Washington University in St. Louis or University of Texas Southwestern?

[hhhhhh]

I got accepted to Washington University in St. Louis DBBS and UT Southwestern medical center for biomedical sciences. Which one should I choose?

[biotechie]

7 hours ago, hhhhhh said:

I got accepted to Washington University in St. Louis DBBS and UT Southwestern medical center for biomedical sciences. Which one should I choose?

Both are great schools, but there's a lot more that needs to go into this decision. For example, if you're interested in lipids and cardiovascular disease, UTSW is going to have some great labs, but if not, it could still be a good school. Have you heard back from all of the places to which you applied?

Which program design do you like best? Are both similar? Will they prepare you for the career you are interested in pursuing? Are there more professors you're interested in working with at one institution over the other? How likely are they to be taking students next year? Where do their students end up after graduation?

You also need to factor in cost of living, whether you want to stay closer to family, if your significant other can move with you, and whether you actually want to live there.

[hurryskurry]

UTSW has 14 HHMI professors, and WashU has 2, that's one metric, but probably comes down to a lot of factors and what you're personally looking for I think 

Edited March 5, 2018 by hurryskurry

[biotechie]

4 hours ago, hurryskurry said:

UTSW has 14 HHMI professors, and WashU has 2, that's one metric, but probably comes down to a lot of factors and what you're personally looking for I think 

That matters much more for postdoc than it does for graduate school. I actually recommend joining a smaller lab with a junior to mid-career PI that will have time to really mentor you and teach you how to be a scientist. Then you can go for those HHMI labs when you're a postdoc and are ready to start being more independent.

I went to the more extreme end of the "early career" PI spectrum and joined a brand new PI's lab. If you pick a good one (which you should be able to figure out in your rotation), younger PIs and PIs with smaller labs are great. I have been better prepared for postdoc (or even a career in industry) than many of my peers that are in huge labs with well-known PIs. Make sure wherever you choose there are PIs that can teach you the way you learn best.