Rockefeller vs MIT Neuroscience

[snowbaby]

My top two choices right now are Rockefeller U and MIT BCS, interested in neuroscience. My background is entirely computational with no wet lab experience. I recognize that it's a really good time to enter the field with strong computational/theoretical knowledge and MIT definitely has more computational/theoretical resources and PIs, however I feel that if I go to MIT I may be very tempted to stay too far from neuroscience and get pulled back to doing AI stuff, since it's such a dominant culture there. That being said, MIT obviously has its far-reaching prestige and its close connection with Harvard/BU/NEU makes a fantastic academic environment.

Rockefeller on the other hand is a traditionally experimental institute so it might be very risky to go there since doing experiments is pretty far out of my comfort zone, but afaik every neuro PI there has top-notch and ground breaking experimental work in whatever subfield they choose to research in. If it turns out that I hate doing experiments, does anyone know whether it's realistic to be an "in-house modeling expert" at a place where most people are doing experimental work? 

Thanks in advance!

Edited March 24, 2021 by snowbaby

[ManifoldsAreMadeUp]

I mean, Rockefeller has less computational folk relative to how much MIT lacks experimentalists. Go by your interests! Who has more PIs whose work you like? I'm both very experimental (10 years of wetlab work) but also very computational (two math degrees and strong programming) but I've always found it harder to successfully grow in a place that is too experimental and without computational people to continue to learn from. Some labs have in-house experts but why take that risk when you don't need to? A lot of experimental labs require *all* students to run experiments. Do you have a compelling reason for Rockefeller over MIT?

[snowbaby]

Thanks for the reply! My main academic reason would be that I prefer working in a smaller neural system (insects for example, perhaps up to rodents) than a larger one, because the former is easier to apply more systematic computational models on, and most of MIT seem to be focused on higher cognitive functions in more complex animals. Another reason might be that I did both my undergrad and masters at MIT and perhaps it's good to change the academic environment, but I'm not sure how strong that argument is.

[ManifoldsAreMadeUp]

I think you have good reasons. That's interesting you already have two degrees from there and maybe is a good reason to move to another institution. In fact, a lot of programs will be biased against their own students applying to a PhD there because it means their students don't get to see neuroscience more broadly. 

Personally, I don't apply the sorts of modeling that depends on a fuller characterization of a model organism's brain but I won't impose my biases on you. Since you're familiar with MIT, my perspective would most closely align with, say, someone from Jazayeri lab. I agree that MIT is very cognitive in their computational approach, perhaps because they are an older program, but there's some new blood there like Robert Yang I think? You know the institution better than I so if you feel you've seen all MIT has to offer, Rockefeller is not a bad idea. Their invertebrate work is legendary: Cori Bargmann comes immediately to mind. Vaziri lab also just posted an interesting paper on imaging whole cortex of the mouse so I think there are options to still try out the more neural data sciencey approach as well. I think you can't go wrong with either school and maybe Rockefeller is the move since you already know MIT well. Boston has a great neuro community with BU/NEU/Tufts/BC/Brandeis/Harvard/MIT but so does NYC with NYU/Columbia/Weill Cornell/Mt. Sinai/Rockefeller/Albert Einstein/CUNY Graduate Center; you can't go wrong with either!

Edited March 25, 2021 by ManifoldsAreMadeUp

[TangentTam]

Hello, I do want to apply for Rockefeller, too. My target field is Immunology. Do you know if Rockefeller is a strong committee university? Cause when I try to contact my favourite immunology Prof there, he replied me that he is only part of the selection and the committee decides it. I want to know if that is true since I am wondering if he rejects me.....Thanks a lot

[ManifoldsAreMadeUp]

15 hours ago, TangentTam said:

Hello, I do want to apply for Rockefeller, too. My target field is Immunology. Do you know if Rockefeller is a strong committee university? Cause when I try to contact my favourite immunology Prof there, he replied me that he is only part of the selection and the committee decides it. I want to know if that is true since I am wondering if he rejects me.....Thanks a lot

Different departments can run things extremely differently. I know of a school with two neuro programs and one's admissions is by committee and one is run nearly by a single person.

[TangentTam]

2 minutes ago, ManifoldsAreMadeUp said:

Different departments can run things extremely differently. I know of a school with two neuro programs and one's admissions is by committee and one is run nearly by a single person.

Okay...Sad to know this. Cause I want to contact the prof in advance but I don't know if that will work. Thank you very much!

[ManifoldsAreMadeUp]

On 6/8/2021 at 10:16 PM, TangentTam said:

Okay...Sad to know this. Cause I want to contact the prof in advance but I don't know if that will work. Thank you very much!

I mean, you can certainly ask but it would probably annoy a professor. Professors don't want to be asked "how do I get into your program", they instead only want to be asked "how can I work with you". Big difference.

[TangentTam]

1 hour ago, ManifoldsAreMadeUp said:

I mean, you can certainly ask but it would probably annoy a professor. Professors don't want to be asked "how do I get into your program", they instead only want to be asked "how can I work with you". Big difference.

Hahahahah, I see what you mean, got it now! Thanks for your advice, good luck to your research!