Why go to a top school?

warblersrule
Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:43:39 +0000

I did undergrad at a top school and am doing graduate work at a university that is, well, definitely not a top university.

The advantages

[ul][]Academically, the program is very strong. Only Chicago is better in the western hemisphere.
[]Good fit with faculty interests.
[li]Students in the program are all top-notch.[/ul] [/li]
The disadvantages

[ul][]Library resources are pretty abysmal.
[]Funding is not very good (think $7-10K yearly stipends…).
[]The undergraduates I work with are mostly lazy and unmotivated.
[]TAs are expected to grade starting year 1 and teach starting year 2.[/ul]

For me, the advantages mostly outweighed the disadvantages, but that is not true for a good many applicants.

On a practical note, I only applied to top universities (except my current one) because those are the only universities to even offer my program. Brown, Chicago, Johns Hopkins, Michigan, Penn, Penn State, UCLA, Yale – that’s about it.