Microbiology/Immunology: Temple or Rutgers

[bahamutfan]

Hi guys! I'd greatly appreciate if any of you could offer insightful advice regarding the choice between Temple and Rutgers. I'll be doing a PhD in either microbiology or immunology and hope to be in industry after that.

Temple's department is relatively small but there are a handful of profs whose research projects seem interesting (5 or 6). Would this be a sufficient number of prospective rotations to have as choices going into graduate studies (to offset the chance of them not having funds, space in lab, or being less than pleasant to work with)? Also, Philadelphia seems like a pretty fun and diverse city though the area around Temple looks quite shady, but I suppose that's how it's like for a lot of universities found directly within a large city...

Rutgers has a large umbrella program which is nice because of more varied research opportunities but during my interview several professors warned me that funding problems are very widespread and they didn't exactly reassure me that students will be taken care of one way or another (as some other programs I interviewed with explicitly guaranteed). Also, the New Brunswick area doesn't appeal to me as much as a larger city does, having finished my undergrad in a small college town.

Of course my mileage will vary depending on my graduate accomplishments, but which of the two programs would be more conductive towards industry? Which offer greater networking possibilities?

Thanks a lot!

[socialpsychg]

Hello,

I'm finishing up my undergrad at Rutgers, and my friend is at Temple's dental school right now. So at least, I hope to illuminate what living there would be like.

The area of Temple does appear dangerous from what I've heard - just recently, some guy shot another guy right outside of my friend's building. The area is not exactly separate from the whole criminal element.

Although Rutgers is more of a small city than a small college town, it's also fairly close to both Philly and NYC. I'd wager it'd probably take about 1.5-2 hours to get into Philly, and about the same to get into NYC via train. Although Temple would integrate you more for daily life in a city, you can make a weekend (or even a day trip) to Philly or NYC rather easily at Rutgers.

[RomulusAugustulus]

I also have no insight on the programs, but live in Philadelphia, and can tell you that while Temple isn't in the greatest part of Philly (North Philly), the campus is pretty safe and it sits right on the Broad St subway line so it is super easy to get into Center City. I think the Medical/health sciences school is further north than the main campus, but I would suggest living near the main campus which is safer and closer to some nicer areas of the city (pretty short trip to Fairmount and the museum area).

I have never been to New Brunswick, but I hear its pretty ok, and it is super close to NYC.

Sorry I couldn't be more help, good luck deciding!

[isitFriday?]

Johnson & Johnson is in New Brunswick, plus there's some other big pharmaceutical companies closer to New Brunswick than Philadelphia (Merck comes to mind). I dunno if pharmaceuticals is the industry you're interested in, but being in NJ is good in terms of that industry. I don't think you'll have a problem going into pharmaceuticals whether you attend Tulane or Rutgers. But maybe you should ask schools the admit rate of their students in the industry, i.e. how successful are their graduates in entering the industry, and what type of industry they're admitted in?

Edited April 12, 2010 by isitFriday?