- #1
jaio
- 3
- 0
I’m at the point in my career where I’ve been accepted to a few grad schools and am currently deciding where to go. My top priority is advisor fit, since I plan to stay in my field. Talking to multiple professors/scientists at different institutions, it seems that my success in grad school is all contingent on how hard I work and who my advisor is, not the name of the school or even the ranking of the department. This makes total sense to me, seeing how well-connected everyone is in my field (a subfield of particle physics). I’m lucky that I’ve already met with potential advisors in person during my time as an undergrad, so I was able to apply to schools based on who I would work with. I’ve found that the schools the great professors are at are totally independent of departmental and general rankings, which also makes sense to me, since it’s hard to get a faculty position in the first place.
I have noticed, however, that general institution ranking does (unfortunately) correlate with the school's funding (how much of a stipend has been offered to me) and facilities (how “run down” the physics building is), at least in my case. So even though there are some great advisors at some schools with better physics programs, I may end up going to a school with a higher general ranking and lower physics ranking just for this reason. (Note: Nowhere I’m considering is a top 30 physics department.) I will also mention that my subfield is pretty “new”, so some universities with very high ranking departmental physics programs only have 0-2 people in my field while some lower ranking universities already seem to have 3+ profs.
So I’m wondering how much departmental physics rankings should play into my decision. It seems pretty irrelevant unless I want great flexibility in multiple fields of physics. Will going to a lower ranked physics department hurt me in any way?
I have noticed, however, that general institution ranking does (unfortunately) correlate with the school's funding (how much of a stipend has been offered to me) and facilities (how “run down” the physics building is), at least in my case. So even though there are some great advisors at some schools with better physics programs, I may end up going to a school with a higher general ranking and lower physics ranking just for this reason. (Note: Nowhere I’m considering is a top 30 physics department.) I will also mention that my subfield is pretty “new”, so some universities with very high ranking departmental physics programs only have 0-2 people in my field while some lower ranking universities already seem to have 3+ profs.
So I’m wondering how much departmental physics rankings should play into my decision. It seems pretty irrelevant unless I want great flexibility in multiple fields of physics. Will going to a lower ranked physics department hurt me in any way?