Advice for choosing a program/university - Graduate Education at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine

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Advice for choosing a program/university

Student Answers

If you have no idea what your interests are, I would suggest you first think about it before considering grad school in general. Getting some research experience where you are doing your undergrad work might give you some insights into what you might want to do your PhD on.

If you have an idea of what you would like to work on then going over the faculty interests might direct you to which schools would work best for you. Most grad schools offer a rotation system but having at least a general
idea of your specific interests might help you choose the rotations most usefulto you.

- School reputation in general might also be good to consider
- Location of the school is sometimes also important

Obviously, the first consideration will be whether the institution offers the academic program/degree of your interest. If that condition is met, you should look next into the faculty members and their research. It is a good idea to make sure that the faculty member is indeed actively doing work on the research area you are interested in, and that the professor has the financial resources to pursues this research. Sometimes what is stated in a website or a brochure is not accurate.
A very important consideration is financial aid for the student (stipends, tuition, etc.).
A general piece of advice: When checking out a department/program, talk with as many of the CURRENT grad students in it! They will give you a more accurate representation of the grad student experience in any given program.

Find someone who you admire and go learn everything you can from them.

First of all, the student needs to know what he/she wants to study in a relatively specific way. The next thing they should do is look up the university web sites and check out the professors research and look up their papers if they are really interested in that particular prof's work.

I made my decision based on 1. who I wanted to work with 2. the quality of the department compared to other departments 3. the financial support package offered 4. overall feeling of the department (ie, are professors happy to talk to grad students, do grads interact with each other, are they happy, etc).

The most important factor when choosing a program are the labs. When you apply to a program you should make sure there are multiple labs that interest you.

Faculty Answers

A student evaluates a graduate program on the basis of finding at least one professor who is interested in his/her professional goals and subjects of interest. University rankings are not useful. They are political. So the student needs to find a person in their discipline of interest who can recommend good scholars who are willing to take on graduate students and guide them to their doctoral degrees.

There is nothing to exceed the value of a good mentor, and this is in large part a matter of luck. But the student can assess the scholarly qualities of a mentor by doing some research. Look in guides to scholarly activities such as "American Men and Women in Science" "Who's Who in America", etc.? You need to research the professor with whom you want to study and also visit that individual and test the chemistry.

The student should examine the web pages of the faculty involved in graduate training. They should check the publication records of the faculty and see whether at least one (preferably more!) faculty members are doing research that is of great interest to the student.

Pick a school with the best intellectual environment for chosen field of study.
Narrow expertise can be useful, but is less important than high standards and stimulating faculty and students.
Pick school with diverse population by any measure, including human diversity (ethnicity, nationality, etc.) and intellectual diversity.

Pick the topics of interest, and match the university's overall reputation, reputation and current work in that topic, and resources available. Then think about lifestyle issues...would you be happy in that town? that far away from home/? that size of department and university? those winters or summers? Is anyone there ALREADY interested in you? would it be a good place for your pet/partner/child?
(The reputation will include the placements of the students graduated from the program of interest in the last few years.)

Motivation is most important. Before entering graduate school the successful candidate will have identified a field that he or she passionately wants to work in, and hopefully a professor at the university of choice who works in the same field and can act as a mentor.

The applicant should have some idea of areas of interest. Look for schools that have at least two faculty who are willing to take new students (key point!) that you think you could rotate with.

One should choose an area in which they are interested and look for a school that has a number of scientists in that field. I'd caution against choosing any school on the basis of a single PI. There may not be a good fit because of personalities, the timing of individual projects, the availability of funding, that PI might move, etc. Having a "critical mass" of people in a given field also exposes one to a variety of ways of thinking and experimental approaches.