LoveMysterious

Hey! I'm also heading to UIC in the Fall for my PhD (Microbiology & Immunology). Do you have any insight regarding living near campus? Or is the Little Italy/Med district part of town considered sketchy? I feel totally clueless, lol :p.

Congrats!!!!

Sure. (And other people, feel free to chime in!) Bioinformatics/big data genomics coupled with Next Gen Sequencing is super hot right now. The ability to analyze large sets of data is invaluable in the field. Lots of companies are doing flow cytometry or microarray work. CRISPR is also starting to boom along with other genetic engineering techniques. Personalized medicine is the up-and-coming thing in clinical settings, along with immunotherapy and gene therapy for disease treatment. You'll have plenty of opportunities to work with these technologies at your schools in question, especially at UCSF, who helped pioneer some of the technologies.

I'm married, so I had to go to the school that was the best fit for both my partner and I. I got into much better schools than the one I'm going to, so I am definitely feeling a little regret. I think what you're feeling is pretty normal. It's a big decision.

Yeah, you're seriously overthinking how much people care. Hiring managers care about your research experience, skill set, and how well you'd fit in a team dynamic. No one cares where you went to school unless its a top tier school (which all three of your choices are) and in that case maybe - and I seriously mean MAYBE - it will give you a tiny extra advantage over other candidates. For the most part though, no one cares. This isn't like law or business; in biotech, your skill set matters exponentially more than what school you went to. If you want to go into biotech, your number one goal should be to expose yourself to as much cutting-edge technology as possible (NGS, CRISPR, flow cytometry, etc). The exact ranking of an already elite university will mean literally nothing. And no need to apologize from doubting a random person from the internet. But yeah, I've been in the industry (and multiple companies) for the past 4 years so I do know what I'm talking about here. Hope this helps.

Agreed. I'm currently in the industry and have interviewed many people. No one cares if you went to Stanford vs Cal vs UCSF. They're all top tier, have their own extensive networking opportunities, and it makes zero difference to hiring managers. Go with the school you actually like the best.

Pfffft. I've been working full-time for four years straight, I'm going to savor every second of my backpacking trip. Also if you equate travelling to "wasting time," you're seriously missing out.

Cool, me too! Backpacking Southeast Asia for a month in June

I meant prior to interviewing.

Finally got the official acceptance for Case Western Reserve (bio department, not the integrated one)! I know that some people here say that it doesn't matter if you contact PIs or not, but in this instance, a PI quite literally got me in. I really think it's worth it to reach out, especially if you share a common research interest.

As a fellow sub-3.0 GPA-er, I've been following you over in the Biology forum. Super proud of you, man!! You deserve it!!

I'm kind of in the same boat. I chose the less-prestigious university because it was a better personal fit for me, and made the most sense logistically for both my husband and myself (I'm older too). It seems like the only reason you'd be upset about not going to UPenn is because its UPenn. IMO, unless you're excited and passionate about the program there, its not worth passing up a choice that seems like a better fit for you (and ending a 10 year relationship...ouch!) solely for the school's reputation.

Accepted to NYU with a 2.6 uGPA. Miracles happen.

Insulting and offending people doesn't build you a good network. I mean this with sincerity: you really should work on your interpersonal skills. Talking to people the way you have on this forum will get you nowhere.

IMO, your GPA is not low enough for him to "back away" at that point.