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You might be able to. Then again, the school’s push to develop the department could fail. A similar logic exists when deciding which advisor to choose: do you choose to be the first graduate student of the rising star who could be great or who could fail miserably, or do you choose to be one in a long line of graduate students who worked with the already-established head honcho?</p>
<p>All of this is a numbers game, and you’re absolutely free to choose high-risk, high-reward situations. Just be honest with yourself about the risk involved.</p>