

Ask HN: How important is university ranking to CS PhD graduate opportunities? - anon_phd

If you were hiring for a post-doc or commercial research position, would you consider a candidate with a PhD from a lower ranked program/university if they were otherwise a strong candidate?<p>In other words, would a Stanford (1st) or MIT (1st) grad be selected over a Northeastern (61st) or George Mason (65th) grad based on university affiliation alone?  Could a George Mason grad get a post-doc position at Stanford?<p>I'm trying to justify attending a lower ranked, local university that has accepted my application instead of applying and moving to a better ranked school.  I'd like to obtain a faculty position, but doing applied research in a commercial environment is fine too.<p>I'm a longtime HN user (posting anonymously) and realize this may be out of band for HN, apologies if so.
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cperciva
_In other words, would a Stanford (1st) or MIT (1st) grad be selected over a
Northeastern (61st) or George Mason (65th) grad based on university
affiliation alone?_

Based on university affiliation alone? Probably not.

But university affiliation opens a lot of doors for PhD students. When I was
doing my doctorate I found that I was much more successful in getting people
to reply to my questions about their research when I started emails with "Hi,
I'm a doctoral student at Oxford University...".

Similarly, if you're at a major institution, you're more likely to make useful
contacts, both in terms of local faculty members and visitors. I doubt I'd
have my research cited in TAOCP if I hadn't met Knuth -- and if I had been at
the Polytechnic of East Anglia, I probably wouldn't have had the opportunity
to meet him.

Overall, though, I'd say that you're probably approaching this the wrong way.
Most students are better advised to look for a supervisor first, not to find
an institution and then look for a supervisor later.

