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Hello Guys , I hope everything is going smoothly on your side ... I just wanted to take your advice on where I should go to grad school. I applied to several schools around the World. In the US applications ( I applied to 4 PhD programs) , I got a funded offer to the PhD Program at Rice university in Texas. Rice is ranked 48 according to US news PhD rankings and strong in econometrics. However, a problem they have is that they don't have strong placement in Academia In Europe applications , I got several offers for masters and after a process of elimination , I ranked Barcelona graduate school of economics (BGSE) as my first priority school in Europe (unfunded offer though). That is mainly to its unique strength in macroeconomics and Economic Growth which are my main fields of interest . Its economics master program is ranked 3rd in Europe after LSE and Oxford. Also it has great professors (specially in macro and growth like Xavier Sala-i-Martin and Jordi Gali) , plus it has great placement record in US top PhDs after their 1-year masters. I am now trying to decide between one of those two offers. Rice is a great opportunity to proceed directly from undergrad to PhD. While BGSE is a great opportunity to get a taste of high level economics before proceeding to PhD and decide whether I like it or not. Also it is great for improving credentials for admission to a better school than Rice for PhD . Time is not in my calculations (As I am young an willing to spend many years studying ) I would love to know your opinion on the issue and your opinion on how important the department ranking is If I am looking eventually to pursue and Academic Career in the US or at an international organization like IMF . Thank you very much for your opinion and looking forward to hear it .