biology phd programs.

[mattsajay]

hi I am from india and have been accpeted to baylor college of medicine ( molecular genetics) and brandeis ( life sciences, molecular cell biology track)albert einstein college of medicine, University of illinois chicago, cincinati health centre, mayo clinic. this seems big list but I have had my share of rejects from 5 places too. given all other factors remaining conatnt. (like equivalent ranking, same nnumber of professors with whom I can work) etc.. which plac would you guys suggest joining.
help is greatly appreciated, since I am clueless. though I have kind of choices between baylor , mayo clinic and brandeis.
ajay.

[akyunt]

As far as I know, Baylor is one of the leading institutes in sequencing genomes along with MIT, WUStL, UCSC and UCSD. (Some others might have slipped my mind.) They are publishing rat's genome next month. It is located in Texas Medical Center which is the biggest medical center in the world. About 70,000 people go to work there everyday. Houston will be very humid and hot in the summer though.

I was invited to their SCBMB program last week and am still waiting for their decision. I am an international student doing my undergrad in US. I have a friend from India (Bombay to be exact) also called Ajay. What a coincidence!

I have already been accepted into UIUC biophysics program. If I am offered a position in Baylor, it will be a tough choice for me between Baylor and UIUC. From my visit, Baylor has a slight edge over UIUC in terms of research topics. If somebody here is familiar with biophysics and computational biology, I would really appreciate any comments.

Akyunt

[mattsajay]

hi akyunt
thanks for t he post. ya, baylor is one of the centres no doubt but how does being a repository or biological database admisnitrator affect the quality of research going on there. these are freely avaiable repositories or 'open access' databases (whether braoad institute at MIT or genome seq centre at baylor). the question is how good are the poeple there.

1. from the publications its apparent that there are a few good labs. but how many of those publications are by grad students. (as opposed to post docs who feature in most publiations.)
i make this point because say at a palce like harvard where there are amazing publication rate but still the place is post doc heavy and not exactly a great place for graduate training. on the other hand its an excellent place for post doc. let me know if you guys dont agree with this.
2. baylor is in 'remote' texas. this is a sort of hindrance. there are three centres of biolgical research int he us. new york (with nyu rockefeller cornell and columbia ) boston (with harvard mit BU umass northeastern) and california (uc sd, sf and berkeley, salk , caltech and stanford).

i would ahve jumped to go to baylor any day but this is waht is bugging me.

please share your thoughts about how much it is important to be in one of the biology hubs rather than in remote texas.

how open are poeple to alternative career cchoices say law and biotech industry .. and say science writing.. being in hoouston .. would that be apossibility. I know for sure being in NY or boston this is a big option because of its proximity to beig pharma giants.. maybe they even do campus recuitment at graduate fairs at big univs..
let me know what u people think.

[volkan_as]

hi mattsajay
first of all, congratulations...

i had my MD degree a year ago from ankara univ. /turkey and soon I will make my applications for phd programmes in biomedical sciences.

will you please share your stats with us and tell about your major and research/lab. experiences.?

i have a little lab. experience (a kind of summer work for 4-5 mounths in a molecular pathology and genetics dept.) and I am not sure whether
the shortness of working period can be easily compansated or not( I mean with good GRE an TOEFL scores). can you please tell your opinion about this?

thank you

[mattsajay]

i have undergad degree in chemistry from university of delhi nad masters in biotechnology from jawaharlal nehru university, new delhi. thereafter I worked for a year as a junior research fellow at the all india institute of medical sciences, new delhi. obtained one fellowship (national)

no publications tilldate but will be having one soon. reco from all three institutions. GRE scores 560v 780 q 5.5a TOEFL 290 and subject test biochem 78 percentile.

i think my GRE scores were not exactly great. specially my subject test scores. but what saw me thru I believe were my research experience and reco letters.

poeple in the usa have laid a lot of emphasis on translational research thats combination of basic research skills with medicine/health oriented applied research. so I guess being a MD will give u a huge advantage. but make sure u apply to schools like mayo clinic and baylor college of medicine and in general graduate programs in medical schools.

hope this helps.

[volkan_as]

dear mattsajay,

thank you very much for your reply and wish you the best in your future work....