Effect of going to Canadian school on future job prospects?

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quark314
Posts: 33
Joined: Tue Feb 02, 2010 6:53 pm

Effect of going to Canadian school on future job prospects?

Post by quark314 » Tue Mar 09, 2010 1:50 pm

I'm pretty sure that I'd like to continue in academia after graduate school (i.e. do a post doc or two and then get a faculty position). I hope to one day have a faculty position at a major research institution. But I also want to consider the idea that I may just seek a "real job" somewhere in industry after grad school. Given that, how much would going outside the US for grad school affect my future career prospects? Specifically, I'm weighing two US schools and then one Canadian school ranked slightly higher(of course rankings must be taken with a grain of salt). BUT I'm worried that even though the Canadian school is ranked (slightly) higher than the other two, because it's outside the US it may not be as well-respected or well-known as the US schools when it comes time to get my next job (in the US) (and especially so for jobs in industry... post docs will presumably be in the same field and therefore will be more familiar with the caliber of the people you worked with).

Obviously there are many many other important things to consider at each school (advisers, departmental culture, funding, geographic location, etc etc etc), but I'm trying to get a better handle on this one part of the equation...

Thoughts?

dgiraffes
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2010 3:00 am

Re: Effect of going to Canadian school on future job prospects?

Post by dgiraffes » Thu Apr 15, 2010 12:23 am

If it's one of the top Canadian institutions (i.e. Toronto, UBC, or McGill) then I think provided you do good work there then you can definitely continue on in academia in the US. In fact if you look around there are actually some faculty at top US institutions with doctorates from Canada. There aren't an overwhelming number, however, but to be honest I think the reason for that is partially because those who get their degrees in Canada often choose to stay in Canada because they like it.

I find that, in general, international students know of and respect top Canadian schools as do faculty in the US. It is just US students that tend to not know much about Canadian schools which is just a function of the states being much larger and not concerned with what goes on in Canada.

On the other hand in Canada you can do a M.Sc. at any school for 2 years and then return to the states for a PhD, although you'd probably graduate with your PhD a year or two after you would have going straight to a PhD.



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