Applying to Grad School

I talk about the grad school's I'm applying to and why their research is awesome.

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[Nades129]

Hopeless optimists and their optimism. At least we hopeless dreamers won't regret anything xD...

Hope we can meet in the field someday. But for now, that is a dream.

Wow bees and language and cognition, who would have thought! Man, I feel ignorant not imagining these stuffz. Goodluck with ur mandarin.

[SuperAkihabara]

@Nades129 it's scientists job to be creative. and really, scientists might seem creative (which they ARE!), but really its nature.

read about bees, they are such an amazing (super)-organism. want to be similarly blown away, take a look at the extent to which job specialization takes place in ants. truly incredible. look up on Wikipedia: Honey Pot ants.

[jogjogjig]

How's Taiwan?

[SuperAkihabara]

@DerUnb3kannte oh i just meant that since you've got undergraduates contributing a significant tuition every year, the university has more resources to spend on things like new buildings/labs, more profs (or at least better funded profs), new equipment etc. and i figure that the grad students inevitably end up benefiting from the additional cash flow.

[DerUnb3kannte]

@DerUnb3kannte

I also see your point about the funding in American universities coming a lot more from the undergraduate level. Although I wonder how much that impacts the PHD level, as you wouldn't really have any courses as such during your PHD. (or is there a major difference between our continents in this?) I suppose in the end the only thing that really matters is a plausible project with a great group.

[DerUnb3kannte]

@DerUnb3kannte

And if you are with a top level research institute you can still be enrolled at a good university. Students at the Laboratory for Molecular Biology for example automatically get a PHD from Cambridge. I guess It would be the same in America with Cold Spring harbour and the like (I clearly only know about mol. biology places).

I guess its easiest to stay in your own continent for PHDs in the most cases. Most of my oversee friends are having a really hard time finding funding.

[DerUnb3kannte]

@SuperAkihabara

Yeah I mean there is no denying that American universities especially the Private ones have a lot more funding. Oxford and Cambridge only have a fraction of the funding that Ivy League unis have. On the other hand I am really only applying to British and German equivalents of the NIH and funding is not really an issue there. At least at British research institutes we usually have a lot more Post docs and Professors then PHD students so that works out nicely.

[SuperAkihabara]

@SuperAkihabara There's still one BIG reason that you should consider a PhD in the US,

US universities (generally speaking) are funded MUCH more from their undergraduate (and master's students) than european universities. This gives many schools a competitive advantage because they hire more professors. I think you can imagine the trickle down effect of not having enough professors for the number of students (grad and undergrad). The graduate students end up suffering because of this system.

[SuperAkihabara]

@SuperAkihabara

i never knew professor novella, the only professors i had on the graduate level were for neuroanatomy and neuroimaging.

i don't know much more to tell you about funding structures of NIH and NSF compared to european funding distribution.

[SuperAkihabara]

@DerUnb3kannte yeah i would agree with your professors on this one. being a european citizen (i'm assuming) you'd be at a severe disadvantage against american citizens due to the way funding is structured. 66,000 NSF grants are given out every year to american phd students. these grants are for apx 60,000, covering tuition your stipend. this puts PI's in the position that they favor americans for precisely this reason. if you aren't american you have to come up with all that funding alone

[DerUnb3kannte]

(cont.) Most of my Professors think its better to stay in Europe since the PHD takes only 3-4 years and as I understand it that can be a lot longer in the US. Any thoughts on that? I obviously don't know a great deal about the state of European Neuroscience. But at least our Molecular Biology is preety decent.

On a side note do you happen to know Dr. Steven Novella at Yale? Not sure if he teaches undergrads...