UTA vs Stevens Inst. of Technology

[layofotak]

Hello all,

I need your thoughts and recommendations about the situation I'm facing right now. I have received offers from UT-Arlington and Stevens Institute of Technology and I'm trying to choose between them. My area of Interest is Management of Technology and Innovation. UTA gives me more freedom as the Management program is general and I can choose some electives and choose the topic I want. Stevens PhD program in Technology Management has fixed 12 courses that I have to take and the program has about 50% technical courses and 50% Business (Management) courses. US-News ranks Stevens higher, but I guess it's more about the engineering programs and the undergraduate programs more than the graduate. Living in New Jersey allows me to live with my wife who could study their at Kaplan Center. However, Living in Arlington means that my wife could go to Kaplan Ceneter in Houston, which is about 4 hours driving from Arlington. That situation might last for 18 months. I'm leaning more towards UTA because of the program and faculty's publication. Stevens pros are being able to live with my wife and the ranking.

So, what would you guys recommend? Especially those who are familiar with both schools/cities. I'm looking forward to your thoughts ASAP. Note that I have already accepted UTA's offer and just received the one from Stevens yesterday.

Regards

[rsaylors]

If you want to place in a b-school (and you do because of pay and placement) UTArlington is the place to go. It is accredited by AACSB.

BTW your acceptance of UTA's offer is binding; It would be unethical* at this point to accept any other offers and you should have withdrew your applications elsewhere when you accepted the offer at UTA.

*It would also be stupid because academia is a small place and pissing off a university is a bad move.

[layofotak]

Thanks for your reply. I know accepting UTA's offer is binding and turning it afterwards is unethical, but I thought IF i needed to move to Stevens, I could write them a nice letter and explain my situation (living with my wife). I had to accept it because of the deadline. Unfortunately, Setevens took waaaaaay to long to offer admissions. Btw, I don't care about placements because I have already secured a position at an International school, so wether from UTA, Stevens, OR Harvard, I will be placed at the same school. So, I'm leaning toward UTA but just wondering if the ranking of Stevens and if it's Technology Management program is good or better fit than UTA's management program ?!!

[rsaylors]

to be clear:
Accreditation doesn't matter to you.
You have no incentive to put in anything but the minimum.
You will base your decision to violate your word on ranking.
You are then willing to lie to the program you are breaking your word with, because you have a handy excuse.

Let me ask you something, why would a researcher NOT fake her or his data?

[layofotak]

I don't know where you got that impression from ?!!!

Accreditation is important and both programs are accredited.
I will put all effort in both programs.
Ranking is not the main reason .. the going to Arlington means being away from my wife for years (there will be visits from time to time of course) and thats the main reason, but I still prefer UTA's program because it gives more freedom to choose your coursework. Ranking would matter if the PhD program in Technology Management is a very good program and contributes to the ranking. So, to sum it up:

- Stevens means being with my wife but still I would prefer UTA because of the program and the word I gave to them.
- The only reason I might go to Stevens is if the program is THAT good, in this case I would live with my wife AND have the better program.

I hope I could explain my situation clearly.. still want to know from you and other people about the quality of both programs.

Thanks again for your inputs

[possible_phd]

I don't think you'll find many people here who know much about either of these programs (I'd never even heard of Stevens, to be honest). If you prefer UTA, I say go to UTA.

[rsaylors]

I don't think you'll find many people here who know much about either of these programs (I'd never even heard of Stevens, to be honest). If you prefer UTA, I say go to UTA.

Great advice.

I've spoken with UTA stuednes, they have a great culture arround their program.

Stevens isn't AACSB accredited:

https://www.aacsb.net/eweb/DynamicPa...7-0A92E98DF5C6

[layofotak]

Thank you possible-phd and rsaylors for your contributions. I think I should stick to my earlier decision and go to UTA. In fact, Stevens shockingly not being accredited killed any chance of going there. It looks like their not-so-bad ranking is the result of their engineering programs I assume.

Anyways, Thank you again guys.