University of york or edinburgh for Computational biology

Hi

I am a postgraduate student from University of York and I am presently in Edinburgh to do my 4 months external project here at University of Edinburgh.

I am finding it difficult to adjust to a new place since I am not used to being so alone. I had a word with my supervisor and he said that I can do a project in york itself if I am having issues here. My area of study is computational biology. I have to make a decision that whether I should stay here in Edinburgh or go back to york. I am confused that what will be good for my career in longer perspective?? York has been consistently ranking above Edinburgh but edinburgh is world renowned for research..plz help if anyone has any clue..iam tired of sitting and staring at the empty space!!

Reply 1

Thinker03

Well you can't do research well if you're uncomfortable where you are. Both institutions are well recognized (of course Edinburgh is recognized better worldwide), but the quality of your research is more important than the reputation of the institute. so if you're not happy in Edinburgh I guess you should go where you're more comfortable.

Reply 2

alleycat393

Research is lonely sometimes but what the above poster said is true-if you're not happy where you are then you will not be very productive.

I don't think the reputation of the institute you're doing research in makes as much of a difference as the reputation of the specific department and the supervisor you're working for. So, that's something you may want to consider.

In research it's always considered a good thing to move around and gain as much exposure as possible and returning to York will not serve that purpose.

You'd also be giving up on your research project in Edinburgh by going back to York which may annoy your supervisor at Edinburgh. Academia is a small world and you don't want to give anyone the slightest opportunity to say or think anything remotely negative about you.

Having said all that I go back to my point about being unproductive if you're unhappy and nothing is worse than having an unproductive person working for you so if your unhappiness is affecting your work then by all means go back to York. If not then stick it out-you might end up enjoying it in the end and you learn something from every experience, good or bad.

Good luck! :smile:

Reply 3

harryhoofter

Id stick with edinburgh.

Reply 4

kingkhan

I studied at Edinburgh in Informatics department, and I will prefer you to stay at Edinburgh University, but if you are not comfortable then it's not possible to give 100% input/output and any research requires 100% input from a researcher whether it's bioinformatics or any arts subject. But, it's 100% true that in industry the Edinburgh has more attraction than York especially it's Informatics department is world renowned. But still go there where you enjoy more.
Best of luck