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I completed my undergrad and masters at UofT (Toronto) in CS (my field is CS Theory/Online learning) and I was interested in applying elsewhere for a PhD. I am in a fortunate position to have received PhD offers from some great schools in the US (CMU and Harvard). I also have an offer to continue on at UofT.

So I'm trying to understand the pros/cons of leaving for the US. I work extremely well with my current advisor in Toronto and we have published a fair bit together at top venues. So staying here means I know I'll have good publication record going. Beyond that, my family and fiance are here in Toronto, so staying means I get to be close to them. It will be difficult for my fiance to move to the US for visa/work permit issues.

While I'm comfortable here, a part of me feels that this is a cop-out as I have been here for all my academic life, especially when I have options like CMU and Harvard (with seemingly good advisors). So I just wanted to know if staying in UofT and not going to one of these schools would close doors (my goal is to become a prof). Would a very strong research/publication record from UofT make up for the lack of collaboration/prestige/academic network that Harvard/CMU would bring? What are some things I should be thinking about in making this decision?

One way of reconciling this was noting that both these universities are pretty close to Toronto. So I was thinking that during the summer, I could work remotely out of Toronto (go to campus as needed) and obviously stay there full time during the semester. Would this be a big/unusal ask for PIs?

Sursula
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Safwan
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2 Answers2

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Graduating with a PhD from a top school would absolutely make accessible to you future career options that would be essentially inaccessible otherwise, and would make career options that would be accessible in theory, but unlikely, a lot more likely to be within your reach, compared to if you get your PhD from a very good but not exactly top university. That is true for academic jobs, and I believe (but am less able to attest from firsthand experience) that it is also true for non-academic jobs.

Some well-meaning and idealistic people will say all that matters is the quality of the work you do and not where you do it. Of course, that does matter a lot — it’s probably reasonable to say that it’s the main thing that matters — and I wish we lived in a world in which that was indeed all that mattered. In the actual world we live in, where you went to school is one of the many signals employers use to measure your potential worth and to compare you to other job candidates. Whether it’s fair or not or how things should be or not, it’s simply a fact.

Even if we assume a utopian ideal in which all that matters is the quality of the work you do, the reality is that at a top school you will be surrounded by faculty and students who are higher-achieving on average, and consequently have a higher potential to help, motivate, and incentivize you to do top quality work yourself, than their counterparts at a good (even excellent) university that is less of a top school. So even under this utopian assumption, being at a top school still has advantages.

I’m not saying the answer to your dilemma is necessarily obvious. There may be many good reasons to stay in Toronto. But from a pure career perspective there will most likely be a cost to such a decision. It’s a tough decision, good luck in any case!

Dan Romik
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  • This excellent answer to another question expands on some of Dan's points about how/to what extent going to a top program makes a difference: https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/154/101 (It might look at first glance like it contradicts Dan's answer, but a closer look will show the two are mostly in agreement.) – Mark Meckes Feb 07 '22 at 17:40
  • @MarkMeckes great link, thanks! There is indeed no contradiction, and I agree with everything the answer you linked to says (especially the “tl;dr” part). In fact, it echoes some additional thoughts I had while writing this answer but didn’t write since I thought that would make the answer too long and tedious. – Dan Romik Feb 07 '22 at 18:01
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By staying in Toronto you run the risk of getting a “degree in Professor X” rather than a degree in CS: however good your advisor is, they cannot know everything, they do things in their idiosyncratic ways etc.

Staying at the same place can work, but going elsewhere will vastly enrich your education through exposure to a different departmental culture, access to different resources, methods, courses and organizations. The long term rewards are often multiples of the short term gains from staying with the same advisor.

Of course you don’t want to leave and take a step down but CMU and Harvard are certainly not a step down from UofT.

ZeroTheHero
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