Attending the same school for PhD...

[childoftheeast]

Hi all,

Many people talk about the so-called "intellectual incest", so I wanted to ask a question on it. A year ago, I accepted an offer for a Ph.D. program at a Top20 school, but the school was where I also went to undergrad for. In retrospect, and to be quite frank, I was quite lazy with my GREs, my GPA wasn't good, so I only relied on my extensive research experience for admission. Competition was extremely fierce, and out of ~10 schools I applied to, I only got into my undergrad school hence I accepted the offer (I knew I wanted to do a PhD). However, whenever the topic of "where you went for undergrad" comes up when talking to other grad students, almost all of them came from schools that were below the rank of my school. This makes me feel unaccomplished because I feel like I am the only one in the entering class who could not go to a better school. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? No doubt that I love the research here and atmosphere, but sometimes I tell myself that I could've went to a better school if I took some gap years (which, for personal circumstances, was very not preferred).

 

 

Edited May 18, 2016 by childoftheeast

[Bioenchilada]

2 hours ago, childoftheeast said:

Hi all,

Many people talk about the so-called "intellectual incest", so I wanted to ask a question on it. A year ago, I accepted an offer for a Ph.D. program at a Top20 school, but the school was where I also went to undergrad for. In retrospect, and to be quite frank, I was quite lazy with my GREs, my GPA wasn't good, so I only relied on my extensive research experience for admission. Competition was extremely fierce, and out of ~10 schools I applied to, I only got into my undergrad school hence I accepted the offer (I knew I wanted to do a PhD). However, whenever the topic of "where you went for undergrad" comes up when talking to other grad students, almost all of them came from schools that were below the rank of my school. This makes me feel unaccomplished because I feel like I am the only one in the entering class who could not go to a better school. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? No doubt that I love the research here and atmosphere, but sometimes I tell myself that I could've went to a better school if I took some gap years (which, for personal circumstances, was very not preferred).

 

 

I mean, there's not really much you can do about it, honestly. If you're school is as good as you say and you like your program, you'll be fine. It's not like anyone will question about why you decided to stay anyway. If this happens, you can always make something up lol 

[Bioenchilada]

Lol I really need to stop posting when I'm tired, so many errors.

 Your**

It's not like anyone will question why**

[aberrant]

On 5/19/2016 at 10:08 PM, Bioenchilada said:

I mean, there's not really much you can do about it, honestly. If you're school is as good as you say and you like your program, you'll be fine. It's not like anyone will question about why you decided to stay anyway. If this happens, you can always make something up lol 

I agreed. I think the only time OP will need to concern about the "academic inbreeding" issue is later in the career when OP is looking for a job after graduate school (or down the road, such as after post-doc).

OP, you can always try your best in your current program, or consider switching to a different program if you think this is a huge issue for you.

[Pitangus]

My thoughts:

Sure, it's possible that you could have gotten into a higher-ranked program if you took a gap year and got some additional experience. It's also possible that you could have gotten into a higher-ranked program if you performed better on the GREs and in your undergrad courses. But did you want to retake the GREs? Or complete a Masters degree or post-bacc courses to get a better GPA on your record? You've already said that you really preferred not to take a gap year. So I don't think there's any benefit in dwelling on the what-ifs that could have arisen from doing things you didn't want to do. 

You say that you love the atmosphere of your current program and the research, which all sounds positive to me. When first starting a grad program, all you have is the accomplishments from your previous degree, so I understand that it can be hard not to think about them and want to compare them to those of other new students. But I think that as you continue into your second year and continue making research progress, you will begin to focus more on that and less on your (and your cohort's) past record. If the research being conducted in your program matches your interests well, then you should be able to thrive and avoid the stigma of "academic inbreeding" by doing good work and demonstrating that this program was a good fit for you. 

[blc073]

I am against going to the same school for graduate school and undergraduate, but it's done. 

Just work hard and publish in good journals, then nothing else will matter.