So I’ve been offered a PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology at both University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of California San Diego.
I’m an Indian student and both the places are offering me a complete scholarship and a handsome stipend. Economics are therefore, not a consideration.
Both the Universities are highly ranked and I’m having a lot of trouble zeroing in on the ideal University for me. Any suggestions?
Though I am not familiar with STEM hiring, I would think an important consideration at the Ph.D. level includes who specifically will you work with, what lab etc., how is the hiring support. My spouse is a humanities professor and his experience is, generally, while the specific program matters – which school – what matters even more in hiring is who did you work with.
Other than that, Wisconsin (where my son goes undergrad) is a great college town but winters are long and cold. To focus on the superficial, San Diego has mild weather year round. Also, cost of living is bound to be higher in San Diego, so compare how far your stipend will go in each city, not just how much it is.
Congrats on having great options for your Ph.D.!
For your career, if you want to enter academia, who your advisor is and what lab you work in is key.
In terms of superficial stuff, Madison is a fun college town that is gorgeous in the summer but with brutal winters while SD has nearly perfect weather the whole year round.
Congratulations – these are both outstanding institutions for cell and molecular biology. I decided between these for undergrad, when molecular biology still played a role in my decisions (it no longer does, unfortunately thus I cannot give in-depth advice).
I would not let the weather or surroundings influence you that much, considering how competitive both UW and UCSD are in your field, and how substantial their respective resources are. I would echo the other comments; your advisor and lab will play a critical role. One important consideration: can you inquire into your offers to see how many years each program offers full support? If one or the other offers an extra year of funding, that may be your deciding factor. Grad school at this level is demanding, and requires endurance, commitment, and yes, funding, not to mention (one hopes) a good, supportive relationship with an advisor / faculty.
Also important to consider how influential your potential advisor(s) may be in your sub-field, if you can see that far into the future. Their recommendations, support, advice and tutelage can often be a decisive factor whether you end up successfully landing a tenure-track or research lab position, and for publishing.
That said, and without knowing too many details, I rather doubt you would go “wrong” with either choice…
Something I forgot to mention: if you are considering returning to India after your PhD (and perhaps even if not), you may also want to consider what kind of reputation your school has at home. It seems, from what I have seen, that UW-Madison has an excellent reputation in India, especially for natural sciences and engineering. I would presume UCSD also has a very good, if not excellent reputation there, but I cannot say for sure.
What I can also say with some assurance (I have been on both campuses, and I am a UW alum) is that, while UCSD has many international students, UW has the arguably stronger resources in their international academic programs, particularly for languages, history, etc. What this means for somebody in your position is that, while you focus on molecular and cell biology, the strengths of the international programs do at times have a spill-over effect, in that the university presence and reputation benefit from strong international academic programs. In turn, this could have a mildly positive effect on your future career (but certainly not the most significant; the factors in the above posts would be more crucial).
Also, do know that as a state, California has had some difficult budget issues over the past few decades, with more severe effects on the University of California campuses than Wisconsin (which also has mitigating state-related issues). However, again, this may not affect your particular program / offer at UCSD, and especially as I would believe molecular and cell biology is one of UCSD’s premier programs. Yet it does not hurt to take these budget issues into consideration; the best example I can give is a faculty member at UC-Berkeley, whom I went to grad school with (at a private institution), had her telephone (!)-- along with the phones of the entire department – removed from her office a few years due to budgetary austerity measures. Of course, your mileage may vary, but better to know possible ripple effects now, now rather than several years into a program.
Best of luck in your PhD!
Wow! Thanks people. anhydrite - thank you very much. You’ve certainly given me some great info and a lot to think about.
As far as reputation in India goes - both enjoy a stellar reputation, UCSD does come out on top though. But, I have no plans to return to India, so I think that this factor is rather immaterial.
I’m veering strongly towards UW because my advisor’s research interests there are much more aligned to mine that at UCSD. But then, I think that if I get into it, after my lab rotations I’d definitely find a professor to my liking. UCSD obviously has great research happening, so I think that it would not be a problem.
The only reason I’m tempted by UCSD is that it is ranked No 9 internationally for my program while UW is ranked 35. That’s really something. To graduate from one of the top ten institutions in your field has got to have some standing.
Also, my stipend in San Diego is much more than in Madison, so as Midwestmomofboys said, based on expenses, it’ll amount to the same in both cities.
Once again, thank you everyone.
You are welcome. I am going by what you posted, and in the field of molecular / cellular biology, I am a little skeptical that a ranking – whether domestic or international – would have such a great difference in ranking between UCSD and UW’s departments. I know I specifically mentioned the international perception issue, yet I would also suggest at least being aware of what peers in your field may value more highly.
Within the U.S. (and likely some int’l academics who are more attuned to academia in the U.S.), the National Research Council’s rankings for departments usually hold more weight with academics than other types of rankings. They are fairly rigorous assessments, and come out only roughly once a decade, or more (this depends on the sub-field). The only issue with the recent 2010 NRC ranking was that the metrics used made it somewhat more difficult to glean an immediate placement, yet not necessarily less valuable. The overall notion is that major departments do not change so much year to year, and there is a general idea of which departments lead their respective fields.
In your case, both schools are outstanding (if this table below is appropriate for your field) – but you already know this. They are literally placed next to each other in this recent (for NRC) 2007 ranking, and in the top ten both. If this does not cover your field, or provides inaccurate info., I apologize in advance. But this may be quite useful as you prepare for a career in academia. Note: have edited this to add that the entire top ten listed here offers a pretty good snapshot for molecular biology:
http://whichuniversitybest.blogspot.com/2009/06/biochemistry-molecular-biology-ranking.html
Having a faculty advisor whose research aligns closely with yours is indeed a major factor, perhaps most important for your specific career track. I say that without regard to school, campus, etc. Also knowing you will have financial support, facility access, etc. to complete the PhD for most or all of your studies is also a big factor.
At the moment, as UCSD has had some budget issues in the past, now UW may be facing some upcoming budget issues. These issues became public after my first posts to you. It is not clear that they would affect your PhD work at all. At the moment, even if the budget proposals were to go through, so far faculty and facilities should not be impacted (more like classified staff, etc.).
You may consider contacting the potential advisors at one or both institutions to ask questions if possible, if you have not done so already. If there are any concerns such as you’ve mentioned, or about maintining support toward the PhD, perhaps they could assist you more.
Hope this helps. I don’t think you will make a bad choice between these two. Congratulations-
I agree, don’t let rankings of any kind color your decision. Your advisor will determine how many options you have for your first position out of the Ph.D. and after that any effect fades because it is up to you to make a name for yourself. Both departments are large enough that there are plenty of good faculty to work with and a lot of research funding around.
Thanks again. 