[Help] Ideal Graduate School for me?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Dear All,</p>

<p>I'm a recent Graduate from the Midwest and I'm considering doing Graduate school in Immunology (Ph.D.). I'm also considering doing an MBA along with the Ph.D. Some of the worries I have include the fact that many Ph.D.'s are currently underemployed and I would like to avoid that if possible! Before graduate school, I used to live in a city with ~5 million people and I kinda found a city of 250,000 to be a really tiny city. However, I am okay with living in small cities if the university is really a good choice. Cost of living is a factor to me too as I will be receiving a fixed stipend no matter which university I go to.</p>

<p>So which dream school will you pick for me? Please rank the choices!</p>

<p>Harvard
- probably the best school in the world, I love Boston but the city is kinda expensive. I do have loads of friends studying and working in Harvard/Boston so maybe that should be a factor?</p>

<p>MIT
- probably not my top choice but I love Boston and know a couple of friends at MIT</p>

<p>Stanford
- applying for the SOM grad program there... love the weather and topics sound interesting! love the graduate housing too!</p>

<p>Yale
- offers an MBA-Ph.D. program which sounds awesome... the city looks really tiny though, but maybe I can drive to NYC during the weekends.</p>

<p>Northwestern
- Midwest so I have lots of friends there and near Chicago which is a plus. Not sure if the research is good though for immunology.</p>

<p>UPenn
- Dunno much about the city and life in general (care to enlighten me anyone?) But their immunology faculty is truly inspirational!</p>

<p>Rockefeller Uni
- NYC is okay but kinda dirty, hate the winters there. But the shopping is great and the many theaters are awesome! They have a small but good faculty there.</p>

<p>Cold Spring Harbor
- a post-doc in my lab did his Ph.D. there, he liked the place! And it offers a 4 year Ph.D. prog which saves alot of time. </p>

<p>So which uni would you pick for me and why?</p>

2

<p>Get accepted and fully funded.
That should be your priority.</p>

3

<p>“Get accepted and fully funded.
That should be your priority.”</p>

<p>I’m already fully funded. My funding is independent of the university and is alot higher than any university could possibly offer me…</p>

4

<p>Then I’d go with the prof, the research and the lab dynamics.
People you can have a great working relationship with for years to come.
Congrats on your options.
CC posters would love to have your dilemma.</p>

5

<p>please rank the colleges for me, I want to get a second opinion asap!</p>

<p>I don’t think I’ll have the chance visit all the profs personally, so I need to shortlist 2-3 universities. So assuming the profs are all great people and lab dynamics are similar, where would you go?</p>

6

<p>You should re-post this in the Grad School Forum. There should be people there with lots of useful ideas for you. To find it, go to the main page where all of the forums are listed, and then scroll down.</p>