Institutions - (Oct/04/2007 )
In terms of careers, does it matter greatly what schools you get your degrees from? I mean, research is research wherever you go, right?
in my opinion, it's like anything else. it's not necessary to have a widely known PI in a big school - but your own career will usually go farther, faster if you do. I think small schools are OK, just make sure your PI is respected in his field (i.e., good publications). your PI will be your mentor, so you want to choose someone with a career path that parallels what you wish for yourself and a person that you can respect.
Like much else in life, it's not neccessarily who you are but who you know. Clearly, a degree from an Ivy league, well known and highly respected school is better than a little, unknown school. I think this is more because the requirements to get into each school is so different. However, if you are in a small school and do ground-breaking research with high impact publications, you are going to do better than someone from a Ivy league who didn't publish. In my experience, you need to look more at the mentor. Look at the faculty in the school and see how many options you have there. You certainly don't want to go to a school, no matter how great the school is, if there is ony one or two labs that catch your attention. You need to make sure there is plenty to choose from and many options for you. Send PI's e-mails asking about the lab's availablilty!!! You may find that many of the labs you are interested in are not accepting students at this time because of time, space, funding, etc. restrictions. I just about got into a boxing match when it came time to choose a thesis lab. There were six of us wanting into a lab with one spot! Also, research is not research!!! Look at a lab's funding (yes, you can ask the PI about this). I'll just say that I'm in a heavily funded lab and it's strange to be surrounded by labs barely hanging on. My project moves forward with ease because I can buy just about anything I want while I watch friends struggle with designing experiments with only what's currently in the lab because they can't afford to buy reagents. I've seen a student's project/work come to a complete halt due to lack of funds. He never did finish grad school. So, this is just my experience and input. Some may disagree but I think the lab you enter is by far more important than the school you go to.