Hi all. My name is Anggha and now I'm still looking to be a PhD student. As written in the title, until now I'm still confused between choosing good (ranked) university or good supervisor and topic. My condition are like these:
1. I have 2 possibilities topics of PhD program, one in U1 (which has good world ranked in 79 based on topuniversities.com) and in U2 (which has ranked in 221 based on the same website).
2. Based on his previous PhD student, my future supervisor in U1 is a very busy person and it is difficult to have regular meeting with him. But, he is the master in the subject. In other part, it seems that my future supervisor in U2 is good and he will really help me in doing my PhD program. He's not very busy one.

Based on those conditions above, may I get some suggestion which one I have to choose as my future PhD place?? Thank you very much before.

Dear Anggha, Could you please define "busy" and "not busy"?? I believe the supervisor and his/her research experience are more superior than the university ranking.

hi Anggha
thank you for posting! I would choose U2 because 221 ranking is not that bad--and if the supervisor has time for you, chances are higher that you will finish your PhD without delay. It is really not nice when your bursary finishes--AND your phd hasn't finished--and what if you're stuck in a foreign country and have to struggle to support yourself etc.etc.

Prestige is good but its not everything. "Top" isn't everything although "top" is nice I agree with you. I have worked with a "top" professor before, and he was very busy as usual (or he was simply not around or hard to find), he pushed all the work to his grad students, and then I felt that he wasn't really that "top" although he was "top".

best of luck and wishing you success in your choice
love satchi

Dear Anggha,
A supervisor should perform his/her guidance to students. It is good to see the supervisor is busy with conferences, applying funding, or visiting other research facility for potential collaborations. Because these activities imply he/she is being deeply involved in the cutting edge research of this area. So we could say he/she will provide more future chances for your academical research/career path, I mean if you'd like pursuit your Prof. position at university after you earned your degree. However, the research is not an easy processing (I believe you already see many threads here) which requires you have someone who can offer you his/her rich experiences to ensure you are not wasting your time. More importantly, many PhD candidates often "lost" the research direction in the middle of their PhD studies, in the that case, if your supervisor is not happy about the quality/results/method of your research, you are in trouble.

A regular meeting schedule with supervisor is a must-be even if he is "very busy". This meeting is for exchange of ideas, for reporting a progress and for discussion of what difficulties/problems your currently dealing with. If you hear any such "very-busy" excuse from a supervisor to not have meeting/contact with his/her student, we almost could claim that one is disqualified as "good supervisor". Think about what-if you lost in research (very possible) a whole year (even half year is a very terrible case), and he/she is not happy with your stuffs, what are you going to do then ?? You should not be involved in this kind of situation and not work for these people. I encourage you to have contact with this supervisor and students to know how to arrange a regular contact and meeting. Not just email contact, that is nothing. Must be a face to face talk. You can show stuffs to him/her, he/she can demonstrate something in front of you. You deserve to know this information. I wish you a best PhD hunting. Most of us only have one PhD. So plan it wisely before you take the position and offer.