eheard

I'll drop out before I give my amazing girlfriend up!!

Your options are, full funding in Sunny California (where you will be expected to do research anyway) or paying for your education in expensive Manhattan all so you can say you got a masters from an Ivy League. Tough call indeed. . .

Does your decision have anything to do with being in a long-term relationship? You mentioned your partner did not get into school there- did she get in somewhere else? If so, that should be mentioned as a factor. If you apply again next year, will you have anything substantial to add to your application from the past year? Will you have better letters of recommendation? I wouldn't be worried about having your career pigeon-holed by the type of research you do during your PhD. A postdoc would be where the research subject matters more, as you will be developing your own line of research to extend into your career. However, you mentioned wanting to go into industry. As long as you are learning useful techniques, have a good mentor, developing teamwork and communication skills...you should be fine. If your objections with the school have to do with finances or how students are treated, ect., then I would think about the decision much more thoroughly. You also mentioned that students are graduating with one paper in a top journal- you do realize that these journals require much more effort, and 1 paper would equal 2 or 3 lower-impact papers. One new faculty member here only had 1 paper from his 5 year postdoc, but it was a Nature paper.

TLDR; Your cons don't really sound like reasonable cons, unless there is a LDR decision involved. Go.

It sounds like a pretty good offer to me. You should go. Don't focus too much on a program's national ranking. Also keep in mind that you can always do a postdoc in gene regulation and genetics. Your research project just needs to be interesting to you, it doesnt need to be exactly what you want to do in the future. BUT, if you're really not feeling the program in terms of fit (whether that's because of research, location, faculty, whatever), then don't just accept because PhD programs are difficult to get into. PhD programs are a difficult, long haul, and a lot of people end up quitting, so if you really dont enjoy the school, you're already starting out behind. You can always try again next year, and if you spend your time wisely doing research, improving your GREs, etc., then you just might get into more programs that you like better.

That college sounds like a good deal. But of course if magazine ranking is that important to you and you like spending money for reject emails, give the spot to someone who really wants it.

Agreed. Thankfully that's not what I said. . .at all.

There is no negative tone. It is simply me not shining you on; you asked for opinions, I gave you one which you reject out of hand which lead me to conclude you don't actually want opinions just validation for a decision you have already made. Nature of the beast.



I amended my recommendation to be more in line what you were seeking. . .did you not see?

This is an open source site. The Ivory Tower is much smaller than you think and in it are established professional academics who are much more vindicitive than you realize. (If you doubt this, read some of the other threads in which people talk about the kind of issues they're having with POIs and other professors.) You are at the beginning of a path in which you are forming your professional identity.
If you want to scoff at the two cents, that's your right. However, before you do, I recommend you bring something to the conversation other than spark and inexperience.

MOO, you should grin and bear it, save your venting for your personal journal, and chalk this experience up to lessons learned.

The mistake you made was not to call back the following week--and the week after that--and the next week, until you received absolute confirmation that all your materials had been received and everything was up to date. To paraphrase President Reagan, trust but verify.

After all is said and done, a student bears ultimate accountability for making sure the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed.