tschlich Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Here's the scenario, boiled down: School A: I have one school that has a potential dream situation going on: Fantastic program, I'd be working with a big name in the field, well-funded, whose interests intersect precisely with mine, and all of the grad students there love him as a mentor (he has a fairly small lab) The problem is, this school does rotations, and I'm not guaranteed a spot in his lab. I may be the only one doing a rotation with him, or I may be one of three or so people competing for a spot, who knows. He has stated that he generally looks for 1-2 students to add per year. The other professors in the department certainly catch my interest, and I think I could be happy in such a scenario, but the research doesn't quite fit and I'd be potentially looking at a very different career path. School B: This school has a young assistant professor who's really pushing for me to come there, and him and I got along really well. Funding lined up, frequent correspondence with the PI, happy grad students, the research is great fit but not a perfect one. Do I risk it, have faith in my own abilities, and shoot for the dream situation at school A or play it safe with school B? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruin4Ever Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 Go for school A, don't be afraid of the rotation lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rising_star Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 Devil's advocate: How will you feel if you go to school A and you don't get to work in your dream PI/lab? If you think you'll then regret not going to school B, just go to school B now and avoid the potential drama. You can always try for a postdoc at school A in dream lab later. On the other hand: what if your interests shift slightly? In that case, it would make more sense to go to school A because you'd see/experience more options due to the rotations.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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