For sure your advisor and pubs matter the most, but given you can choose your advisor directly at the least you want to go to a place where there are more “top advisors” aka a better institution. For sure some small places have great programs so I should definitely amend my suggestion to be a top-20 program. I myself did my PhD in UT southwestern which is just a med and grad school but in the top lists for just the PhD programs.
> at the least you want to go to a place where there are more “top advisors” aka a better institution
Yes, I forgot that I had a European point of view. Here we don't usually apply to graduate schools, we apply to specific positions where advisors and topics are already chosen, so the reputation of the school itself takes a backseat.
