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Confusion about weighing placement


Xixixixixixi

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Hi! I have a question about placement.

 

What would be a good placement? I know this is pretty subtle sometimes, and I would love to put my question in another way: Should I refer to publication ranking or the general USNEWS ranking when weighing placement?

 

For example, if a low BYU ranking accounting program places one student to a 120ish USNEWS ranking school with a rather high BYU ranking accounting program, would this be considered as a good placement? On the contrary, if a program gets to place its students to big names with relatively low BYU ranking, would this be considered even better or worse than the previous one?

 

Thanks :)

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I think that you are trying too hard to quantify ranking. You will not get a very satisfying answer from us because ranking is weird. There is an inherent ranking system that you come to know once you start a program, but it's subjective? Or rather it's just not straightforward. Check out YaZ's post about rankings.

 

My point being that you should just use your gut. If someone from a lower ranked school gets placed at what you think is a high ranked school, that would be a good placement. Don't put too much focus on ranking systems.

 

Also in my experience no professors actually use any of the ranking systems to define school rankings in terms of strength. For them a research school placement is a good placement. Then there are obviously some differentiations there (i.e. Stanford is a better placement than a state school). But the profs I know speak about rankings in the same terms as we do on this site. T10, T25, T50 in vague undefined ways. If you're wondering if a school is top 10, it's not.

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Yeah, I agree with Xanthu here. A select few schools are excellent placements. In accounting that would be Wharton, MIT, and Chicago because they are the elite private schools that have very strong connections to the biggest journals. After that, I would lump most research schools together. They pay within 10% of each other, have a 3/0 teaching load and have decent funding for research. Kellogg, Stanford and other places with top business schools are higher better than one of the lower tier state schools that fall into this category, but they aren't necessarily better than placements at UT Austin, Michigan, Ohio State, UW, etc. Personal preference really comes into play when it comes to choosing a job. I know of several instances where someone chose a job that seems less prestigious, but is better for them for whatever reason.

 

So, I would look at placements in the following manner.

 

Schools that consistently place at other top-tier schools.

Schools that place into good research places with occasional placements at elite schools.

Schools that regularly place into research schools.

Schools that place into some research and some mixed schools.

Schools that place into places that do some research, but where teaching is a big focus.

Schools that place into other AACSB accredited schools, but that are mostly teaching focused.

 

A good placement is relative. If you really want to go to a teaching school then basically any PhD program will easily get you there and they are all good placements.

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Yeah, I agree with Xanthu here. A select few schools are excellent placements. In accounting that would be Wharton, MIT, and Chicago because they are the elite private schools that have very strong connections to the biggest journals. After that, I would lump most research schools together. They pay within 10% of each other, have a 3/0 teaching load and have decent funding for research. Kellogg, Stanford and other places with top business schools are higher better than one of the lower tier state schools that fall into this category, but they aren't necessarily better than placements at UT Austin, Michigan, Ohio State, UW, etc. Personal preference really comes into play when it comes to choosing a job. I know of several instances where someone chose a job that seems less prestigious, but is better for them for whatever reason.

 

So, I would look at placements in the following manner.

 

Schools that consistently place at other top-tier schools.

Schools that place into good research places with occasional placements at elite schools.

Schools that regularly place into research schools.

Schools that place into some research and some mixed schools.

Schools that place into places that do some research, but where teaching is a big focus.

Schools that place into other AACSB accredited schools, but that are mostly teaching focused.

 

A good placement is relative. If you really want to go to a teaching school then basically any PhD program will easily get you there and they are all good placements.

 

I agree with that you said here that placement is relative and based on different individuals. Also, can I ask a question about teaching/research schools? I can find some "official" list of teaching and research university, but it's about the whole university. I guess the research/ teaching school you guys mentioned here is about the specific department, right? Like Accounting in my situation. Then, how do you tell a research school from a teaching one? I've confused about this since everyone's talking about it but can't give me a certain criterion. My own benchmarks for teaching and research school would be whether the school has a acct phd program, whether they're research focused from their program introduction, and probably a subtle feeling of their faculty research. I can't think of anything else.

 

Hope you can share some ideas on this! Thank you so much.

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Thank you YaSvoboden.

I agree with that you said here that placement is relative and based on different individuals. Also, can I ask a question about teaching/research schools? I can find some "official" list of teaching and research university, but it's about the whole university. I guess the research/ teaching school you guys mentioned here is about the specific department, right? Like Accounting in my situation. Then, how do you tell a research school from a teaching one? I've confused about this since everyone's talking about it but can't give me a certain criterion. My own benchmarks for teaching and research school would be whether the school has a acct phd program, whether they're research focused from their program introduction, and probably a subtle feeling of their faculty research. I can't think of anything else.

 

Hope you can share some ideas on this! Thank you so much.

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