Columbia or Oxford PhD? (Fully funded at both)

[Doo]

Ox pros:

- 3-4 years and I’m out
- Global prestige

Ox cons:

- Uni is poor, dep middling
- UK seems to sinking
- Hard to place in North America

Columbia pros:

- NYC is the greatest city on Earth, endless opportunities
- Columbia PhDs place reasonably well, still an Ivy

Columbia cons:

- NYC is expensive
- Area around Columbia is crime infested
- PhD will take 5-6-7 years
- 3 years teaching req starting 2nd year (before comps)

[advice]

I think you will find that the people who get great jobs are often reasonably nice people, who folks actually want to have in their departments the rest of their careers potentially. So when you are so dismissive of a great department like Oxford's, or dismiss a majority-BIPOC neighborhood as "crime infested," you come off as kind of a jerk and potentially other red flags. I'm not sure that attitude will get you a job, no matter how many top pubs you may have if you're lucky. Something about what you are doing is succeeding, because you got two great offers, but there are also red flags.

So with that said, under the assumption that you will not be able to get a job in academia at the end because of a bad personality, I would say do Oxford since it is shorter and less "crime infested."