Grad School Decision Time-MCDB

Graduate School
1

Hey everyone,

I have recently been admitted to both UC Berkeley and CU-Boulder for their MCDB programs, and I am having difficulty deciding. Some background about myself: I graduated last May from the University of Nebraska (my home state) and I am currently working as a lab technician at CU-Boulder. I’ll list pros and cons for each school, and I want to hear your input. I love the faculty choices at each university.

CU-Boulder
Pros:
-Proximity to home. It’s only an eight hour drive or a $100 plane ticket.
-Lifestyle. It seems like there is more emphasis on having a life outside of the lab at CU. Easy access to the mountains is also a plus.
-Known quantity. I love Boulder as a town, and I have a really good feel for the research community.
-Small class size
Cons
-Not as many interesting faculty

UC Berkeley
Pros
-Fantastic research
-Berkeley on my CV
-Networking opportunities out the wazoo
-In the Bay Area. Weather, culture, food.
-better job opportunities after graduation
Cons
-Intensity? I love science, but I am more of a ‘Work to live, don’t live to work’ kind of guy. From an outsiders perspective, it seems a bit too intense for the kind of lifestyle I want to pursue. Someone else should chime in and comment on this. Will I burn out too quickly
-Distance from home. I have a great relationship with my family, and I would like to see them more than once a year. Prohibitively expensive to come home around the holidays.
-Moving for the third time in 2 years
-Lost in the crowd

Where can I find stats for the dropout rates for each of these programs? Thanks in advance for the input!

2

Having lots of interesting professors is nice but you only need one to be your thesis advisor. If that individual can be found at CU then it will serve you just as well as the one you find at UCB.

I am sure that anywhere you go you will be expected to work very hard. It is in your own benefit to do so so you can finish in a reasonable time and with the publications you need to move to the next step in your career. That being said, it sounds like CU is really your first choice and you are asking whether the “prestige” of UCB is sufficient to make you go there. CU has quite a good program and you will be fine there if you choose that as your destination.

3

As I often say to undergraduates, there is no guarantee that one will actually have a life outside the lab should one choose to go on to graduate school, and then in-lab lifestyle is more of a consideration than out-of-lab lifestyle.