I have been accepted to two Biology PhD Programs: Maryland, College Park and Syracuse.
I'm more interested in attending Syracuse because of a better research fit and stipend (Maryland has almost the same stipend, but it's soooo much more expensive to live near DC).
The thing is that I've been doing research to corroborate my decision and found some drawbacks to Syracuse:
- It's much lower ranked than Maryland
- The city seems to have suffered a lot from the 2009 crisis
- Some of the professors I'm interested in working with are not tenured yet (is it viable to ask a tenured professor to be my co-advisor, so that if the non-tenured professor leaves I won't be completely helpless?)
- The department is much smaller (not sure if it's a drawback because that could mean a lot of closer interaction with professors, but at the same time, there's less possibility to network)
In the future, I do not hope to become a lead researcher in a major university (I know my credentials do not support that). I would live very happily with a position in a smaller school doing research and teaching or maybe even just teaching at a state university (or perhaps community college??).
So, do you think that by going to Syracuse, I would still be able to accomplish my goals?
Any advice would be much appreciated.
