Please help with decison/insights; I have known for a month and still cant decide!

[doublemocha]

Ok, so I desperately need insights, I have been thinking on this for a month and nothing is coming to me, hopefully you guys can help, you have no idea how much I will appreciate it, even if you can just vote, that will be great! A couple of things first:

I am going to get my PhD in psychology (neuroscience sub field) and have experience working with rats in a neuropharmacology lab

I want to become a professor in psychology

Here it goes:

 

School A: Has the best funding by far; 30,000 a year; plus I can live there for free by house sitting for someone. It is also one of my favorite locations in the US. This school is ranked in he top 20's for my field. The lab is better known and within the top in the field with several post-docs but PI's are more hands off. The area of research they are pursuing has not been a huge interest of mine and I know nothing about that area. They are also working with primates, which is very different from my previous experience. My main worry here is that I am going into a field in which I would have to master more techniques and that I would not be able to bring that work with me into an academic position. In addition, I am concerned that working with primates may limit me to only higher ranked schools and i am not certain that I want that lifestyle. With the type of techniques and subjects that they use, I believe that I would be too expensive for a lesser ranked school to hire me. Overall, because I know little about this area, things could turn out very well and I could pick up fast or I could be drowning. However, this experience sounds more fun overall but I am unsure of how this would be affected in the long term.

 

School B: funding is 20-25K a yr; but no free housing there! The location is not horrible, but I would never wish to live there if there was not an incentive (Its super cold)! The school is ranked in the top 5 of my field. The lab is less known because I would be starting off with a very new faculty member and would be her first graduate student. I see this as good and bad; good because I would see what its like to start up a lab and get 1 on 1 attention, bad because she has a less developed network and no post-docs. The mentors personality is also very upbeat we click, which is a plus. The implications of this work are more interesting to me and something that I have experience in, however, I am not as interested in the molecular aspects of her work (which is half of it). As far as techniques and general area goes, I feel that it would be easier for me to grasp. These techniques and subjects (mice/rats) are also highly translatable and I would be able to work more easily at a lesser ranked school if I chose. I also feel that since I would be more likely to grasp these techniques, I would be more likely to have success in an academic career but again, who knows?  This experience doesn't sound as thrilling but I can more easily see my career path, perhaps because I already have experience in this area?  

 

Overall, there are so many question marks, that I cant seem to make a choice,if anyone has ANY insights, I will be so thankful and will look at your posts and see if I can help too! (Please vote)!

Thanks

Edited March 31, 2013 by doublemocha

[wanderingalbatross]

My main worry here is that I am going into a field in which I would have to master more techniques and that I would not be able to bring that work with me into an academic position. In addition, I am concerned that working with primates may limit me to only higher ranked schools and i am not certain that I want that lifestyle. With the type of techniques and subjects that they use, I believe that I would be too expensive for a lesser ranked school to hire me.

The topic you study in graduate school does not pigeonhole you. Don't think that you'll be expected to continue that line of research when you begin as a professor.

[doublemocha]

True, but because the topic I would study there is very specific to that species, I would be concerned that if I chose not to work with primates, I would not know what direction to go after that. What are your thoughts and experiences? Thanks so much btw!

[Huw]

If you want the chance to mentor a PI, choose school B. 

[selecttext]

School A. New faculty can be tricky. There is no guarantee that you will have lots of 1 on 1 time, I wouldn't count on it. I don't see any advantage to school B.

[BulantMichale]

True, but because the topic I would study there is very specific to that species, I would be concerned that if I chose not to work with primates, I would not know what direction to go after that. What are your thoughts and experiences? Thanks so much btw

[selecttext]

you would continue exploring general questions using model systems?

[zabius]

I voted for School A. Like selecttext, I don't see very many benefits to school B.

 

At B, you would be the very first student of a new faculty member, and that's a risky position to be in. For one thing, she has never mentored a graduate student before and thus neither you nor she has any way of knowing whether or not she'll be good at it. It's entirely possible that she'd be a great mentor (there are many excellent young professors out there), but she could also be a terrible advisor. There's no way to tell, and no one that you can ask about it (since she has no previous students)... it's kind of a gamble. Also, as her first, you'd be like her "training wheels." She'll use the aspects of her mentoring style that did and did not work for you as a learning experience to help her improve her mentoring abilities for her next few graduate students. That's great for her future students, but not so great for you. Now, *someone* has to be the guinea pig, but do you want it to be you? Only you can really decide that, but personally I'd think it would be much more advantageous to work with an advisor who is more experienced in mentoring students. More experienced professors will also have more connections in the field, as you said, and that is hugely valuable... when it comes to landing a job (or even a postdoc) in the highly competitive world of academia, sometimes "who you know" is just as important as "what you know." And, as selecttext mentioned, you shouldn't assume that your being her only student would guarantee you plenty of 1-on-1 time. She's a new professor, and thus will likely be under a lot of pressure to churn out publications, bring in grant money, and get her name and research noticed at conferences so that she can secure tenure for herself later on. She might also have a heavy teaching load, as is typical for many new faculty members. As such, it's very possible that she'd get wrapped up in her own stuff and have less time to really focus on your stuff than you imagine. Or... not. It depends on the individual professor, really. But, in my opinion, being someone's "very first" is not an attractive option.

 

There's also the possibility that a new faculty member could be fired/not given tenure, or accept a job offer at a different school and move her lab there. Would you have a contingency plan in such a scenario?

 

Also, I think you might be getting a little too hung up on the primate issue. The research question is far more important than the organism that you choose to explore it in. My undergrad advisor worked on prairie dogs as a PhD student, then went through a wasp phase, and now works on spiders. She was able to do that because the type of research question that she was investigating ("What are the causes and consequences of the evolution of social behavior?") remained the same, and all three of those organisms were good model systems for the various studies that she was conducting. If the type of question that you are interested in can be adequately explored in primates, then why not? I don't think it would limit your career prospects any more than sticking with rodents at School B would. In fact, it would probably be beneficial to be able to say "I have experience working with both rats and primates" when you are applying for jobs. To me, it sounds more impressive than "I've only ever worked with rats and mice; they're all I know." As long as your command of your field is solid, the organisms that you have worked on in the past will probably not significantly restrict the number of universities that would hire you.

 

Furthermore, it sounds like School A would be more of a learning experience. You say that you'd have to master more new techniques if you go to School A, and that (in my opinion) is a good thing! You'll expand your scientific toolkit, and that will make more a more impressive CV that will then make you more broadly marketable when you're looking for postdocs and careers.

 

The only real "downside" I see to School A is the fact that the PIs are rather hands-off. But as long as they are not impossible to reach when you need assistance, you should be fine. Working independently is a skill that all graduate students should have anyway, in my opinion. Also, if there are a bunch of postdocs in the lab, they'd probably be able to help you with smaller things ("How do I use this piece of equipment?" or "Where can I find this thing that I need?"). That said, if you really don't thrive under that kind of working environment (everyone is different), it's something to consider and weigh heavily. But again, don't assume that the other professor would necessarily be very hands-on. She may be, or she may not be.

 

In contrast, the only "upside" to School B is the fact that you get along with the PI. That's definitely something that you want, but you it's not enough to outweigh all of the potential downsides to B and upsides to A. School B is also probably the more comfortable choice because the research is more familiar to you, but you shouldn't necessarily consider that an upside. Leaving the comfort zone can be hard (I know that I hate doing it), but doing so will probably open you up to new experiences, skills, and opportunities that will ultimately help you later on.

 

I hope this was helpful. Good luck with the decision! :-)

Edited April 1, 2013 by zabius

[zgzjhzxhq]

I would choose School B. I think you could really earn the money back afterwards. And doing something you do like can give you more fun which money could not buy.

[selecttext]

I would choose School B. I think you could really earn the money back afterwards. And doing something you do like can give you more fun which money could not buy.

 

lol he said he doesn't find the work there thrilling