Recruitment Weekends Rock!
This past month has been a bit of a whirlwind for me. From just finishing up my applications to getting invited to visit my top choices for school, its been very rewarding to say the least. I visited UT's Cell and Molecular Biology Program on Jan 28th and 29th. Working in the building where the recruitment events were located was a bonus, as I got to finish up an experiment I was working on during the downtime at the end of the day. The event started off with a mixer at a hotel downtown where the non-local recruits were staying. The next morning we listened to some talks, went to a gigantic poster session and had some interviews with Faculty. The evening was topped off by a formal dinner and "magic show" downtown at Esthers Follies.
They say that everything is bigger in Texas, and the CMB program has over 120+ faculty associated with the program and growing. This is some consolation because even after working, living and breathing research at UT for over seven years, I still met Professors that I have never seen or talked to before. It was a great victory lap feel for me because of my lack of success at getting in last year and my residual envy of the recruits who did.
The Rice Biochemistry and Cell Biology interview was just as great of an experience. First of all, they flew me in on Thursday Feb. 11th and out again on Feb 13th. I know I could have driven but we only have one car and it would have been troublesome. Upon arrival, not only did they put me up in a great hotel, but my suite-mate got snowed in leaving me alone in what had to be 800-1000 sq feet of posh hotel excellence. The next morning I found out that only five recruits made it that weekend. The other two got snowed in. This was a bit of a shocker for me as UT had at least fifty people in attendance. Granted that was for CMB, Biochemistry and Microbiology, but vast difference in scale reminded me of how exclusive the "Texas Ivy" remains. Rice has some truly gifted Faculty. I met with six for interviews and each one seemed like they would make wonderful advisers. To cap the wonderful day Prof. Jonathan Silberg took us out for some of the best Thai food I have eaten.
Those recruiting visits presented a glorious end to the application season.
Invitations to study
I have since received invitations from both programs. This is very exciting news as less than a year ago I was furtively coming up with alternative career paths in the event that I didn't get into graduate school this year. Now, I had the pick of the litter and the hardest part is figuring out which top-ranked research institution will provide the best location for both both of our careers.
How to decide?
1) For those with a "pseudo-two body problem", consultation is absolutely necessary. This doesn't mean convincing or arguing, but a frank and dispassionate discussion with all the information on the table. A conversation devoid of personal desires and only hoping to find the best solution together.
2) Prayer and Meditation help to put things in perspective. There are a few prayers from the Baha'i Writings that really capture what I want better than I ever could.
3) Just roll the dice. We can't see the future and just have to try to make the best choice with the information presented to us.
This is awesome! I would totally want you in my bio-anything program too, if I had one. I'm really happy for you guys; what great options.
ReplyDeleteWow. I'd forgotten how spoiled recruits are in the money-making/patent-generating hard sciences. Nobody flew me anywhere, and I got little more than a few free lunches. Maybe when musicology comes up with a cure for...well, anything...
ReplyDeleteAnyway. I'm glad things are going well for you--better to have hard decisions about picking a program than about alternative career paths. A few things I thought about/wish I'd thought about:
1. Location. Yeah, you'll be stuck in the lab for long, long hours, but you'll be spending plenty of time outside it, too. You wouldn't be moving cross-country, but your attachment to/boredom with Austin should factor in, as should any extracurricular attractions for Rice.
2. Course offerings/research specialties. I know that this, too, tends to be more clear-cut in the hard sciences, but look hard at which courses you'd have to take, whom you'd take them with, and what sort of lab assignments you'd end up with. Ending up with the wrong advisor/lab can set you back years and much anxiety. Once you've narrowed down people you'd be working with, try and talk/e-mail with some current students with that advisor/lab. Cool projects don't always equal cool environments or good student-faculty relationships. Your advisor will rule your life in a lot of ways. Do whatever you can to pick the best one *for you* before you've sunk time into the program.
3. More generally, what's the departmental atmosphere? Collegial? Competitive? Disinterested? One of the things that's proven to be a saving grace for me in Minnesota is that the group of musicology grads is pretty close and supportive...which has been useful in dealing with some other shortcomings of the program.
4. Realize that, in many ways, a graduate program is simply a set of hoops you jump through. There are cool things to do and learn, but your career is unlikely to be broken (or made) by the awesomeness of your graduate work. I pretty firmly believe that working in a place that makes/keeps you happy and with people who do the same is more important than grabbing a big name advisor. Even with the best circumstances, there are times grad school will make you miserable. With the right people around you, you can bounce back from that.
Good luck!