genes

I won't be living in Athens unfortunately. However there should be plenty of places to stay, just look soon because they will fill up as undergrads begin to populate the city before the semester starts. I would avoid staying at places with too many undergrads, unless you want to have a taste of the undergrad party experience.

I just committed to UGA! I will begin in the ILS program but will look into transitioning into the Genetics department after rotations. Haven't heard of a grad student day for our program.

Not sure if this post belongs here. I've been accepted to two great schools and am about to make a decision. Both are offering to fund me, but my top choice is paying a stipend that is about $700 less per year than the other choice. Both schools are in the same state. Would it be rude to try to ask for more money before I accept the offer?

I've been accepted to the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech. My research interests are Developmental Biology and Genetics. Which school should I go to? I've made a topic at the link below with a more detailed analysis of the schools. Hope you guys can help me!

Thank you for your input! You are spot on about my feelings about this decision. I'm curious where you can find out which schools get more NSF funding.

Well that is the toughness of my decision, figuring out where I would fit best and get the most success. Although UGA's program is large, they are split into different departments, and then further split into subgroups called interdisciplinary groups. So I think I wouldn't be overwhelmed. You may be able to tell I'm leaning UGA, but I'm torn because GT seems to have a better reputation in general (although UGA is supposedly ranked higher in biology). I'm not sure if reputation will matter if I don't fit in as well. I've already talked to people I'm interested in during interviews, but I don't know how I can figure out if they're the right adviser from such a short meeting. Both schools encourage or require rotations. Thank you for your input!

Shameless bump

Over the past few weeks I've been pulling my hair out trying to decide between these two great schools! Research Interests: Developmental biology and genetics (and potentially evolution) Career Goal: I would love a career where I could balance both teaching and research. I have experience teaching at the college level and have had training in pedagogy. I want to develop myself more as a teacher and also as a scientist. Regardless if I end up in academia or industry, I want to be teaching to some degree. Funding: I will have guaranteed funding at both (don't mind TAing) Faculty: Regardless of where I go, I intend to do rotations. I value a great mentor more than specific research focus. Both schools seemed to have faculty that would be great mentors, and also have interesting research. Here are my perceptions of the benefits of each school (correct me if I have any faulty perceptions): UGA: Larger and more developed biology program. More developmental biologists. I got the impression that biology education is valued here and that the grad program encourages students to develop teaching skills if that's what they desire. Talked to many current grad students extensively and they loved the school. Interview experience was top notch and they sold themselves very well. I felt like the faculty and students were more cohesive here. Georgia Tech: Smaller biology program and less dev. biologists (most of which are new and young faculty). It seemed that they were more research heavy here and do not support pedagogical training as much as UGA does. Given that GT is a highly ranked engineering and STEM school, they appear to be pushing their quantitative biosciences more. I do not have a strong computational background, but anticipate that I would get more training in that if I pursued a PhD here. Not many grad students to talk to during interview weekend. A few colleagues I've talked to think GT has better name recognition and that this could potentially open up more doors for me. Seems like it might be more cutthroat here. Hope you can help me with this! I've talked to friends and colleagues about this decision and they are also divided!

Over the past few weeks I've been pulling my hair out trying to decide between these two great schools! Research Interests: Developmental biology and genetics (and potentially evolution) Career Goal: I would love a career where I could balance both teaching and research. I have experience teaching at the college level and have had training in pedagogy. I want to develop myself more as a teacher and also as a scientist. Regardless if I end up in academia or industry, I want to be teaching to some degree. Funding: I will have guaranteed funding at both (don't mind TAing) Faculty: Regardless of where I go, I intend to do rotations. I value a great mentor more than specific research focus. Both schools seemed to have faculty that would be great mentors, and also have interesting research. Here are my perceptions of the benefits of each school (correct me if I have any faulty perceptions): UGA: Larger and more developed biology program. More developmental biologists. I got the impression that biology education is valued here and that the grad program encourages students to develop teaching skills if that's what they desire. Talked to many current grad students extensively and they loved the school. Interview experience was top notch and they sold themselves very well. I felt like the faculty and students were more cohesive here. Georgia Tech: Smaller biology program and less dev. biologists (most of which are new and young faculty). It seemed that they were more research heavy here and do not support pedagogical training as much as UGA does. Given that GT is a highly ranked engineering and STEM school, they appear to be pushing their quantitative biosciences more. I do not have a strong computational background, but anticipate that I would get more training in that if I pursued a PhD here. Not many grad students to talk to during interview weekend. A few colleagues I've talked to think GT has better name recognition and that this could potentially open up more doors for me. Seems like it might be more cutthroat here. Hope you can help me with this! I've talked to friends and colleagues about this decision and they are also divided!