job placement after phd
Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 3:45 am
hello friends,
how important is prestige of a phd institution when considering job placement in tenure track positions? let's say i want to obtain a tt position at a group 1 institution (as labeled by the ams). would it be difficult to land a position at a group 1 institution if one got their phd at a group 2 institution? despite having over 100 phd-granting institutions to choose from, many folks on this forum seem to have applied to primarily top 20 schools (most of which are group 1), so there must be some agreement of the "higher-ranked is better" mentality. some of the higher-ranked programs have very small departments so i would imagine someone would have to be fairly certain in their research interests to apply there. however, some of the applicant profiles listed have a mismatch between their research interests and the department's productivity in that field, so i can only imagine people are applying for the name. i'm definitely not proposing that this is a bad thing--i'm just curious to know if prestige makes a difference in job prospects (since i'm currently trying to decide between schools which are more/less prestigious but have better/worse research fits).
also, a quick side note: what is the general consensus on rensselaer polytechnic institute? it's listed as the only private applied math program under the ams's group 1 classification, but it doesn't even come up on the list of phd-granting institutions here: http://www.ams.org/cgi-bin/agf/agf.cgi does it have a solid reputation? do their phd students find themselves in tt positions at research institutions? how does it compare to, say, cornell applied math and duke applied math?
how important is prestige of a phd institution when considering job placement in tenure track positions? let's say i want to obtain a tt position at a group 1 institution (as labeled by the ams). would it be difficult to land a position at a group 1 institution if one got their phd at a group 2 institution? despite having over 100 phd-granting institutions to choose from, many folks on this forum seem to have applied to primarily top 20 schools (most of which are group 1), so there must be some agreement of the "higher-ranked is better" mentality. some of the higher-ranked programs have very small departments so i would imagine someone would have to be fairly certain in their research interests to apply there. however, some of the applicant profiles listed have a mismatch between their research interests and the department's productivity in that field, so i can only imagine people are applying for the name. i'm definitely not proposing that this is a bad thing--i'm just curious to know if prestige makes a difference in job prospects (since i'm currently trying to decide between schools which are more/less prestigious but have better/worse research fits).
also, a quick side note: what is the general consensus on rensselaer polytechnic institute? it's listed as the only private applied math program under the ams's group 1 classification, but it doesn't even come up on the list of phd-granting institutions here: http://www.ams.org/cgi-bin/agf/agf.cgi does it have a solid reputation? do their phd students find themselves in tt positions at research institutions? how does it compare to, say, cornell applied math and duke applied math?