Safety School of Re-apply Next Year

**stinkybeagle** · 02-29-2012, 06:07 PM

If your only offer was from your safety school (Top 50, faculty publications in mostly mid-level journals but strong research match, decent funding), would you accept it and worry about placement when you're done in 5 years or would you take a year to improve your credentials in order to get in to a better program? I appreciate all your thoughts.
(BTW, I am very grateful for the offer, but my goal is to teach at an R1 institution like a University of Minnesota not a teaching school)

**evergreen** · 02-29-2012, 06:14 PM

Well, first off, I only applied to schools that I was actually willing and excited to go to. So, as long as I had one offer, I knew I would have a place to go to next year.

I think you would have a tough (maybe impossible) time getting an offer at a place like Minnesota from a Top50.

How much can you really improve your credentials in a year? What would you even be improving? If you're young and feel like you can honestly make your profile change that much in a year, maybe it's worth it. But, be realistic about how much you can honestly do.

**economist2b** · 02-29-2012, 06:18 PM

I don't know enough about placements, but you may want to consider how much you can improve your profile by December - it's not a true year. It may take two years to make a real difference; are you willing to wait?

**hopefulapp** · 02-29-2012, 06:22 PM

Originally Posted by economist2b

I don't know enough about placements, but you may want to consider how much you can improve your profile by December - it's not a true year. It may take two years to make a real difference; are you willing to wait?

This is what I think as well. I didn't apply to any schools I wouldn't be happy to attend. Of course, I had a hierarchy in mind, but I would still attend any that I get accepted to. Sit down and really evaluate why you didn't get into the top schools you wanted to. Are you in a position (financially, opportunity wise, will it match up with your lifestyle) to change your profile much?

**rsaylors** · 02-29-2012, 06:25 PM

SB: There's little that a year of no-school is going to fix. If you are good enough then you can do a good job in your t50 program and apply-up from there; if you're not good enough then you may want to realize that even if you have an IQ of 150 there's still 150k people smarter than you in the US... and that's enough to take every T1 faculty position in the US.

Originally Posted by evergreen

Well, first off, I only applied to schools that I was actually willing and excited to go to. So, as long as I had one offer, I knew I would have a place to go to next year.

you did WHAT?!!

**evergreen** · 02-29-2012, 06:42 PM

Originally Posted by rsaylors

you did WHAT?!!

Yup.

I asked my supervisor how many "safety schools" I should apply to and he looked at me blankly and said... apply to "good" schools. Apply only to schools you would actually want to go to.

So I followed that advice, and thankfully it all worked out.

**stinkybeagle** · 02-29-2012, 07:03 PM

Great points, guys and thanks for the replies. The biggest thing I can improve on is my GMAT and research experience. (My UG GPA is average but it was a long time ago and my MA GPA is pretty good). If i'm honest with myself, i'd have to admit that what's bothering me is the prestige thing. It sounds pretty shallow, but my undergrad and grad schools were rather prestigious and this feels like a step down. I just need to let that go. If I don't hear from my 1st choice, i'll take this offer and make the best of it. (I only applied to 3 schools due to personal reasons.)

**Cappy** · 02-29-2012, 07:24 PM

Originally Posted by stinkybeagle

I only applied to 3 schools due to personal reasons.

This might be the only important factor that could potentially give you a reason to apply again next year. The acceptance rates of most top programs are very low and each school has their own set of criteria in the application process. Just because you might be a great applicant that can get into T10 schools, you'll still probably get rejects from several (if not most) of them. Applying to 3 schools is a very low number - most people apply to many more.

If you're willing to bend your personal reasons and apply more widely, you might just be able to get into a school in the prestige level you want. But if you're stuck to that small subset (perhaps location based), I'd agree with what everyone else said.

**AppleAndOrange** · 02-29-2012, 11:17 PM

Originally Posted by evergreen

I think you would have a tough (maybe impossible) time getting an offer at a place like Minnesota from a Top50.

The evidence does not bear this statement out. 10 out of 16 faculty members at UMN are from Big 10 schools and the others (barring 2 from Wharton) are from schools across the T50.

To the OP: I had the same questions as you floating through my head last year. The truth is, focus most on "fit" with students and who your adviser is. If the better adviser for you is at a higher ranked school, then your decision is easy. If a lower ranked school feels like more of a match, go with that intuition 100%. Rest assured, you will be much better off at a place where you are comfortable, and the relationship between comfort and rankings is not clear.

**evergreen** · 03-01-2012, 12:17 AM

I took top 50 to mean ranked between 31st and 50th (top 30 to mean ranked between 21st-30th, and top 20 to mean ranked between 11th and 20th)

In which case I counted Wang, Van de Ven and Singh. (I'm not too familiar with management journals so I may be using the wrong journals)

So yes, maybe not impossible, but definitely tough and an uphill battle.

I don't know how much weight the California Review has but Wang won the best paper award the year he was on job market.
Van de Ven is much older, and previously worked at Wharton.
I don't know about Singh.

We can't all immediately assume that we'll enter our programs and be superstars. So I wouldn't bank on "reaching" for the top programs. If it does happen, that's great, but if not, you should be okay with that outcome.