If accepted to only one school - automatically accept?

[Ari_OP]

I applied to six schools for a PhD in neuroscience. So far, I've been rejected from my top choice (UCSF) and only heard about an interview from one - City of Hope - even though professors at every school have expressed interest in working with me. I just met with a professor at Stanford in person on Friday and it went phenomenally. He's going to put in a good word for me, but he says he doesn't have much power at this stage (it also might be too late). He also suggested looking into jobs with Genentech and Merck. San Francisco is really the center for pain research (my focus), and I would love to work for this professor. City of Hope looks to be a great, versatile school, but my opportunities to work on pain would dwindle. In your opinion, would it be better to accept a grad school offer or go to SF, work at a biotech company or get my clinical lab science licensure and apply again next year to Stanford and UCSF?

TL;DR - Might only get into one school. To auto accept or consider better future opportunities that with a bit more risk?

[rising_star]

Definitely consider the future. If going to City of Hope would mean not being able to do the research you want or get the training you need, then it's really not a good option for you.

[TXInstrument11]

I'm in a similar position. It looks like I'm only going to get into one program and I'm finding that it is very far and away incompatible with my ultimate research interests, but walking away completely if I'm offered funding just seems so foolish.

[MidwesternAloha]

I'm in a similar position. It looks like I'm only going to get into one program and I'm finding that it is very far and away incompatible with my ultimate research interests, but walking away completely if I'm offered funding just seems so foolish.

It's not foolish. You'll have opportunities for funding if you apply again later. I would recommend staying on track with your personal interests and letting that funding go to someone who's dying to be in your place.

[EelPoweredHovercraft]

If there is something you really want to work on that you can't do where you were accepted, it may actually benefit you to work somewhere for a year and then reapply in the next application season. Your work experience, especially if it is in your desired field, could potentially make you a stronger candidate in the next cycle and lead to an acceptance at a place you really want to attend.

[BiochemMom]

You could also consider that you could post doc in the field where you want to go. Not sure about neuroscience specifically, but post docs are generally to diversify your research skills and cross train in related fields (for example my PI did his phd on computational protein structure and his post doc on nmr for native protein structure analysis...and I'm aiming for X-ray crystallography protein structure work for phd research and nmr, Raman, and maybe mass spec for post doc)

I'd personally take the offer in hand now. It takes long enough to get through a phd without intentionally taking a year off if you had an acceptance--plus you chose to apply there so there must be something that drew you to the program. I vote go for what you have now instead of risking the maybe in the future.

[have2thinkboutit]

I think BiochemMom has raised an important point - why would you apply to a school that you now feel does not fit your interests? It sounds a bit like that is the case, which seems odd to me.

 

Apart from that I would suggest the following: If you can, go visit the school so that you can get a feeling for the department to determine if you are comfortable with the way they work. If you feel like you do not connect with your POI or have the impressions that the way things are done are just not a good personal fit for you it may be worth reapplying - because it is important that you are happy with the place as you are likely to spend at least 5 years working with the people there. So the fit is really important. But overall I'd say: Congratulations for getting accepted! I hope the school works and works out for you.

[Ari_OP]

Thanks for the responses, everyone! This is definitely helpful. To clarify - this school does have a lot of great things and fulfills a lot of my related/secondary research interests. There is one professor who works on my primary interest - fibromyalgia. After interviewing and meeting with him I do think I'll love the school, so I'm heavily leaning toward accepting an offer at this point. The question is more if I should hold out for a potentially slightly better position in the future while taking some time to try out working in biotech. 

 

TXInstrument11 - I'm starting to think that if you like the people and have any interest in that school, that it would be worth it. I'm half way through my first year out of undergrad (didn't get accepted last year) and it's not necessarily easy to find a relevant job within the necessary time frame before applying again.

[Vene]

TXInstrument11 - I'm starting to think that if you like the people and have any interest in that school, that it would be worth it.

That was actually my attitude during the process. I'd rather work for a PI I get along with well even if it's not the ideal topic instead of for a PI I don't mesh with even though their work fascinates me.

But, I have discovered that I'm actually pretty flexible when it comes to what I work on.