<p>I notice not alot of people applied to Dartmouth’s MCB program. Why is that? Is Dartmouth also a small program that is focused on undergraduate education?</p>
<p>Anyone heard from Tufts Genetics???</p>
<p>gradner88: which program are you going to?</p>
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<p>I think a fellowship such as the one you describe can well be used as a deciding factor in a case where the two programs are otherwise almost identical in terms of goodness of fit and program quality. More flexibility is always good, and the fellowship offer shows that they are particularly eager to have you.</p>
<p>I agree with Aceflyer – if you were really set on one school over the other, I don’t know that I’d allow the fellowship to be the deciding factor. But if you’re already ambivalent, then it’s fine as a tiebreaker.</p>
<p>Incidentally, NSF fellowships don’t require that the recipients actually carry out the research plans they propose.</p>
<p>Was there a Facebook group this year for everyone doing “the circuit” ? Last year we had two.</p>
<p>I want to get in touch with other people joining Berkeley next year - but since I’m a deferree and didn’t go to any recruitment weekends, I got no contact!</p>
<p>I’ll be starting a program somewhere in Sept 2009. Does anybody know how early I should contact profs about rotations? Should I start now, or wait until 9/09 approaches? And should I contact multiple profs at once or should I just contact one at a time and see if the project he or she suggests is of interest to me before contacting other profs? Thanks.</p>
<p>I’ve already contacted them. I had 2 emails out at a time based on preference. But you could have just emailed me to ask :-p</p>
<p>din’t know you were here too…so…:P</p>
<p>Hmm interesting discussion regarding the fellowship.</p>
<p>At Rockefeller, the school will pay you for 5 years, stipend as well as research funds, and the PI does not worry about the cost until the 6th year.
But I guess since it’s not officially a fellowship, just the fact that this is true for all students wouldn’t add to one’s resume.</p>
<p>ada711911:</p>
<p>Medical schools are usually big and have a lot of money and a lot of researchers. This creates very fertile ground for basic biology research to support the medical research and a lot of the staff have dual appointments in both departments. The idea is that a biology department which closely collaborates with a medical school is more likely to carry out relevant research and have more resources, both monetary and intellectual.</p>
<p>Princeton and Dartmouth are quite similar departments in that they are small with no associated medical school, but both excellent. I remember reading someone’s comments after a Dartmouth visit and they were very impressed with the department, and my supervisor did his post-doc at Princeton and promised I would love it there.</p>
<p>On the topic of fellowships, how common is it for grad students in biology to obtain additional fellowships on top of the departmental standard fellowship that everyone gets? How would one go about applying for one, what sources commonly provide them and when is the best time to take a shot at one?</p>
<p>It’s reasonably common to get a fellowship, but it’s in replacement for the department’s/your PI’s funds, not an addition. (Some fellowships, like the NSF, do cause stipend supplementation in many programs, but it’s still not totally in addition to your department’s funds.)</p>
<p>It’s most common to apply for fellowships in programs where you’re passed off to your PI relatively early – your PI will encourage you to apply. There are many disease- and area-based fellowships, although many are for postdocs. The most common national ones are the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and the NIH NRSA (F31) individual predoctoral fellowship. All are nice to put on a CV as well as freeing up more lab funds for your research.</p>
<p>shnjb</p>
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<p>It depends…is the funding part of a training grant or anything? My program is funded by a training grant and pretty much everyone who gets accepted gets put on the training grant, but I’ve been told it is still something you should put on your CV. At some schools, there is competition to get on the training grants…just because the competition here is tied to the competition to get into the program too doesn’t mean it is not worth mentioning. Or so I’ve been told…</p>
<p>I would like to add to the reasons for picking a grad school that has an affiliated med school. Access to patient samples- This has been critical for me to have access to serum repositories.</p>
<p>As an international student who will be studying in the US on a student visa, I am apparently ineligible for either the NSF fellowship or the NIH F31 fellowship. Are there any other funding sources you know of that I might be eligible for?</p>
<p>buffkitten, I am not going to Berkeley but at another school’s interview I met a lot of ppl (about 3/4 of the interviewees) who were interviewing at Berkeley MCB as well. I didn’t get any phone numbers but I can tell you that everyone was really cool! </p>
<p>Also, is it just me, or is this board dominated by people attending East Coast schools in the Fall? :-)</p>
<p>Bay Area anybody? (or any West Coasters for that matter…)</p>
<p>I might be west coast. Maybe…</p>
<p>Although it was a tough choice between Penn and the University of Washington…I will probably be going to UW for the genome sciences program. West Coast FTW.</p>
<p>has anyone heard from NYU computational Biology???</p>