<p>I think that if you’ve done your research right, all of the places that you are deciding between should offer great science that you are interested in. When I made my decision I considered a couple of factors</p>
<p>1) Faculty- there are lots of people who look like great matches on paper, but I was only interested in schools where I clicked with at least one faculty member during interviews.</p>
<p>2) Student life- how happy are the students? what stage of life are they generally at? I was coming straight out of undergrad, so I wanted a school where the students really hung out with each other and that there was a decent social life within the department. Depending on where you are in life that may or may not be important</p>
<p>3) Size of department and number of people doing research that I was interested in- I wanted a medium sized department that had a lot of breadth but also had multiple faculty members working in the general area that I am interested in</p>
<p>4) Location- I decided I didn’t want to move off of the east coast, which is what ultimately decided between my two top choices.</p>
<p>I’ve been following this forum for a while, but haven’t posted anything yet. Now that we’re in the midst of decision making I wanted to get some feedback from people out there. I’ve narrowed my choices down to two schools and am having trouble differentiating. One of them I felt more comfortable at, but I also did research there last summer. How can I compare my interview weekends and the programs in general in an objective sense? Right now I’m leaning slightly towards the school I worked at for a summer. The problem is I can’t tell if this is because the program is a better fit, or if I just was more at ease because i knew grad students and professors. Has anyone been in the similar position that can offer advice? Thanks so much!</p>
<p>Even if you can’t make an objective decision, does it matter? The best choice is a school and a lab where you will be happy and productive. Most people could find that environment at more than one school, and in more than one lab. At some point, you just have to play “eenie meenie minie moe” and decide.</p>
<p>I was also curious as to how you should go about saying no to the schools that you won’t be going to. Do we write someone a letter via snail mail or email or how should we go about it?</p>
<p>bionerd1234 > Email the admissions director and then return the snail mail with your decision. The official admission offer should give you options to accept or decline. Emailing is just a nice way to give them a heads up and give the school time to make an offer to someone else.</p>
<p>belevitt - You mean no one showed you the football stadium on your tour? It’s…um…cute.
Mollie does have some excellent advice, but you know, if you were still choosing between UNC and Duke, you can always take a look at who is still in the ACC tournament and who is not. *</p>
<p>*This post in no way advocates doing your graduate work at FSU, that’s just silly. ;)</p>
<p>The Duke interview lacked school spirit. I didn’t know what their mascot was until after I got back home from the interview and people told me. In the spirit of acclimation, I checked out their basketball team and it seems as though they are competing in the ACC finals. Go athletics squads!</p>
<p>“belevitt - You mean no one showed you the football stadium on your tour? It’s…um…cute.”</p>
<p>Some high schools probably have larger stadiums! A lot of Duke grads have school spirit, but I guess that does not come out at interviews. The school spirit does seem to stop short of the football team. We actually won some games this year! We have a new coach, so things might get even better. However, most of the people here have no interest in going to football games. </p>
<p>I think the football games are fun. I have gotten like three free duke tshirts from them! The undergrads can be a little strange (but enteraining) at them. They all wear costumes, so each games is like Halloween.</p>
<p>Back to the thread, people definately make school decisions based on sports teams but that is an unwise decision. It is better to decide based on the research and the people at the school. Carolina may have beaten us twice this year, but we will whip them again like we have in the past! Go Blue Devils!</p>
<p>I made my decision on where to attend undergrad based on the strength of UW’s hockey program. It turned out for the best, because I had only applied to large public flagship universities. And it turns out, that academic prowess and hockey skill are not necessarily correlated. Thankfully I didn’t end up at U of North Dakota or Duluth or something.</p>
<p>Hi all,
I’ve been following this thread for awhile and its been very helpful through the whole grad school admissions process! I finally decided to post about myself:
Applied: Mount Sinai, Mayo Grad School, Rockefeller, U of Minnesota, U of Chicago, U of Michigan
Accepted: Mount Sinai, U of Minnesota, U of Chicago
Rejected: Rockefeller (before interview), U of Michigan (after interview)
Still Waiting: Mayo</p>
<p>Has anyone heard back from Mayo? I saw that one person was rejected, and don’t rejections come after acceptances? Maybe I am waitlisted. If anyone has an opinion on the strengths/weaknesses of the 3 schools I have been accepted at, it would be appreciated (Minnesota, Chicago, or Mount Sinai). </p>
<p>Also, does anyone have suggestions about how to email faculty about whether or not they’ll have funding/space to take grad students for rotations/thesis work in the next year? I haven’t accepted an offer yet, but just want to get a general idea about how many faculty that I’m interested in would be available at each school before I choose. Would it be ok to send a mass email to everyone, or should I try to personalize it for each person, even though I’m not sure if I will end up picking them to rotate or even going to that school? Any help would be appreciated!</p>
<p>Applied: Yale, UNC BBSP, UCSD BMS, Columbia Biology, Scripps, Hopkins MMI
Accepted: Columbia
Waitlisted: UCSD
Rejected: UNC, Yale
No Response: Scripps, Hopkins</p>
<p>At UCSD, 800 applicants for 25 spots, so I am thankful for a spot on a “very short waitlist”. Anyone have any ideas what that amounts to chance-wise? I reeeaally like the program arrangement at UCSD. I have to give Columbia an answer by the 31st so wonder how long it will take to get a definite answer from UCSD…</p>
