How important is the repute of university giving PhD - (Feb/03/2008 )
My friend was worried about his graduate degree as his university does not belong to very reputed class. How much importance the university giving the PhD degree has when compared to the lab you worked or the under which PI and in which subject.. If published in very good journals, worked in a reputed lab and under well known guide, does that mean the university offering degree would not hold much significance?
It is better to work under a well known mentor and publish in very good journals, then graduate from a prestigious university without a publication.
It is easier to get into a not so good lab in an institute and graduate from a prestigious university.
But harder to get into a reputed lab and under well known mentor in a good university.
Some people said the university ranking is important... while others said the publication is more important.
Your publications are the biggest part of your reputation....
However, to answer your question as directly as I can... VERY
Reputation, associations, pedigree... they all matter... We like to believe that it is MERIT that gets us by in this world; unfortunately that's only partly true. Pedigrees and reputations and collegues get you in the door.
Consider two people A and B who have the same degrees, same GPA and are both published in Nature...
A graduated from MIT or HARVARD
B graduated from Gerogia State University
they both apply for a Faculty Position at Cal - Tech..... Right off the bat, A has the advantage... they both might do the job just as well as the other... but all other things being equal, A is likely to get the job. Fair or not, it matters.
As you climb the ladder, earlier steps and mis-steps gradually diminish in their importance. So, once you have published, worked in a reputed lab, PhD place holds little value.
It works in the reverse way too. But you do get credit for having done PhD in a good place.
I would hire the B person. In a small university, he had to work harder, he had less money and still got a paper in Nature. Impressive. Much impressive.
...and he will so totally expect smaller wages.... mwahahahaha.