Hi everyone! So, like many of you, I'm freakin' out. I'm having a lot of trouble stuck between a couple of great options and any help/advice/guidance/personal anecdotes/anything would be so, so helpful- I'm losing my mind a little bit.
For starters: I'm deciding between neuroscience PhD programs, which involve a year of rotations in the first year. I'm generally confident in my research area of interest, but I'm not 1000% sold on it.
School L has a lab that I really like in my primary area of interest; I get along really well with everyone, the vibe is super laid-back and social, the professor is productive (mostly PNAS-type journals), and the research is interesting to me. It's also located where my partner lives, which is definitely a plus; I like the area and it feels like an adventure to move. School T is ranked between top 5-10 depending on the list, though they don't seem to produce many faculty members at top 5 schools (which is unfortunately the dream). I'm also concerned that there's really only one lab at School T that I'm very interested in– if I go through first year rotations and decide I want to do something else, most of the driving force for choosing School T (lab/advisor/lab culture) is no longer even applicable.
School S is consistently ranked #1 in my field and has ~5-6 powerhouse labs whose research I'm interested in (churning out Nature/Science papers). The labs are post-doc heavy, seem lighter on advisor interaction (professors feel somewhat aloof), and there's definitely more ego to deal with. I don't feel super well-aligned with the overall vibe, but I get along reasonably well with the students, the research is cutting-edge and crazy interesting, and there are professors in every subfield I'm interested in who would be excellent people to work under in terms of future career prospects. It's located where I live now: staying here feels a little boring and my partner doesn't live here (which would be a major downside), but I do love the area and I'd have a strong support system built-in.
If it's helpful, I'm happy to give actual school names to gauge. Any help would be very much appreciated!!