I received an ESR Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellowship from low-rank university, should I accept it if I don't want to go into academia? I just got an offer to become an MSC ESR fellow in a low-rank university (100-150 QS world), which leads to a PhD. The uni is ranked within the top 30 in my field and my potential supervisor is widely known as well (~30,000 citations).
I became discouraged after reading several complaints about PhDs at this university: no one knows the university, ranking is inflated, non-international environment, etc. My goal is to switch towards international industries after finishing the PhD (not in my home country), but I fear I won't find a job after reading all these comments.
Furthermore, my master's supervisors went to high-ranked universities (within the top 20). They tell me the uni is not that good, but the supervisor is well-known... and that's it. They also tell me I have the potential to go for a top 20 uni as well.
This is the third position I've applied to, and I really don't think I've put much effort into the PhD search yet.
What motivates me are the research poject, the fellowship, the partners within the ITN (involving other very high-rank universities), and my potential supervisor. I believe I could use all these opportunities to create a great network. Maybe, do a postdoc in a high-ranked uni afterward. However, I think this is the hard way.
Do you think I am being unreasonable? Should I reject the offer and continue searching? Have you been in a similar situation?
Thank you!
you say it very well:
&quot;What motivates me are the research project, the fellowship, the partners within the ITN (involving other very high-rank universities), and my potential supervisor. I believe I could use all these opportunities to create a great network. Maybe, do a postdoc in a high-ranked uni afterward.&quot;
This is really what counts, more than the university ranking.
What counts is that you are passionate about your research project and you get the opportunity to meet and collaborate with great people in your field (your potential supervisor appears to be one of them).
In my view, you should take the offer.
All the best!