<p>PhD pettigree does matter. During school, the program reputation (and to a much lesser extent, univeristy reputation) influence research funding and faculty salary - which in turn influence the caliber of faculty hired. After school, the reputation of your university will influence those outside your field, the reputation of the department will influence those in your field, and the reputation of your advisor will influence those in your subfield.</p>
<p>I think what most people are trying to say on this forum is that reputation matters less than fit. All of that reputation is not going to help if you are studying your 3rd choice subfield with a professor who doesn’t really work with others. The rep is not going to help you if funding and opportunity is steered to the top 3 students when you are going to be top 10. All that rep is not going to help you if you spend 6 years of your life toiling towards a thesis that you were not that happy with at the onset, and now just want to get away from.</p>
<p>Pedigree matters. It does. If you find yourself happy at 2 different schools, go for the one with the better rep. But don’t go for Harvard just because it is Harvard.</p>
<p>Case in point - my wife is interested in historical archaeology. Harvard was at one point a possibility she was considering, but they are only strong in classical archaeology. To get the Harvard name she would have had to given up her passion - and what is the value in that?</p>