<p>ada711911 you should just pick where ever you feel more comfortable, and which is the best research fit. As long as there are a couple good advisers doing good research.</p>
<p>That said I’m going to Princeton next year, so I’m biased towards there :)</p>
<p>KD1029: Why did you decide on Princeton? Are you planning on doing a summer rotation or taking MOL500?</p>
<p>I received an interview invitation via email in January and went to interview in February. They sent me an acceptance email 4 days after my interview. I graduated from a school outside the US, but I applied as a domestic applicant. I love living in a big city and Chicago is a great choice for me (though winter is cruel). Northwestern offers me a unique offer other places I get accepted don’t. I hope I will be happy there :)</p>
<p>Thank you for your comments on the lab size. I have been thinking about this question as well, and I have another question regarding the PI. </p>
<p>What do you all think? A famous and well-established PI in his/her late years, or a young PI who has just started his/her lab, both of them are working in your area of interest. Who do you think provide better mentoring?</p>
<p>BioX: there are no black and white answers. It all really depends on the individual student and PI in question. Everyone has different styles and desires, on both sides. What works for one student won’t necessarily work for others. There will be varying levels of PI interest in mentoring and different styles involved.</p>
<p>it depends on what sort of mentoring you are looking for, as well as the PIs themselves. On the average, PIs in the later stages of their careers tend to be better funded, but less hands on-- however their names will help you get a great postdoc and you will likely publish in very good journals. Younger PIs will be more hands on, but may or may not succeed and become big names in the field, and thus may be unknown to the post doc labs that you are trying to get into. They may also have less funding. However, this doesn’t hold true of every PI, as their are plenty of young PIs that are really well funded and/or are very busy and don’t have a ton of time to spend with their students, and plenty of established PIs with smaller labs and more time for students/</p>
<p>ada711911: When I went on the interview all the grad students seemed incredibly friendly and genuinely friends with each other. Also the professors were doing high caliber, interesting research, and there seemed to be a real emphasis on training scientists, not just the process of science. Beyond that I actually worked at Princeton for one summer of undergraduate and loved the research and the community feel there. So I already knew some of the professors I interviewed with, and of course my PI. Also there is a wide enough range of research options that if I change my mind about what I want to research, there will be someone working in that field I’m interested in.</p>
<p>So I guess at the base of it, I saw myself fitting into the graduate and research community at Princeton really well. I’m planning to take MOL500 in the summer. </p>
<p>That said, it was a very difficult decision. I loved my other top choice as well. One factor in my decision was that I already know Princeton and have a good sense of what life will be like there. But when I went to the interview, I thought I had already decdided to go to my other top choice, but going on the weekend and revisiting just totally changed my mind. That’s probably too much information, but I hope that helps :)</p>
<p>Thanks KD1029, what did you think of the lab enviornment at Princeton? Did you think the size was too large and had too much undergrads and post-docs for the PI to train/teach new grad students? and are you planning to work with the PI you worked with previously? and when you were working there, did the grad students seem like they had time outside of lab for other stuff and did they seem happy there?</p>
<p>The labs at Princeton are not large at all- they probably average 7-8 people, plus undergrads? There are probably 1-2 undergrads a year in the lab. Most of the PIs are really into mentoring and teaching, since they decided to be at princeton and not some place where they wouldn’t have to teach. I really loved the department, and although it is on the slightly small side, there is a decent amount of depth, especially if you are interested in genomics or developmental biology. It’s an extremely collaborative environment and there are a lot of multi-lab meetings that you can attend. CIL is set up in open lab space, so several labs share a space and equipment, making it easy to ask for help even from people not in your lab.</p>
<p>People definitely don’t work too hard-- I don’t know of a PI at princeton who is known for expecting people to be in all of the time–it’s a pretty laid back environment with fantastic science. The only negative is being in the town of princeton, but if you are choosing between dartmouth and princeton, i’d rather be in princeton</p>
<p>I was also considering Princeton too…however, after visiting, i realized that Princeton is lacking in translational research and has no medical center/hospital. Yes, i agree that the molbio department is on the small side with large labs… There also doesn’t seem to be any freedom to “choose” your lab due to the ratio of grads to PIs to undergrads, etc. </p>
<p>Does anyone have any opinions of going to a ivy league vs non ivy? I know that most ivys are well known and established. HOwever, it seems that lots of people go just for the name, despite the obvious drawnbacks --so what do you all think about going to a non-ivy league vs. an ivy league?</p>
<p>did anyone here applied to UMDNJ-Rugters?? and have you heard back yet? i visited during the march 13 weekend adn haven’t heard back yet—is there any hope?? </p>
<p>also, does anyone have any insight into Columbia, Duke, Uconn, tufts, or UNH?</p>
<p>Why wouldn’t there be freedom to choose your labs? I don’t know of any grad student at princeton who didn’t join their first choice lab (although there could be some, there are definitely very few). There are ~50 PIs and ~30 entering students, meaning that there are more PIs than students and that the PIs are looking to get grad students. The undergrads don’t really affect the PIs decision to take on grad students, as the undergrads are only there for a year and a half. </p>
<p>Yes, princeton doesn’t have a ton of translational research, however there are several labs studying cancer related things that are relatively applied. That isn’t really a negative if you’re looking to do basic science though.</p>
<p>i was also at rutgers that weekend and have not heard back</p>
<p>the 50 PIs are combined with biochem, computational, bioinformatics, etc so there isn’t much choice within a specific displicine. And since all the undergrads are required to do a thesis, grad students are forced to mentor multiple undergrads thu their career and hence this impedes on their publishing record. and even thu, most people do manage to get their first to second choice thesis labs, they often don’t get their top choices for rotations and that significantly affects their choices for a thesis lab… But, that is just from my personal experience. I am sure Princeton is a great school,depending on what u r looking for:)</p>
<p>@ Leukemia
I grew up in Cleveland, and while I don’t know a TON bout CWRU’s program, I know it’s fairly well-regarded, and at least one of the profs (my dad) is really good 
I did a Summer undergrad research stint there, and it was a really good program, so that’s something. Cleveland is a fairly cheap city to live in, which is a bonus, and while it can be kinda boring, there are a good number of bars in the surrounding areas, and if you want a real nightlife, the Flats have clubs and what not. The best thing about Cleveland is how nice people are. I live in NYC now and kinda miss people making eye contact and saying “hello” when they walk past you on the street. I’d ask the grad school for contact info for some current students and ask them more about the program details. If you want to know anything else about Cleveland (like the best local restaurants, etc) PM me. :)</p>
<p>Speaking of Rutgers, I got into Rutgers-Newark (Bio). I know Rutgers is a good school, but why is the Newark campus not as highly ranked as the New Brunswick campus?</p>
<p>@gradnerd88: how do you have personal experience with choosing a lab/rotations at Princeton? Do the PIs do a good job of training the grad students and are grad students well prepared for their post-docs?</p>
<p>Does anyone know who are the good PIs at Princeton?</p>
<p>what are you interested in? You can PM me for more details if you want-- I was an undergrad at princeton so I can’t say exactly from a grad students perspective, but I was friends with a decent number of the grad students, and knew a good proportion of the professors in the department.</p>
<p>so does anyone know anything about Dartmouth? Any pros or cons?</p>