<p>Hi, first time here. </p>
<p>I just wanted to know what other people would think about my situation. </p>
<p>I have been working in a lab at UCIrvine for an year and I will become a student starting this Fall in different bio PhD programs. Here's the list.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt IGP
Emory BCDB
UCIrvine CMB
U of Florida IDP</p>
<p>Most of my decision has came down between Emory and Vandy but I really like my current lab and what we're doing. Also, my PI is a great mentor and I truely believe that I would learn a lot by staying in UCIrvine. </p>
<p>Sorry for the long intro... So here are the questions. </p>
<p>1) How important is the prestige of graduate schools and how would you evaluate between the 4 schools listed above? </p>
<p>2) Between Vandy's IGP and Emory's BCDB, what do you think is a better program? </p>
<p>I would really appreciate your comments. </p>
<p>Thanks guys.</p>
<p>Are you an undergrad at UCI, or are you a lab tech (or whatever) there?</p>
<p>Which school has PIs doing research that you're most interested in?</p>
<p>Hi platty, welcome to the group. You have picked out some good schools and could be successful at any of them.</p>
<p>I don't think you need to worry about prestige when you are deciding between top notch places like Vanderbilt and Emory. If you were deciding between Vanderbilt and UTHSC in Memphis, it might be an issue then (though I don't really think it would be).</p>
<p>I went through the whole interview process at Vanderbilt and was impressed with their program. The things that stood out for me were the very cooperative and collaborative nature of the department, tight knit community and research infrastructure. On the downside, they force everyone to take classes in everything from neuroscience (ooh gross) to microbiology to biophysics etc no matter what they plan to study in depth. That seems like a restrictive requirement.</p>
<p>I didn't apply to Emory so I can't make a good comparison but ultimately it will boil down to where has labs that you like more. Only your first year or year and a half will be spent doing coursework, prelims, TAing etc and the rest of the time will be spent working in your lab so that seems like the better criteria to make a decision on.</p>
<p>Hi Sarbruis,
I'm currently a lab tech.
Well, for the PIs...I really don't want to limit my areas of interest right now...
All of the schools have interesting labs which is why I applied to them. :)</p>
<p>Hi Belevitt, </p>
<p>Thanks for your reply.
So do you think it will eventually come down between Vandy and Emory?
I don't know how good UCI and Florida is known for.</p>