OHSU vs Yale neuroscience

[mermeg]

There are lots of people doing work that I'm interested in at both schools. The profs at OHSU have been very straightforward in saying there's a place for me in their lab + funding whereas the ones at Yale have been mostly silent (I suppose I should email them and find out if they're even taking students). I wasn't able to meet some of my POIs at yale, I suppose because they are HUGE names and are busy...

Portland > new haven, but yale is yale...

any input?

[AxonAxoff]

ONE OF US! ONE OF US!

 

... but in all seriousness, you are perfectly justified in asking your Yale POIs about space/funding for a prospective grad student. I did that before I applied, just to be safe, but it's sensible to do so now as well. Fortunately for me, not only are several faculty at Yale ideal mentors for me, but they all also happen to be looking for grad students; once I was certain of that, I was as good as sold. (Doesn't hurt that they're absurdly well-funded, either.)

 

Yale's fancy name might be an important factor if you're not dead-set on a career in academia. Otherwise, you should probably choose the institution that will provide you the opportunity to optimize your publication record. Besides, in academia, the people worth trying to impress know enough about their fields to recognize if you're coming from a cutting-edge, world-renowned lab in an institution with a less-than-fancy name.

 

And if the relative mediocrity of New Haven threatens to seriously impinge upon your happiness and/or productivity, I'd personally consider that sufficient grounds to rule out Yale. At the risk of stating the obvious: you'd be living there for at least five challenging years, so don't present yourself the added challenge of forcing contentedness with a dull, disagreeable city. In my case, I just happen to like New Haven enough.

 

I hope you find some of that useful. Perhaps I'll see you at Yale in the fall. But good luck with your decision regardless!