I’m having a hard time trying to decide which Applied Math PhD Program to attend. Is it typically just best to go to the better ranked school? In other words, if there are cons to the better ranked school, should you kind of just suck it up because you will end up with a better job (hopefully in academia) in the future? I do not have my heart set on teaching at a huge research university, but I do want to get a job so would UCONN really limit my job opportunities?
Exact same amount of funding for both (TAship)
Choice #1: Stony Brook Rank #25 for Math
Pros: Better ranked school, faculty are top tier (many ivy-league PhDs)
Cons: Location (Long Island) - more expensive to live, building is pretty old, just didn’t feel at home on the campus, intimidating (very large number of grad students)
Choice #2: UCONN Rank #87 for Math
Pros: Funding guaranteed for 5 years, Location - Cheaper to live/closer to home, smaller and more close knit-department, although professors aren’t necessarily ivy league they are doing research in what I want to do, less intimidating faculty, felt more at home
Cons: Lower ranked school, might have to TA longer, not a dedicated Applied Math Department (its within the math department)
I think its important to note that I do want to get a job as a professor for my career, but I
You need to go to a program where you can find faculty whose research is of interest to you. It sounds like in your case, UConn is probably a better fit for what you want than Stony Brook. Getting a job after a Ph.D. is more about your advisor than the school. You can find some very good advisors at lower “ranked” programs.
You are going to spend 5 years at least at this school so you need to choose the one you will feel more comfortable at. It is likely that you will be a TA at both places for a significant time and it sounds like UConn has guaranteed you funding for the duration.
That makes complete sense. Being comfortable somewhere for 5 years is what I was concerned with (both financially and academically). My main concern was where I can get a job after, but it sounds like as long as I get a good advisor I should be okay down the road. Are there usually big limitations on moving up if I did decide I wanted to try and strive towards working at a higher ranked university?
In Applied Mathematics as well as my field, physics, you will not be getting a faculty position without at least one post-doctoral position. If you make the right choices you could certainly compete for positions at major research universities. A lot of it depends on your research productivity and fit to the department.
Yeah I figured that as well. Well you have certainly helped a lot. I will try and base my decision on where I feel the most comfortable and where I can succeed the most. I guess I was focusing way too much on ranking, where that is not the only factor.
This varies a lot by field. I defer to @xraymancs because he’s in a related field to yours.
In my field (psychology), your program is almost as important as your advisor, and well-known advisors are typically at top-ranked departments. In my field the advice I would give is go to the top 25-30 school, especially if your goal is academia (particularly at an R1 or a top department).
However, there are always caveats. If you feel like you can do better work at the lower-ranked program; or if the advisor there is well-known and research-active and has a good track record of placing students into top postdocs and academic positions; or if you feel like you will be truly miserable at a “better” ranked program, then those might be good reasons to choose a lower-ranked one. I do freely admit that doing a PhD in an expensive place is a frustrating experience. I did mine in Manhattan, and I am currently doing a postdoc in a small college town similar to Storrs. The quality of life difference is stark. I am SO much happier here, in large part because the cost of living is lower. Feeling at home in your department and feeling supported by faculty are also really important characteristics of a good department.
When you get there, apply for external funding - NSF, NDSEG, Hertz, anything you are eligible for. That will cut down the amount of TAing you have to do, and it looks good on your CV.
Okay thank you very much for the advice. I would imagine that worrying about finances would just add onto the amount of work you are already doing academically.
I definitely can see that going to a “better” university will land you at a better university in the future for a post doc or job. I think I also have to decide what kind of job in academia I am looking for. Personally, I have always loved teaching, and so not working at a R1 university doesn’t really bother at me at this point. However, this may change once I am actually in the program.
It did for me…a lot. I started out not wanting to go into academia at all. Then I decided that I might want to go into academia, but definitely not at a top program - I just wanted to teach undergraduates and maybe do some research on the side. Now I want to be at a research-intensive university. LOL.