Should You Go To Grad School Somewhere Else?

Jeeves is not a butler. He’s a pretty accomplished undergrad at Illinois who isn’t sure whether to trust the traditional wisdom that says you oughta go to grad school somewhere different from where you did undergrad.

After all, what if your undergrad school has an absolutely phenomenal, world-renowned grad program?

Hello! As everyone has already mentioned, I do appreciate the time that you put into letting us know your opinion on the mess that is collegiate life.

Thanks, and you’re welcome! Thanks for coming around!

I’m a student at the University of Illinois: Urbana-Champaign, where I’m a student in the College of Business there (in an honors program, 4.0 GPA, etc.).

Outstanding! Congrats on the GPA, keep it up!

My program (Organizational Administration/Process Management) is not nearly as highly ranked as the accountancy program here, so I’ve made it something unique by adding a dual-degree with I/O psychology.

Great idea, and the two seem like a good match. The fact that you gave it that much additional thought and then executed the plan by tackling the double degree is probably an indicator of future success, I’d say, and without hestitation.

I’ve learned through my classwork and experiences that I like consulting, but I also like research. As such, I want to pursue a PhD in I/O Psychology (where U of I is 2nd in the nation according to the Society of Industrial-Organizational Psychologists [SIOP]).

Sounds like a great plan to me, considering that I/O psychology ought to be an industry with pretty steady growth as the American economy continues to mature, and while it slowly gets handed off to a younger generation of workers who have different needs from and expectations of a workplace. I could be wrong about that, but that’s what I read, and it seems to fit my experience.

But my real question is threefold: how accurate is the advice to not do graduate school the same place as your undergraduate?

Well — I don’t know, man, I’m not a big devotee of this at all. I understand the thinking behind it, but I also maintain that all things are relative to one’s goals and resources.

The idea behind the advice to do your graduate work elsewhere is basically this: By leaving your undergrad environment and starting again somewhere else, you’re exposed to more and different faculty members, resources, students, etc. Which, in your case, is supposed to make you a more well-rounded industrial psychologist.

I understand the logic: sure, the wider your exposure, the better. But the desire to do this should always be weighed against the money, time and convenience it’s going to cost to do so.

First, let’s acknowledge the obvious — the world is a lot smaller than it used to be in terms of interconnectedness. We’ve all got thousands of lectures from the world’s elite universities at our fingertips on the Internet. Advanced discussions on every imaginable topic are going on right now, just a few clicks away.

The idea that one’s perspective is necessarily limited by the school he/she attends is an antiquated one. Sure, in 1970, perhaps you really did need to up and move 1,0o0 miles away to another great university in order to absorb their ideas. Not so anymore.

Second, the traditional advice goes out the window anyway when your undergraduate school’s grad program is particularly outstanding, nationally ranked, etc. And as you’ve pointed out, yours is exactly that. Leaving that opportunity behind just to follow an aging piece of advice would be folly, I think.

Also, how possible is it for a company (consulting or otherwise) to accept a PhD as an employee?

Not at all. Companies hire Ph.Ds all the time. Practically speaking, of course, a Ph.D is more expensive to hire than someone without a Ph.D, so that necessarily shrinks the pool of companies willing to hire one. But then again, that’s why the average industrial psychologist makes something like $90k per year.

And what would you suggest regarding taking a few years to work before heading back for graduate school?

Great question. I’ll let you fill in the context before answering.

The companies I’ve been looking at have ranged from IDEO with design consulting to Bain with general managerial consulting to Mercer with human capital consulting. They’re all excellent companies, but I feel I’ll be disadvantaged if I have the same school for both undergrad and my PhD work.

Well, I can’t sit here and tell you with certainty and from experience and with certainty that *no one* will care that you didn’t switch schools. There are a TON of decision-makers in the world who make stupid decisions based on bullshit criteria. Can’t change that, unfortunately.  And so here I’ll give you my usual advice about things you can’t change — ignore them and turn your efforts and focus back to yourself.

If you work hard to establish yourself as a distinguished Ph.D candidate from one of the world’s best schools in industrial psychology, then I refuse to believe you’ll have difficulty finding employment. Focus inward, not outward, and you’ll get there, I promise you.

In fact, I was thinking of working for a few years and then going back for my PhD to get the work experience that many schools look for. At the same time, U of I doesn’t have this requirement (as far as I know) and many professors that I’ve talked to have said the most successful PhDs have been more younger candidates.

Yeah, this is a really good one, because there are strong arguments to be made for both sides.

Aggregating work experience is such a rock-solid career builder that you can almost never argue against it. Almost. In your case, though, I’m going completely off the rails and saying no — don’t get the work experience first.

You’ve got insider access to a top Ph.D program, and what I’m hearing from you is that you think you can get into it from your current vantage. That’s a rare opportunity. The faculty there is probably familiar with you and your excellent work, and that greases the wheels for grad admission.

Five years from now, that may not be the case. Many professors may have moved on, and to them you’re just another outside applicant on a piece of paper in front of them. Even the professors who haven’t moved on may not remember you very well, if at all. So in this rare case, by leaving to get work experience, you may have made it harder to get into the Ph.D program (Note: Remember, this is based on the notion we’re accepting here, that you can get accepted into the program right now, as soon as you finish your undergrad degrees).

Also, if you really want a Ph.D and you have the opportunity to get one while you’re still young and relatively unencumbered by a full-time job, a spouse, children, and the very serious weight of taking care of said spouse and children — seize it, my friend. Because even though you may be thinking right now, “I’ll just work for a few years and come back for my Ph.D,” it often doesn’t work out that way.

Because during those few years you’re out working, all kinds of stuff happens to you. You find a job you like, maybe, and you don’t want to leave it. Or you meet someone and perhaps you get married or you’re living together, and now you’re trying to reconcile those old hopes of a Ph.D with your companion’s hopes as well, and perhaps they aren’t too compatible (maybe he/she has a job offer far away, or is chasing a Ph.D somewhere other than Champaign, Ill.)

Point is: when you commit to “just working a few years,” you’re actually going down a path (life, I think it’s called :)) that’s fraught with distractions and detours which may derail you from that Ph.D.

And I’m not saying that’s all bad — you know what they say, “Men make plans, and God laughs” — but it’s as true as the day is long. So just be aware of the very real fact that, if you don’t do the Ph.D now, you may never do it.

Thank you for your time,
Jeeves

And thank you for the question! Hope you find it at least a little bit helpful.

— What about you guys? I’m sure some of you have opinions about or experience with the whole “go to grad school somewhere different” phenomenon. I’d love to hear from you, so let us know in the comments below.