Reluctant to accept an offer from Germany

[Abdul]

Hello,

I am a medical graduate from a developing country. I have applied in many places in US and Europe. My credentials are:

• MBBCh degree, with honors, and an expected cumulative score around 90% (Excellent grade)
  
• Rank in class: 1st out of 50
  
• GRE scores: Q170 and V157.
  
• Working in neuroscience research for more than a year
  
• 2 publications in peer-reviewed journals
  
• Presented my research in an international medical student conference, got the best poster presentation award.
  
• Travel grant to attend this conference
  
• A research fellowship in Netherlands
  
• Few clinical electives in Europe, the last one was in University College London.
  
• Acceped for 2 more clinical electives in 2013: one in Alabama and the 2nd in Oxford University.
  
  I got my first offer from Wurzburg graduate school of life science (which belongs to the German cluster of Excellence). They asked me to give a decision asap and I am reluctant because I feel I will probably get other offers from more prestigious universities, if I wait.
  In my opinion, the pros are:
  • Very reasonable tax-free stipend (1,500 euros/month).
    
  • I will be awarded an MD/PhD since I am a medical graduate
    
  • Average time to get an MD/PhD is 3-4 years (compared to an average of 5.5 for a PhD in US)
    
  • Travelling to all european countries whether for scientific meetings or for vacations will be easy since I won't need to apply for visas
    

  The cons:

  [*]LANGUAGE !

  [*]Germany is not as open as US.

  [*]The University is not very highly ranked (unlike Charite' for example)

  [*]Not sure about the quality of a PhD in Germany. Is it comparable to US?

  [*]Not sure if I will have any postdoc opportunities in US afterwards, especially in top ranked Universities

  Can anybody help me decide? Are there any factors that I haven't considered? What about the quality of a PhD in Germany and its career prospects?

  Thanks for any help in advance!

  Cheers

[Germany2012]

Hello, obviously you have the choice. Congratulations.

 

This excellence cluster thing really means something. It was awarded by international independent experts. (I don't know how big it is in Würzburg)

 

Würzburg is a smaller city heavily destroyed in world war two, of course rebuilt, and situated next to economical heavy weights in German economy. (Frankfurt, Munich, more)

 

The university is surely in Germany's Top 25 (or as the UK call it Russell group) but doesn't pop up into mind first when thinking of Germany's best universities. Which is the mistake somebody can make. The excellence means it has partners who can guarantee the quality which is superior over normal German university life. For example enterprises or non-university research organizations. 

 

I know of life-science teams in Dresden which are led by renowned professors from Cambridge and CalTech. It takes place in non-university research labs closely cooperating with the university. You would not find such people from abroad and from such world-famous institutions all too often in normal average faculties, more precisely not at all.

 

Charité hospital of HU and FU Berlin just has some more of such capacities. It is the biggest hospital in Europe.

 

Right now Germany is more an immigration country than the USA which still have the image to be singular in that respect. About the openness, might be true, might be totally wrong, it depends much. Good luck. (whereever)

 

PS commensurableness: PhD 5 years at a Top-ranked US-university is singular (in the world) but in Germany excelling candidates can gain a similar status, with further academic work after their bit shorter and less elitist PhD.

Edited January 16, 2013 by Germany2012