Major advantages in doing PhD in "prestige" unis

tallaght01

I'm doing my masters at the minute. In a few years I want to do a PhD in international health. Some of my tutors have been telling me to aim for harvard and john hopkins, or oxbridge. These are all lecturers who went to US Iveagh league unis.

Others have been telling me the ability to negotiate with a tribal leader who wants to be bribed in a developing country is a better attribute than a posh PhD.

Now, I'm not that sure that I'd get into one of the posh unis (first class honours biomed degree from average uni, standard med degree from a good uni, and hoping to graduate with a distinction in my masters degree in a few months).

But, on the off chance that I got in, does it make any difference? I'd like to lecture in international health someday as well as work in the field. But I'd like to be based in dublin, so lecturing in trinity would be nice. they have PhDs in international health, so would I be as well just going there and trying to work my way up the ladder?

Any thoughts?

2Scoops

I think the quality of a PhD is largely dependent on the quality of the supervisor you have. You need someone who's made it far to teach you the skills to do the same. They will also have you working on something good, instead of just getting you to do something for the sake of it. From that point of view, I think the actual institute matters only to the extent that it has a good faculty. Of course, a 'rub' from a big hitter wouldn't hurt if you could get that too!

CathalMc

You'll get a lot more opinion on this in the postgrad forum. This type of question has cropped up a lot there.

r3nu4l

Hi tallaght01, a PhD from a great University is all well and good but to be honest, as has been said, the supervisor is far more important than the University! Go for someone who is recognised as one of the world leaders in their field, make sure that they are publishing lots of papers and try to distinguish the research papers from the clinical trial mansucripts. In many cases the CT MSs have little to do with the research.

Make sure the group is well funded.

I'll add more later.

EDIT: this is the 'more' as it's now 'later' You should also be aware that when it comes to lecturing jobs, competition is fierce and sadly, often comes down to who you know rather than the number of publications you have or how good you are at actually lecturing. So while doing your PhD, make sure that you find out who you need to be networking with, what events you need to attend and who has the power to further your career. If you have a good PhD, with good publications and you know the right people, you stand a better chance of getting there. It's not impossible the other way but it is more difficult.

This is very important, I know someone now lecturing at a Uni in Dublin who got the job before finishing a PhD, had no publications and no funding. Two of the post-docs who went for the job had first-author publications in Nature and Science respectively, other top-tier publications and had their own funding. The person who got the job was sleeping with someone on the interview panel...draw your own conclusions...but if you're desperate...

ArseBurger

tallaght01 wrote: »

Others have been telling me the ability to negotiate with a tribal leader who wants to be bribed in a developing country is a better attribute than a posh PhD.

Listen to these guys.

Organisations like the UN, Worldbank, ADB, etc... only require a masters for entry (or experience). If that's the area you want to move to.

tallaght01

It's all food for thought, guys. I want to work with an international aid agency and do some lecturing. BUt, the only place in Ireland that does courses in international health is TCD. So, I might try and get a PhD there when I've finished my consultant training, and if I make a good impression they might let me lecture someday

tallaght01

ArseBurger wrote: »

Listen to these guys.

Organisations like the UN, Worldbank, ADB, etc... only require a masters for entry (or experience). If that's the area you want to move to.

Have you any idea what kins of jobs people apply for in these types of organistions at entry level. There are much more "project officer" jobs than specifically medical doctor jobs (I don't want to spend all my life in the field. I want to get involved in health strategy, project planning etc).

But I'm just not sure what the entry level jobs are.

2Scoops

r3nu4l wrote: »

Two of the post-docs who went for the job had first-author publications in Nature and Science respectively, other top-tier publications and had their own funding. The person who got the job was sleeping with someone on the interview panel...draw your own conclusions...but if you're desperate...

Jaysus...

tallaght01

I'll sleep with one of the women on the panel even if I don't get the job :pac:

lizzyvera

Lecturing is a full time research position, you can't do "a bit of lecturing" unfortunately. Most lecturing positions get hundreds of applicants from all over the world.

Look at profiles of people in WHO etc to see what they did. I would say a proven dedication to charity and soft skills will be as important as the uni you go to.
http://www.who.int/employment/recruitment/en/index.html

They want languages and do not recruit smokers.

tallaght01

Lots of my lecturers at uni were working in clinical positions as well as lecturing us.

I'm also not sure exactly why a highly technical organisation would be looking for more "soft" skills than anywhere else.

Valmont

r3nu4l wrote: »

I know someone now lecturing at a Uni in Dublin who got the job before finishing a PhD, had no publications and no funding. Two of the post-docs who went for the job had first-author publications in Nature and Science respectively, other top-tier publications and had their own funding. The person who got the job was sleeping with someone on the interview panel...draw your own conclusions...but if you're desperate...

Jaysus, that's disheartening.

EDIT: I didn't see 2scoops reaction before I wrote this!