So right now I am in the thick of midterm hell, and I've also got a presentation of my preliminary results for my Honours project on February 11th, at a conference in the Biology department...should be pretty rad, but it is keeping me too busy for my liking, and that's saying something....anyway, I just can't wait to get through it all, so I can enjoy a little break, and enjoy lots of good food, sleep, gym, and video games of course!
And most importantly, I am super excited because I will be going to Montreal for my reading week (in two weeks basically) to meet up with profs at McGill in the Genetics department for grad school. I have to decide whether I stay here and do a Master's or PhD with my Pharmacology professor, or go back home to Montreal and go to grad school studying Human Genetics, which I love more than anything...
So here are the pros and cons for each option, so perhaps you can tell me what you would do in my position. Ultimately I always go with my own pros and cons list, but it always helps to get feedback from an outside perspective:
McGill - Human Genetics
PROS:
-McGill is in Montreal, my home. This not only means that all my friends and family are there, but Montreal is a world-class city and is superb, extremely diverse and entertaining, and keeps me happy outside the classroom like no other city does.
-McGill is number 17 in the world, and best in Canada for Medicine and Medical Research. It is 4 spots ahead of Edinburgh, and only 3 behind Princeton. So basically, if I have a good prof and get published, I can do a post-doc and/or go to Med School at whichever uni I want in the world with a McGill degree...McGill also has so much pride and such a rich tradition, and it is basically the equivalent of an Ivy League school in Canada, and the student life is ridiculously exciting and rewarding.
-Human Genetics is my passion. While Pharmacology is really interesting, it doesn't compare to some of the options I would have with a Human Genetics degree...I could work for a biotech company, do research in gene therapy, or it could lead to a Genetic Counsellor position, or a Medical Geneticist, Research Clinician, etc...
-My best buddy Jay is turning 18, and he's going to go to uni soon. He has pretty much idolized me his whole life, and we get along so great because we are, and think, so alike it's not even funny. We've thought of moving together for a while now. If I go home, I'd be able to do that and live with my best friend for at least a few years, an experience I've always wanted to have. Not only would it be a break from the douchebag/filthy/dumb/obnoxious roommates I always end up with, but I have so much too teach Jay, about cooking, uni, living on your own, life, etc, and so much to learn from him...that it would be a great experience for both of us. Not to mention video games nights and parties at home!
-I really miss my sister, and my mother has bipolar disorder, so being at home would allow me to take care of her better and take the load off my grandma, who is currently taking care of her all by herself while I am in school (she's 70-something and could use the break!)
CONS:
-Some of these molecular biology profs are real slave-drivers, and they push you to work 12-16 hours a day in the lab, with minimal feedback, and then put you on publications as the third of fourth author on your own paper, or something obscene like that, while taking all the credit for doing fuck all. I'd probably have to beg to join any of their lab, and they probably would treat me like just a number, so it would be a very impersonal relationship, in which I take all the risks and reap none of the rewards. If I get the wrong supervisor, this could really hurt my future career, whatever that ends up being, if it involves research. I basically don't know any of the profs there, because I haven't done my undergrad there, so I would only pick one based on my impression during a 1-hour interview and hearsay from other students. By contrast, the prof I would work with at Dalhousie asked ME to come see her in her office to offer me a position in grad school. She has tons of funding and gets published like crazy, and her students are always first authors on a paper...
-Montreal is so much fun, perhaps TOO MUCH fun sometimes...I can easily see how I might get distracted, which would not be good at a time when I need to get published quickly when it matters most...
Dalhousie - Pharmacology
PROS
-As mentioned before, my Pharmacology prof asked ME to go see her at her office, not the other way around. I did not have to beg, kiss ass, and I would never have to wonder if she really wants me there or not, or if she just didn't have anyone else as worthy as myself available at the time...She treats her students like family, goes out with them and drinks with them, all that, while still maintaining a really professional relationship with them in the lab, and getting them like 3 or 4 publications during their degree at least, on which students are always first authors. She basically runs the ''cool lab'' in the Pharm department, everyone loves her and loves their life in the lab, while also being hugely successful. This is really not the norm in grad school in medical sciences. It's usually a grind with profs squeezing everything out of you and giving you very little in return. I already have a personal relationship with this person, and she is someone I admire more than most. She actually wants feedback from you as a student, and wants you to come up with your own experimental design, take ownership of your research, takes you on conferences, etc...
-Sometimes, in molecular biology, you have to perform weeks upon weeks of experiments at least just to get a tiny bit of data and, more often than not, an inevitable fuck-up along the line means you gotta re-start two weeks worth of manipulations all over again. It's frustrating to say the least. In Pharmacology, at least in the part of pharm that deals with Cardiovascular Physiology, which is what my potential supervisor studies, it's the very opposite: you have patch clamp experiments with cells that you are stimulating with caffeine, for instance, and you get instant feedback pretty much, with heaps and heaps of data, a lot of publishable data really quick basically. The friggin' apparatus that I would be using makes me think of flying a plane, or playing a very sophisticated video game...while I equate this with ''pure fun'', this would actually be my ''work'', my ''livelihood''...Not a lot of people I know enjoy their work life as much or more than their personal lives in their downtime, but this could be me for the next 2 to 4 years...So while some of the theoretical concepts of Pharm are not as cool to me as the Genetics concepts, the actual day-to-day lab work in that prof's lab would be awesome. This means a lot to me, as the project on which I am currently working, in molecular biology, is quite boring on the day-to-day part of it, despite being super cool in theory...
CONS
-While my time with my supervisor in the Pharm department would most likely be awesome, I am sure it would not afford me the same opportunities for a post-doc and/or professional school that McGill would. McGill is number 17 in the world, while Dalhousie is two-hundred and thirty-something, so not the same caliber or reputation whatsoever.
-Halifax is a great city, but it is NOT Montreal. Being away from Montreal for 4 years made me realize just how it's the perfect city, for me anyhow. So many people from so many walks of life and different countries have told me the same thing after going to school at McGill and living there for a number of years.I wouldn't mind doing a Master's here (2 years), but a PhD (4 to 5 years) would be a helluva long time to stay here...I have already been here for 4 years, and I long to return to Montreal. I would love to travel all over the world, but I also want to make Montreal my home base, and I have tons of relationships to rekindle there...
-McGill would essentially be free for me, being a Quebec student, plus I would get a stipend. While I would get a similar stipend at Dalhousie, a lot of it would go toward the bloated tuition I would have to pay there...I want balance, and I am sick of counting pennies, so this definitely factors into the equation, despite not being the major or a determining factor...
So there you have it, this is my current thought process, about two weeks before I go home and meet profs at McGill. I would like to apply by March 1st at either McGill or Dal, as McGill has March 1st as its deadline for guaranteed consideration for next Fall...I figure that, when I get back from my trip on Feb 25th, I should have a better idea of what I want to do. Right now though, any advice, especially from personal experience making a similar decision, would be most welcome!
I will keep you posted once I've got new developments...
Cheers,
Patty
And most importantly, I am super excited because I will be going to Montreal for my reading week (in two weeks basically) to meet up with profs at McGill in the Genetics department for grad school. I have to decide whether I stay here and do a Master's or PhD with my Pharmacology professor, or go back home to Montreal and go to grad school studying Human Genetics, which I love more than anything...
So here are the pros and cons for each option, so perhaps you can tell me what you would do in my position. Ultimately I always go with my own pros and cons list, but it always helps to get feedback from an outside perspective:
McGill - Human Genetics
PROS:
-McGill is in Montreal, my home. This not only means that all my friends and family are there, but Montreal is a world-class city and is superb, extremely diverse and entertaining, and keeps me happy outside the classroom like no other city does.
-McGill is number 17 in the world, and best in Canada for Medicine and Medical Research. It is 4 spots ahead of Edinburgh, and only 3 behind Princeton. So basically, if I have a good prof and get published, I can do a post-doc and/or go to Med School at whichever uni I want in the world with a McGill degree...McGill also has so much pride and such a rich tradition, and it is basically the equivalent of an Ivy League school in Canada, and the student life is ridiculously exciting and rewarding.
-Human Genetics is my passion. While Pharmacology is really interesting, it doesn't compare to some of the options I would have with a Human Genetics degree...I could work for a biotech company, do research in gene therapy, or it could lead to a Genetic Counsellor position, or a Medical Geneticist, Research Clinician, etc...
-My best buddy Jay is turning 18, and he's going to go to uni soon. He has pretty much idolized me his whole life, and we get along so great because we are, and think, so alike it's not even funny. We've thought of moving together for a while now. If I go home, I'd be able to do that and live with my best friend for at least a few years, an experience I've always wanted to have. Not only would it be a break from the douchebag/filthy/dumb/obnoxious roommates I always end up with, but I have so much too teach Jay, about cooking, uni, living on your own, life, etc, and so much to learn from him...that it would be a great experience for both of us. Not to mention video games nights and parties at home!
-I really miss my sister, and my mother has bipolar disorder, so being at home would allow me to take care of her better and take the load off my grandma, who is currently taking care of her all by herself while I am in school (she's 70-something and could use the break!)
CONS:
-Some of these molecular biology profs are real slave-drivers, and they push you to work 12-16 hours a day in the lab, with minimal feedback, and then put you on publications as the third of fourth author on your own paper, or something obscene like that, while taking all the credit for doing fuck all. I'd probably have to beg to join any of their lab, and they probably would treat me like just a number, so it would be a very impersonal relationship, in which I take all the risks and reap none of the rewards. If I get the wrong supervisor, this could really hurt my future career, whatever that ends up being, if it involves research. I basically don't know any of the profs there, because I haven't done my undergrad there, so I would only pick one based on my impression during a 1-hour interview and hearsay from other students. By contrast, the prof I would work with at Dalhousie asked ME to come see her in her office to offer me a position in grad school. She has tons of funding and gets published like crazy, and her students are always first authors on a paper...
-Montreal is so much fun, perhaps TOO MUCH fun sometimes...I can easily see how I might get distracted, which would not be good at a time when I need to get published quickly when it matters most...
Dalhousie - Pharmacology
PROS
-As mentioned before, my Pharmacology prof asked ME to go see her at her office, not the other way around. I did not have to beg, kiss ass, and I would never have to wonder if she really wants me there or not, or if she just didn't have anyone else as worthy as myself available at the time...She treats her students like family, goes out with them and drinks with them, all that, while still maintaining a really professional relationship with them in the lab, and getting them like 3 or 4 publications during their degree at least, on which students are always first authors. She basically runs the ''cool lab'' in the Pharm department, everyone loves her and loves their life in the lab, while also being hugely successful. This is really not the norm in grad school in medical sciences. It's usually a grind with profs squeezing everything out of you and giving you very little in return. I already have a personal relationship with this person, and she is someone I admire more than most. She actually wants feedback from you as a student, and wants you to come up with your own experimental design, take ownership of your research, takes you on conferences, etc...
-Sometimes, in molecular biology, you have to perform weeks upon weeks of experiments at least just to get a tiny bit of data and, more often than not, an inevitable fuck-up along the line means you gotta re-start two weeks worth of manipulations all over again. It's frustrating to say the least. In Pharmacology, at least in the part of pharm that deals with Cardiovascular Physiology, which is what my potential supervisor studies, it's the very opposite: you have patch clamp experiments with cells that you are stimulating with caffeine, for instance, and you get instant feedback pretty much, with heaps and heaps of data, a lot of publishable data really quick basically. The friggin' apparatus that I would be using makes me think of flying a plane, or playing a very sophisticated video game...while I equate this with ''pure fun'', this would actually be my ''work'', my ''livelihood''...Not a lot of people I know enjoy their work life as much or more than their personal lives in their downtime, but this could be me for the next 2 to 4 years...So while some of the theoretical concepts of Pharm are not as cool to me as the Genetics concepts, the actual day-to-day lab work in that prof's lab would be awesome. This means a lot to me, as the project on which I am currently working, in molecular biology, is quite boring on the day-to-day part of it, despite being super cool in theory...
CONS
-While my time with my supervisor in the Pharm department would most likely be awesome, I am sure it would not afford me the same opportunities for a post-doc and/or professional school that McGill would. McGill is number 17 in the world, while Dalhousie is two-hundred and thirty-something, so not the same caliber or reputation whatsoever.
-Halifax is a great city, but it is NOT Montreal. Being away from Montreal for 4 years made me realize just how it's the perfect city, for me anyhow. So many people from so many walks of life and different countries have told me the same thing after going to school at McGill and living there for a number of years.I wouldn't mind doing a Master's here (2 years), but a PhD (4 to 5 years) would be a helluva long time to stay here...I have already been here for 4 years, and I long to return to Montreal. I would love to travel all over the world, but I also want to make Montreal my home base, and I have tons of relationships to rekindle there...
-McGill would essentially be free for me, being a Quebec student, plus I would get a stipend. While I would get a similar stipend at Dalhousie, a lot of it would go toward the bloated tuition I would have to pay there...I want balance, and I am sick of counting pennies, so this definitely factors into the equation, despite not being the major or a determining factor...
So there you have it, this is my current thought process, about two weeks before I go home and meet profs at McGill. I would like to apply by March 1st at either McGill or Dal, as McGill has March 1st as its deadline for guaranteed consideration for next Fall...I figure that, when I get back from my trip on Feb 25th, I should have a better idea of what I want to do. Right now though, any advice, especially from personal experience making a similar decision, would be most welcome!
I will keep you posted once I've got new developments...
Cheers,
Patty