhD Decision Making, Missouri, FSU, UC Davis, WSU, Texas Tech

[emoanger90]

I had a back ground in media psychology in my master program. This year I applied for several PhD communication programs, and got accepted to 5 programs. They are School of Journalism in University of Missouri, School of Communication in FSU, College of Communication in WSU, Department of Communication in UC Davis, and the School of media and communication in Texas Tech.

 

The reason I applied these schools is because they all have or will have a psychophysiology lab in the schools. Personally I want to get lab training and set up a psychophyzz lab myself in the future. All these school has at least one professor that have that kind of expertise. 

 

Currently my choise come down to FSU and Missouri, I am very torn between these two. From what I know FSU has more professors whose research interest is in line with mine, which is entertainment and health communication research. They also have collaboration with Information School, and do Health Informatics, which is very appealing to me. But FSU is definitely not the highest ranked school among all the communication programs. Whereas the Journalism School in Missouri is absolutely world famous and will continue to be a high profile school in the future. Although they have one professor whose interest is similar to mine. Most faculty members are doing research that are different from my interest or my research framework. (They are a journalism school after all) But again it's not like they don't have professors that I want to work with.

Should I go for FSU, where I can see myself doing more research that interests me. Or should I go to Missouri, where I probably have to adjust a little bit of my research interest. A lot of people told me School ranking is not very important when you are doing PhD, it is all about your own research, your publication and the professor you work with and your social networking. However, there are also people saying that the University you graduate from will probably haunt you for the rest of your life. Better school brings you better job opportunities. If the rank of FSU is just a little bit lower, I wouldn't worry too much. But Missouri and FSU are totally in different range on all the school ranking chart. Besides, I know that I am the number 1 pick this year in the Missouri program. The funding package I received from Missouri is way way much better than FSU. 

 

 

[emoanger90]

Also, my own advisor told me not to go to Missouri, the reason is that Missouri is a Journalism School, so they probably focus more on Journalism than communication studies. I personally visited the school myself. I do feel like more professors are doing research in public relations and advertising. The type of research is totally different from what I have done in my master (media psychology). Only one professor is still doing my line of research (her alma mater is the university that I did my master).

[lyrehc]

The work you produce will have more of an impact on job prospects than the school you come from. If you're publishing and attend Podunk Hills University that will be better than not publishing and attending Prestigious University. 

 

It sounds to me like your heart has already decided and you want someone to tell you it is okay to follow your desires. It is. What you make of your education will have the longest-lasting impact.

[anothergradapplicant]

I just wrapped up my own decision making process, here's my $0.02 based on all the discussions I've had with my colleagues and mentors. I can't speak as to the variable thrown in by the J-school aspect, but assuming everything's relatively even: 

 

Part of it depends on how flexible you are with your research interests. The high level assumption is that if you wrote about your research interests on your SOP and got in, the department ad-comm with their decades of expertise thought you would be a fit and decided to take you. Now, you may not see any faculty who do exactly what you're interested in, necessarily, which is where the flexibility part comes in.

Are you absolutely hellbent on working on this one particular thing you've decided you're interested in right now, or are you open to letting your interests change based on the school of thought that your new institution would teach? 

 

I also found it interesting that on the whole, the younger academics I talked to seemed to emphasize fit and where it 'feels right', while the older veteran academics I spoke to told me that I would not regret having the stronger school name on my resume in the long run and that it makes a difference in long term income potential. Can't necessarily say which group is "right", but certainly something to think about. 

Edited March 30, 2015 by anothergradapplicant

[emoanger90]

Well, I have decided to go to FSU. Before and during my application, at least three professors in J School (2 of which works in my area) left. Where the school is heading to is unknown to me, and even the students there don't really know. Whereas FSU recently just hired two new faculty members who works in my area, there's a lot of growth and potential there. I think going to FSU is a safer choice.