<p>As in starting to research grad schools. I am looking to applying to grad school (phD program in bio) in the fall and was wondering what was the best way to research grad schools. I know that I really like genetics and would like to study that, but I know that is still very general and was hoping to find a grad school program with some flexibility. (I can't remember what the terminology was but the sort of grad school program where you are able to do rotations and switch departments. eg. a cancer lab to an immunology lab). </p>
<p>What should I look for when I research these grad schools and typically how many do people apply to? I want to apply to some of the top tier schools (top 10 grad schools) as well as have some decent safeties? Also, is it bad that going into grad school, I know that I don't want to stay in academia (eg I'm pretty sure I don't want to be a professor. And I'm not at all adverse to the idea of being the PI of a biotech company lab). And if in my research, I find some professors research that I'm really interested in, is it a good idea to contact them/in what sense should I contact them? </p>
<p>EDIT: It'd also be especially good if someone knew of any sites that ranked all the grad school programs by field (eg. top 10 schools in immunology)<br>
Thanks so much!</p>
<p>Just a quick reply, I think the term you are looking for is umbrella program. A lot of the biomedical science programs are moving towards this. You get admitted to Biomedical Sciences PhD then can pick from any lab in any dept. (Genetics, Development, Immunology, etc.)</p>
<p>There is a long thread on this page about Biomedical/Bio applications that probably would have a lot of info for you, but would also be a bit of reading. It should answer some of your questions, though.</p>
<p>Most of the top schools have umbrella programs, where you apply generally to the program and, once admitted, can rotate with faculty in many areas of biology. (EDIT: Sorry, cross-post with New_User.)</p>
<p>If you find a professor whose research you find interesting, it's fine to contact him or her. It's not required, and if you don't have something interesting to say, I wouldn't do it.</p>
<p>It's useful to talk to a professor or two and ask how many/which schools you should apply to. My undergrad PI gave me a great list of candidate schools, and successfully predicted my admissions results at all but one school.</p>
<p>It's fine not to want to go into academia, but personally, I wouldn't frame it that way in applications. Professors are the people selecting graduate students, and most of them value an academic career path, since that's the path they chose. I don't know if others have different opinions on the issue.</p>
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It's fine not to want to go into academia, but personally, I wouldn't frame it that way in applications. Professors are the people selecting graduate students, and most of them value an academic career path, since that's the path they chose. I don't know if others have different opinions on the issue
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<p><em>grumble</em> I have to agree. It did not fly so well with 2 of 4 PhD programs that I looked at/applied to. I want to be involved in upper-level positions in a museum, even prestigious ones. They argued that I could do just fine with a MA in Museum Studies and work from there. The only reason why the other 2 PhD programs didn't say anything was because their school offered a museum studies certificate.</p>
<p>So you'll have to gloss over and lie that you want to be in the academia. What's really important is that you get the research and what others think you ought to be doing. So you might have to battle through the whole assumption of you beoming a professor/academic all the way through. I had a professor who entered in a top PhD history program not truly knowing what she wanted to do with it. So she just sort of floated along with other PhD students who knew that they wanted to be professors. At the end, she was all "well I'm trained to be a professor, might as well apply for a job!" Sometimes it's hard to tell if she's glad that she did become a professor or wished she had gone back into journalism after she finished her PhD.</p>
<p>So depends how much crap you can put up with. But.... you can test a little with some of the professors by asking what else is there to do with a PhD and LISTEN to their tone. And of course, read the program's mission statement to see what they're set out to do with their grad students. For example, Stanford's History department explicitly states that they train their students to be become professors whereas NYU's approach is much more broad, suggesting that it'd be more open to other routes after the PhD.</p>
<p>You shouldn't go into the Ph.D. knowing that you don't want to be in academia-- its a very long time if you have no interest-- it is possible to get many biotech jobs with a bachelors or a masters, and without a post-doc you won't be getting a PI job in biotech either (unless you start your own company). That means you have at least 7 years of being in academia. </p>
<p>If you want to get out of science, youre going to want to go to one of the top schools. And by top I mean most recognizable. UW-seattle is one of the best schools for bio research, but I doubt that anyone on wall street knows that. </p>
<p>That being said, it is okay if you don't know that you want to go into academia. Some schools support this better than others. Two schools that come to mind are UCSF and MIT, both of which have many biotech companies basically on their campus. Weill-Cornell also has lots of collarborations between its labs and biotech. Stanford is also probably a good place. </p>
<p>You don't need to know exactly what you want to do- I certainly don't. If I were to list all of the professors that I'm interested in, the list would be quite disparate, but might have sort of a common theme. Almost every school allows for a decent amount of flexibility. </p>
<p>Ask your professor for recommendations. They have seen a lot of students, and are the ones who will write your recommendations. They should have a good idea of what's going on in the field, and where you will get in. Like mollie, my professors accurately predicted where I would get in, although I didn't believe them at the time. </p>
<p>I would just say keep an open mind, it's really hard to know what you're interested in from the websites. Many professors only put a small part of their research on the website, or it's much more interesting once they talk about it, or the research blurb is old and they have moved onto newer cooler things. My top two choices at the end were my bottom two choices going into the process, and my least favorite school was initially one of the ones that I thought I would be most interested in.</p>