School recs

[bio160]

Hello!

I am a rising junior at a small, private, regionally well known school. I am beginning to put together a list of schools I would like to apply to for grad school in biosciences. I am primarily interested in genetics/early developmental biology and I think I want to pursue industry after recieving my PhD. Anyways - obviously I want to apply to some top programs but find that it is dificult to separate a Rockefeller from a UCSF based only off of their website. I just wanted to post on here to see if anyone had any recommendations, comments, concerns, etc. about my (very rudimentary) list of schools. For example, I know Caltech, Rockefeller, and Harvard offer rotations, but am unsure about the others. I also know that Caltech and MIT typically assign students a combination of TA/RA responsibilities, but am unsure about the others. Basically, I am just trying to get as MUCH intel about schools as possible as my advisor at my home institution is not very helpful. If you have recs or go to one of these schools, comment below or PM me! I would love to talk

 

Rockefeller, UCSF, Caltech, Harvard BBS, MIT, Stanford, University Washington, University of CO at Anshutz

(Once again I am not saying I'm only trying for top ten programs but wanna feel out which are worth applying to haha)

 

thanks yall 

[arachidonicacid]

I would think these programs all offer rotations. I know U Colorado @ Anschutz does 3 rotations and doesn't require TA/teaching (that campus doesn't have undergrads). I didn't attend but my boyfriend did his PhD at Anschutz in the structure & biochem program. He loved it and it sounds like they have some incredible research there, but he has always said it's a much more chill, work/life balance environment than some of the more "name brand" coastal schools. He wound up at a top post-doc and has solid papers from grad school, so clearly they still get the work done, but it sounds like a different sort of vibe than the other schools you listed.

[StemCellFan]

I don't attend any of the schools on your list, but if you're not opposed to the midwest, I know there are strong institutions like UMichigan, UWisconsin, and UMinnesota.  I don't know about early developmental biology, but Wisconsin has a program in genetics, there are researchers here who do dev bio research, and I believe they do a rotation system.  I don't know if it's a semester of rotations or a year of rotations, though.  UMich has an umbrella biomedical sciences program and Minnesota has a molecular, genetics, and developmental bio program also.  WashU might also be a place you want to consider, and UChicago has a lot of dev bio researchers as well, though I don't know if they do rotations.

I also want to give a shout out to University of Cincinnati Children's Hospital--they have a molecular developmental bio program there.  I interviewed there last year and I really liked their facilities and first years spend the first two semesters doing rotations.

Edited July 13, 2018 by StemCellFan

[hopefulgradstudent999]

WUSTL has a pretty solid faculty list studying early developmental bio/genetics, I would give them a look.