Organic Chemistry at Stanford

[OverzealousMuch]

Hi all,

 

I completed all of my visitation weekends about 2 weeks ago and have been agonizing over my decision ever since. After visiting five schools, I fell in love with three: Columbia, UC Berekeley, and Stanford. Though objectively all these schools are incredible for the research I want to do (organic chemistry with applications to biology), my gut feeling is to attend Stanford. I don't want to choose a school on a gut feeling, so I was wondering if anybody has some sort of insight into the organic chemistry department at Stanford.

 

Much obliged for any thoughts you can give me.

[St Andrews Lynx]

Gut feeling is a perfect valid way to make a decision! Go with it. 

 

People always say "trust your gut" and that's for a reason. There are things you may have only picked up on subconsciously, or which you would not be able to rationally articulate, but which form a "sense" of whether something is a good idea or not. 

[asaprocky]

I basically had the same issue. For me it came down to Berkeley and Stanford for organic chemistry as well! I think that you should choose a school where 1. you'll be happy and 2. where you'll succeed. I actually had a gut feeling of going to Stanford as well, but I also think that's because I was hypnotized by the "prettiness" of the campus and facilities. I almost committed but then talked to the specific PI I was interested in at Berkeley on the phone and he completely won me over. Everything he said aligned with what I wanted out of my graduate experience, so I then changed my mind. If you want to make a decision not based off of pure feeling, I'd recommend talking to the PI's you're really interested in via phone. Email can get long and annoying with waiting on a response. By phone, you can gauge their interest towards you. I saw a great quote and it went along the lines of, "go where you are wanted." To me, I felt like I was wanted more at Berkeley than Stanford, so that also affected my decision a lot. It also doesn't hurt that Berkeley has some of the more lax graduation requirements compared to all the requirements Stanford has. 

 

BUT, like St. Andrews Linx said though, going with your gut is a valid way to choose. If you just feel like you and Stanford fit perfectly, then great! Go there! Stanfod has some top notch facilities and great faculty with what you want to do (Wender, DuBois, Burns). They have some of the more extensive graduation requirements but hey, it'll probably be worth it in the end. 

 

You can't go wrong with any of those choices, so don't agonize too much!!

[OverzealousMuch]

Wow, thank you so much for your responses. I appreciate the validation of the gut feeling!

 

Asaprocky, I think for the exact same reasons you described, I feel more wanted at Stanford than at Berkeley. I don't really care too much about the graduation requirements; we'll work hard no matter where we go. Thank you for the advice; I think I'm about ready to choose. 

 

Hopefully I'm done agonizing. Cheers!