<p>Hi everyone. First time posting here, but have lurked for weeks short term, years really though. :)</p>
<p>So I thought I had everything worked out. Schools chosen and departments selected to apply to for PhD programs next fall. Some schools had more of my interests in their micro department, some had more in their molecular department. It’s not really a fluctuation in my interests, just how each school groups things. Some schools have a CMB program with a Micro/immuno sub-group, etc. If one program has 1 faculty member I’m interested in, and another has 8 - the choice is clear. This post is more about the not-so-clear. </p>
<p>For those schools with entirely different programs (ie U Washington), I’ve recently found that sometimes all the faculty I’m interested in are in <em>both</em> departments. If possible, I’d like some advice on how to choose in this situation. For the above example, if what I’m reading is up to date, CMB admits ~25/year, while micro might be 7-10 or so. What I don’t know is the number of applicants to each. Stats seem to be similar for other schools with distinct (in terms of one not being embedded in the other, faculty do generally overlap) departments.</p>
<p>UW CMB gives the impression of being more prestigious. If that’s true, and it gives me a better shot at micro, I would go for micro. As long as the faculty are involved in both. CMB probably has coursework closer to my interests in most cases, but that’s really not a deciding factor.</p>
<p>In short: There seem to be less admitted applicants in micro programs each year. Are these programs generally less competitive? Or would the greater number of slots in a CMB program help me more?</p>
<p>Thanks for reading. I hope I’m not being too vague. This situation varies from school to school. To be clear, I’m not wondering “is micro or molecular right for me?”. I’ve worked in the field of molecular virology for the past several years, and would like to continue with it. For my interests, one school’s Micro = another’s CMB = another’s both!</p>
<p>Full disclosure: I am a grad student in the UW Microbiology department.</p>
<p>UW MCB is an umbrella program while Micro is a specific department. MCB students can rotate and ask to join any lab that is part of the program, something like 270 labs, whereas micro students usually can only join labs of faculty that have appointments in the Micro department. There are benefits and costs to both these: MCB is better if you don’t know what you want (although that in itself is a problem) and Micro is better if you really know what you want. Furthermore, MCB has a problem with students falling through the cracks simply because they have to juggle both the specific department and the umbrella program, and the huge number of labs is not actually a good thing, because the students get overwhelmed by the choice. There’s been talk of condensing the faculty list to people that have actually taken MCB students in the past (most of the labs on that list have never even had an MCB rotational student). </p>
<p>The coursework is basically the same for the two, Micro requires a few more bacteriology classes but there’s no core courses that you have to take, unlike MCB. Basically you just have to take electives off a list, although most of us take the same classes anyway.</p>
<p>You can’t really say that MCB is more prestigious than Micro because Micro is an actual department while MCB is an umbrella program: all of MCBs rankings are based on Micro and other department stats. And from a student support angle, Micro is much better. (Also, we’re more competitive)</p>
<p>Basically, if you want to study bacteria or viruses, you should apply to Micro (or both and hope you get accepted to one). If you aren’t sure if you want bacteria/viruses, immunology, or pathobiology/global health, you should apply to MCB.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the reply. More informative than I could have hoped for!</p>
<p>I really do want to stick with virology. A long time ago, when I first looked at UW, it was for the MCB program. I made a list of professors I was interested in. Much later I realized that they were all part of the Micro department. I decided to go with Micro as it seemed a tighter fit.</p>
<p>Micro does indeed feel like the right path for me, but the fact that you call it more competitive, while the MCB umbrella also has the faculty I’m interested in has me actually considering two applications. Wasn’t planning on doing such a thing at any school. At least they don’t have separate GRE codes It looks like it would just be a matter of $75 and explaining to my advisers why they would do such a silly thing as send two letters to the same institution.</p>
<p>No problem. If you have the money to apply to both, just to up your chances, you might think about doing that. And your letter of rec people will understand that you’re applying to 2 diff departments that don’t share applications.
What faculty are you interested in? The official bios are a few years out of date and I know some professors aren’t taking students currently.</p>
It looks like it would just be a matter of $75 and explaining to my advisers why they would do such a silly thing as send two letters to the same institution.</p>