Stanford vs Weill Cornell - Cell&Dev Bio

PaperTowels
Fri, 15 Mar 2013 05:45:52 +0000

Congratulations. Given no other information, I would say Stanford, since it is regarded as slightly more prestigious these days and I’ve noticed more ambitious research being done there (this is just my rough impression, I don’t know if it actually is like that).

In practice, it’s a very bad idea to make a decision “given no other information”. At the very least, you should have looked at what all the faculty members do at either school, and have two lists of potential rotation labs/future advisors. After all, you don’t do what you please in grad school, you work with one of the PIs. Then compare the PIs and their research, not the schools themselves.

Don’t forget that Weill Cornell collaborates frequently and extensively with other institutions in the area like NY Presbyterian, Sloan Kettering Memorial, Rockefeller and so on. If there’s research at any of these that you’d like to be involved in, you will probably have a lot of opportunity to do so while at Weill (that’s if you’re not already in the Tri-I program).

I’m guessing the aid package, compensation, etc. you get are not significantly different, if they are, consider this also.

Lastly, Weill is on Upper East Side, in the middle of Manhattan. New York City is a great place, especially if you like cities, but it can be quite expensive to live there, keep this in mind. I don’t know how Stanford compares. Also, consider living in NYC vs. living on/near the Stanford campus- after all, you’ll spend 5 years of your life there, and both places have their own unique features that are love or hate for some people.