last (pre-) grad school post

[nibot]

I found another graduate school ranker. It's based on a survey distributed to current grad students.

It says I should go to Rochester. Just ranking over "overall satisfaction," Rochester comes in second, after UC Santa Cruz and tied with Cornell. UNC is lumped in the third quartile. CMU did not respond.

I suspect this survey has a huge amount of self-selective bias in it, though. We should all sign up to take part in next year's incarnation. (There were 32 responses for Rochester and 28 for UNC — far more than for most departments, so the results should be statistically significant. Rochester has 135 physics PhD students, and UNC has 64.)

But I liked UNC so much!

Comments

[heike.livejournal.com]

Carolina doesn't seem to fair well in that survey. But look how Berkeley fairs. Or some other top ranked programs. On the other hand, it's probably just as meaningful as the US News rankings.

[ephermata.livejournal.com]

I don't know how much I'd trust these sorts of rankings. What matters is how you'll like it there, and these surveys may not predict that well. Of course, if a place is WAY down there or WAY up there, that may be a sign. So I'd put this as a positive mark for Rochester, but wouldn't worry about UNC.

[rebbyribs.livejournal.com]

My program ranked "worse than average" in the survey. I think there used to be a lot of disgruntled grad students in the program. I think it's better now, but it will take a while for the scores to reflect this. And it ranks against students' expectations of their programs - so students at very good schools may be really critical of their schools.

Also, your individual happiness is going to depend a lot on your advisor and research group. There are good and bad choices at all 3 schools, I suspect. Fortunately, your interests are pretty broad, so you'll be able to choose a lab where you're comfortable instead of picking a narrow field where the only prof. doing research is a real jerk to his grad students.

[probablevacancy.livejournal.com]

The survey takers ranked Houston as an A- climate and Berkeley as a B climate.

If that doesn't completely obliterate this ranking system, I don't know what would.

[svino.livejournal.com]

Hey there, you don't know me, but I'm a graduate student in optics at the University of Rochester. I followed you here from your post on the RIT community board. Have you decided where you are going yet? Anyway, I'd be happy to answer any questions you have about the physics community or the city.

Oh, and sorry if I'm too late to be helpful.