MCB Datmouth VS Mount Sinai School of Medicine

[only-time]

Hi everyone,

I have gotten the offers from MCB program at Dartmouth and Graduate School of Biological Sciences of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and I am currently facing a hard decision between these two institutions. It would be grateful if you could give me some kind advices regarding this situation?

Many Thanks!

Edited March 17, 2010 by only-time

[∑FORTRAN=0]

My wife is finishing her undergrad at Dartmouth's MCB for microbiology. She absolutely loves most of the people she's met. A lot of the grand students are really easy to get along with. From her experience, the O'Toole lab is basically the greatest thing in the world. Dartmouth/Hanover is OK, (coming from a non-Dartmouth person) loots of snooty money running around. Pretty good campus food, but very expensive. Hanover has good food, some of it cheap. No good multiplex movie theaters for a ways. If you are outdoorsy like we are, it's awesome. Hiking everywhere, and world-class sport climbing right there at Rumney. Skiing is omnipresent, and Boston/Montreal/NYC aren't too far away. Bus service leaves something to be desired but the schools own Dartmouth Coach is pretty good but doesn't run often. Hanover is isolated from any even medium sized cities for about an hour in all directions...much more in some directions.

I have a friend doing work with the molecular biology peeps and she definitely found some dud PIs. Let me know if you have anything specific you'd like to know.

[only-time]

My wife is finishing her undergrad at Dartmouth's MCB for microbiology. She absolutely loves most of the people she's met. A lot of the grand students are really easy to get along with. From her experience, the O'Toole lab is basically the greatest thing in the world. Dartmouth/Hanover is OK, (coming from a non-Dartmouth person) loots of snooty money running around. Pretty good campus food, but very expensive. Hanover has good food, some of it cheap. No good multiplex movie theaters for a ways. If you are outdoorsy like we are, it's awesome. Hiking everywhere, and world-class sport climbing right there at Rumney. Skiing is omnipresent, and Boston/Montreal/NYC aren't too far away. Bus service leaves something to be desired but the schools own Dartmouth Coach is pretty good but doesn't run often. Hanover is isolated from any even medium sized cities for about an hour in all directions...much more in some directions.

I have a friend doing work with the molecular biology peeps and she definitely found some dud PIs. Let me know if you have anything specific you'd like to know.

[only-time]

∑FORTRAN=0, thank you very much for your kind advice regarding Dartmouth. It would be grateful if you could offer me more information concerning academia in MCB at Dartmouth. Many thanks.

[only-time]

Anyone knows anything special about Mount Sinai School of Medicine? Academia, Life and Neighborhood... any information is highly expected. Thanks a lot.

[only-time]

how about the academia of MSSM? Any advice?

[isitFriday?]

only-time, do you remember in the application, it asks you to list the top 10 people you'd like to meet? Do you remember if you were able to talk with your top choice in your phone interview (assuming you got one)? If yes, maybe you should consider giving that person an e-mail to ask more about their academia? Or if not, then maybe you should post your question to whoever gave you a phone interview. Although it doesn't matter if you got a phone interview from them or not. I'll just advise you to look at the faculty of the concentration you're most interested in, pick the person whose research most interests you, then give them a call/e-mail and ask your question.

Or are you more interested in getting the academia info from the grad students? In some of the faculty description, they might have a list of their current grad students, post docs, etc. You're lucky if those people will have their contact info attached to their names. You might have to do a deeper research if that's not the case.

[only-time]

isitFriday, thank you very much for your reasonable advices.