<p>I am curious if there are any other people who are debating between two programs at the same university.</p>
<p>Personally: I am currently considering Harvard, but am not sure whether to lean toward the MCB program or the BBS. I’d appreciate insight into these programs (either or both) if you have any personal experience!</p>
<p>They seem like polar opposites… BBS is at the med school, MCB at Cambridge… BBS is MASSIVE, MCB is about a third to a fourth the size… BBS is bio-medically focused, MCB is basic biology… I suppose I am curious how different the atmosphere is in each and about how the grad student experience may be different in each…</p>
<p>Anyone else debating two programs at one school (not just Harvard)?</p>
<p>I applied only to BBS because the general thing I had heard was that, while joining an MCB lab is easy in the BBS program, the opposite (joining a BBS lab if you’re in the MCB program) is not.</p>
<p>^Yes. It’s technically allowed, but MCB has had a number of defectors in past years, so they’ve made the requirements for rotating in/choosing a non-MCB lab stricter recently.</p>
<p>MCB is tighter-knit than BBS, owing to its smaller size, and the class experience seems to be more tightly regulated. There’s only one required course for BBS, and to fulfill the rest of the course requirements, you can take whatever classes you want – MCB has a more stringent set of criteria for what courses are allowed. MCB also requires students to TA the undergrad intro biology course (which is a huge amount of work) plus one other undergrad course, while BBS only requires one TA experience, and allows students to TA either a med school course or to participate in a community education program to fulfill it.</p>
<p>Otherwise, the programs are both at Harvard and the grad student experience once you join a lab is substantively the same. I disagree that MCB and BBS are polar opposites in general – one being in Cambridge and the other being at the med school doesn’t, for example, really affect the student experience that much.</p>
<p>Thank you for clearing that up Molliebatmit! I got the idea that they were quite different based on my experiences talking to grad students at MCB and my friend at BBS. I suppose the locations don’t matter much, but it did seem like experiences were overall quite different, though you are right, polar opposites is probably too strong a description!</p>
<p>I can see how each program would be appealing to different people… I think a major difference is the presence of undergrads on campus and having to TA them. I’m trying to mentally weigh the usefulness of the experience vs the pain of TAing big UG classes 
Also wondering if a tight knit class really means much since after a year you join a lab and that lab becomes the center of your life rather than classes.</p>
<p>
I think it does. I, for one, was really happy to see that 2nd- and even 3rd-years in my program are still constantly hanging out and doing fun things together. I think being able to do that helps provide the necessary and occasional respite from otherwise always thinking or talking about your specific lab work.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s important, but of course I am coming from the big-program perspective. </p>
<p>Of course, there are absolutely groups of close-knit students in BBS, so I shouldn’t let my perspective color your perception of the entire program. There was a group in my cohort during first year that always organized parties and bar-hopping and get-togethers for everybody, and I think many of them are still close. I just didn’t run with that crowd, and joining a lab on one of the other campuses didn’t help.</p>
<p>Anyway, my closest friends are the grad students and postdocs in my lab and in neighboring labs, and some of the grad students are BBS and some are MCB (and, just to shake it up, some are Neuroscience). I think we’re all closer to each other than we are to anybody else in our programs.</p>