Georgia Tech vs Duke vs UPenn for ECE MS/PhD (2 weeks left!)

[John Popovic]

1) Gatech
Pros:
- Highly prestigious ECE school
- Very strong group of researchers in ECE

Cons:
-My advisor is fresh out of his postdoc, so no PhD supervising experience yet or connections in academia and also less published papers (he seemed like a nice guy though, and his mentoring style seemed great, in theory).

2) Duke (PhD in Mechanical Engineering)
Pros:
-I got great comments on my advisor by a current PhD student of his (friend of mine), and his mentoring style suits me almost perfectly. He is also somewhat experienced (been a professor for a little less than a decade).

Cons:
-Duke's is not as famous as Gatech or UPenn.
-At Duke I will actually pursue a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, because my advisor is with the ME department officially (even though he is researching ECE stuff).

3) UPenn
Facts:
-The prestige is between Duke and Gatech (Gatech>UPenn>Duke)
-I liked the mentoring style of the advisor (judging from what he told me), and he is also adequately experienced (same as Duke's advisor). So, just because I do not have any inside info about the advisor, I rank this advisor between the advisors of Duke and Gatech (Duke>UPenn>Gatech).

All of these advisors publish quality papers in respected journals. Also, the possible projects offered by all of these advisors interest me the same (not much that is). Moreover, I do not have a preference over Atlanta, Durham and Philadelphia.

 

I plan on following a career in academia after my PhD. Should I choose prestige and fame and an inexperienced advisor (gatech) over a less prestigious school but with a guaranteed great advisor (Duke) or should I choose something in the middle (UPenn)?  What matters more for a successful career in academia?

Thank you in advance for your answers.

Edited March 31, 2017 by John Popovic

[thelionking]

Congrats on the offers! The lack of experience of adviser 1 is concerning. Even though it's the most prestigious program, you would not receive all of the benefits one might expect from attending such a highly ranked institution because the adviser is still "green" and probably has limited connections in the field as well as name recognition and expertise. Of course after 5 years of so, when you're done the program (not sure how long it is for you) he'd be a little bit further along in his career. But I really find this part concerning. I think you should choose between 2 and 3.

Is there any way you could find out more about the adviser at school 3? I think you don't have enough information yet to confidently make a decision and if you can find out more about this person then the choice will be easier for you to make. It's hard to judge and to rank the unknown. Perhaps you can speak to some of his current (and former) grad students to glean more info from them.

I'm personally inclined to lean towards option 3 based on what you wrote here. But based on what you've written, I get the sense that you prefer 2 and are holding back from saying yes because it is the lowest ranked of the 3 programs.

If you step back and consider all of the programs in your field offered in the US, Duke fares quite well and it's a great institution. So you'd do just fine if you do end up deciding to go there. Good luck with your choice! 

 

[thelionking]

I reread your post and noticed your interest in academia. This point is definitely worthy of a lot of consideration. It's been said by many on this board that if you want to teach at a particular university, your PhD should be from a school with a higher ranking. So based on this logic, you should expect to be considered for more teaching positions by a larger range of schools if you attend program 1. Just how much of a difference in ranking is there between options 1 and 3? Is the difference significant? Will you have more teaching responsibilities at any of the 3 schools while you're a student?

In spite of knowing all of this, if the difference in ranking isn't great and if teaching opportunities are similar, then I still think I'd prefer school 3. Working with someone who doesn't have a lot of research experience and publications, and connections in the field concerns me. 

Good luck with your decision and let us know what you decide.

Edited April 1, 2017 by thelionking

[DiscoTech]

12 hours ago, thelionking said:

Congrats on the offers! The lack of experience of adviser 1 is concerning. Even though it's the most prestigious program, you would not receive all of the benefits one might expect from attending such a highly ranked institution because the adviser is still "green" and probably has limited connections in the field as well as name recognition and expertise. Of course after 5 years of so, when you're done the program (not sure how long it is for you) he'd be a little bit further along in his career. But I really find this part concerning. I think you should choose between 2 and 3.

Is there any way you could find out more about the adviser at school 3? I think you don't have enough information yet to confidently make a decision and if you can find out more about this person then the choice will be easier for you to make. It's hard to judge and to rank the unknown. Perhaps you can speak to some of his current (and former) grad students to glean more info from them.

I'm personally inclined to lean towards option 3 based on what you wrote here. But based on what you've written, I get the sense that you prefer 2 and are holding back from saying yes because it is the lowest ranked of the 3 programs.

If you step back and consider all of the programs in your field offered in the US, Duke fares quite well and it's a great institution. So you'd do just fine if you do end up deciding to go there. Good luck with your choice! 

 

Are you in engineering or MSW? 

OP, you say you are interested in academia and I assume you mean at a research university. If you are, you might want to do a little more legwork by talking to professors at you alma mater. Barring that, you might some faculty pages like this one from Andrea Armani [LINK], which offer advice on searching for a faculty position.

You should definitely do more than listen to one rando on the internet like me, but here are a couple of things I would suggest.

- See if the schools you are interested in have a program that purports to train future faculty.
- Hiring a new engineering professor is a big investment for a research institution. Usually they pony up $300k-$1M to help the professor buy equipment, credit at a nanofabrication facility, funding for 2-4 students, etc ... If they are going to make that investment, they want to know that you can pull in grant money. A couple of proxies for ability to rope in grant money (as I've been told) are: (a) 2-3 first authored papers in high impact journals (Nature, Science, PRL), (b) high number of citations of one's work, (c) their impression of your ability to market yourself and your work.

What I have told you might only be true for my sub-field, but I would be surprised if it didn't apply to yours as well. Don't fall for the prestige trap. Your advisor is going to be much more important than the name on your diploma. 
 

Edited April 1, 2017 by DiscoTech
added link

[thelionking]

10 hours ago, DiscoTech said:

Are you in engineering or MSW? 
 

Not in engineering! I probably should have make it clearer in my post that I was offering a general opinion based on the information provided by the OP in his post and on general knowledge that I have about grad programs from the perspective of someone in a different field. I'm glad you brought it up so that the OP is clear on that point.  

[vstrindberg]

So I have not got any acceptance or rejection. When 15 April past, ppl like this guy will reject some offer and schools will offer these rejected offers to others, someone like me right?