Primadonna

That's still a great choice. Location doesn't matter too much to me, and I think I'd prefer a smaller city like Ann Arbor than Philadelphia, but that's not a deal-breaker for me.

I'm sorry to hear that. ☹️ Did you apply anywhere else? Where did you wind up selecting to attend?

I was ready to accept my Michigan offer today, but then I come back and check this thread and I have doubts again. I really liked the lab rotation idea too at Penn, although there's more faculty at Michigan I'm interested in than Penn. I don't really have any uncertainty about wanting to work in genetics, I'd be really, really surprised if I winded up doing something else. I'm a little concerned about Michigan's program taking significantly longer than Penn's. Most Penn students finish in 4-5 years from a Bachelor's. I knew that Michigan's program would take longer but I didn't know that genetics students at Michigan took 6+ years. I've also heard qualms before this thread that Michigan's genetics reputation is on the decline. The first few posts convinced me that wasn't true but now I'm unsure again.

Every time I met with someone from Penn they pushed the med school as a big deal. They work directly with a seemingly never-ending supply of doctors and MDs at Perelman and they see their work have a stronger impact "than you could ever see at a school of public health" (roughly). Guess it's not as big a deal as they make it out to be? ?

Anyone have any insight or advice for choosing between these PhD programs for someone whose research interest is statistical genetics/genomics? Michigan's reputation with genetics and Penn's association with Perelman School of Medicine is what draws me to both programs. Penn professors say they work directly with MDs and doctors in the School of Medicine and Michigan is just a School of Public Health in comparison, but Michigan historically has the better reputation and ranking and overall seems to have a lot of connections in the field. Michigan has more faculty working in genetics but I'd be part of a much bigger cohort and probably have to fight harder to work with a specific faculty. I also got accepted for a training grant at Michigan. Anyone want to drop any advice please? Location/area/environment/etc. isn't a huge determinant for me.