My daughter planning university studies in North America. Advice please.

[livi]

Ladies and gents,

My oldest daughter, Olivia (Livi) is currently studying molecular biology at the university of Lund in the south of Sweden. During this education she has the oppurtunity to spend one term at a university abroad. Lund has some kind of student exchange program going and a list of schools in several countries around the world.

Olivia seems mostly interested in North America, USA or Canada, but of course neither of us have any clues in terms of what the listed places are like. Be it the university as such, the surroundings or what have you.

This stay is planned for the fall term next year.

The short list of schools in North America:

USA:
Michigan State U.
North Carolina State U.
University of California
U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
U. of Virginia

In Canada:
McGill
Queen´s U.
Simon Fraser U.
Alberta
British Columbia
Calgary
Guelph
Ottawa
Toronto
Waterloo

I imagine she has no preferences so far, although she is a little reluctant toward Canada for fear of bears.. :-)

I hope some of you may have some insight at least into the places in the US.

Any and all input, advice, tips would be hugely appreciated. Just general comments really.

Thanks guys!

[KFC911]

Markus....I'd lean away from NCSU (not oriented towards medicine), and in our state capitol....not a college town, but part of the Research Triangle....just a few miles away are UNC and Duke (medical heavyweight). UNC is in a fantastic town with a true college town vibe....same with UVA (Charlottesville)....you done good Doc ! Hope this helps a bit....

[wdfifteen]

I was overseer for a 19 year old Italian student who spoke good English. Even though he spoke excellent English he had an accent and that set some people off. I had to run a lot of interference between Phillipo and the jerks that we sometimes encountered.* Some Americans have an antipathy to foreigners that I did not see until I had Phillipo. By far the majority of people wanted to be helpful, but some were real jerks. The guide or overseer is probably more important to her experience than the specific school. Make sure the school provides a good guide for her.

*Example, we were at a deli that was a favorite of mine and the menu on the wall was confusing to Phillipo. I'd been there many times and was familiar with the counter man. He'd always been nice enough to me. The guy behind the counter was saying, "Hurry up, what do you want?" I explained that Phillipo was from Italy and the menu was unfamiliar and we might need a little help. The deli guy started reading it off so fast even I couldn't keep up. When he finished he said, "So now you know what we got, what do you frikkin' want?"

[recycled sixtie]

Hi Markus,

My daughter is Director of Research at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and a neighbor close to us is a U of Alberta Student Counselor.
Tell me what she wants to know and I can pass on the info to the appropriate channels.

You can pm me here or on Facebook if need be. Fear of bears? There are no bears in this city. You would have to drive about two hours west of here for the chance of seeing a bear.

Sounds like your daughter is doing well.

Cheers, Guy

[KFC911]

UNC is part of the Research Triangle as I mentioned before....that area attracts the best of the best from all around the world...if by chance she wanted to pursue living here after school, the job opportunities there are second to none....but I am a bit biased .

[onewhippedpuppy]

Congrats Markus, sounds like you did good! I can offer no constructive advice on the potential schools, except that I doubt there are many bears roaming campuses in Canada.

[KFC911]

If this is the same cutie that Markus posted a pic of many years ago....Olivia would be Goldielocks...I'm just sayin'

[Borders Reivers]

Send her to The Sorbonne in Paris or Trinity College in Dublin. Superior to any institution you named.

ETA: For her sake, make certain whatever school she attends is not handicapped by race-based affirmative action admissions policy. In the USA any school with a high percentage of Asian students will be better.

[Seahawk]

I can help a little bit and can speak only to the cities the universities are in, not their medical curriculum.

NCSU

My company works with the engineering department, specifically the aero mechanical folks at NCSU a lot. We have hired two post grad aero guys from NCSU. I have spent a lot of time on campus and in Raleigh, NC as well.

Big school, very spread out but with the old center intact. They have done a lot of work and refurbishing. Good to great college town. The country surrounding Raleigh is a nice but not particularly remarkable. Again, I like NCSU and Raleigh, and have zero negative things to say. To get away she'll need a car or a friend with one. Outer Bands within a few hours drive, mountains as well.

Will be warm an humid in the summer.

University of California

Another big school but in the heart of a large city surrounded by other large cities. Cal has a great atmosphere and the Bay Area and beyond offers an unmatched array of varied geography and experiences local or all within a few hours drive. If she wants to experience a big slice of America, Cal is it.

Weather is great.

U. of Virginia

Great college town. My father lived near Charlottesville for five years when the kids were young so we visited the city often. Recently, my son was accepted into law school there so we spent some exploring the area. He decided not to go for reasons unrelated to your daughters criteria.

The surrounding area is very pretty but the closest big city is Washington, DC, nearly a three hour drive away. She'll need access to a car to get away. Nice four season weather without harsh extremes.

If your daughter has some experience with large metropolitan areas, I would recommend Cal. UVA and NCSU are both excellent second choices of the schools I am familiar with.

Nice job, btw. She play guitar and sing horribly as well?

[masraum]

I can’t offer much help with your question, but wow, the last thing that I remember was that your daughters were little girls. Wow, time flies. I think that means that you’re getting old, fela.

[wildthing]

I don't know which UC campus has the med program, but if it's anywhere in the Bay Area, even student housing is expensive. Let me ask some neighbors...

[JJ 911SC]

Originally Posted by livi

... I imagine she has no preferences so far, although she is a little reluctant toward Canada for fear of bears.. :-)

Inte för många björnar runt Montréal... University rankings Canada 2017: Medical/Doctoral

[1990C4S]

You should PM me about the Canadian schools. I have a fair bit of experience with several on your list.

I would prefer to keep what my kids do/have done off public forums, but I can give you some direction.

[Won]

Markus, in my opinion, between the two schools in Vancouver, definitely recommend UBC. It's my alma mater but that doesn't cloud my judgement at all Seriously, I think a big part of being on an exchange is the overall experience of a new place, not just academics, and UBC will offer much more in that regard. I have yet to meet someone who went to UBC and said they wish they'd gone to SFU instead. The other way, it's not uncommon!

I have a friend who finished her PhD in something-biology at UBC (shame, I should know really). I can ask her to get a contact for molecular biology there. She did her post-doc at Columbia and now moving to Waterloo, so she herself might have some opinion. Let me know!

[Steve Viegas]

University of California should be Berkeley (as there are many UCs, Berkeley is the first, and i believe the only one that goes by University of California without a location). It is the number one public school in the world. It places in the top 20 in ALL universities. It is located very close to San Francisco, not far from Napa, and 2.5 hours from Monterey.

The weather will be your problem, because once your daughter realizes that winter is optional, and she does not have to participate if she does not want to, leaving Northern CA is a challenge. If she misses winter through, Lake Tahoe, with amazing vistas and skiing is simply three hours away.

[scottmandue]

USC
Plus - It is in Los Angeles so lots to see and do.
Minus - it is in Los Angeles , it is a huge campus and generally has good security and lots of services on campus. You just have to make sure if you are going out on the town that you avoid the bad parts of town.

Berkley
Did an install there, seems really nice (no idea on education just setup a show there)

San Diego
Best weather on the planet, great town (a bit north of downtown), did a tour with our daughter when she was looking for a campus. Again no idea on the education side but super nice campus... made me want to go back to school!

Oh and Stanford
I didn't do the tour (wife and daughter flew up for that) but they said it was really nice.

[KFC911]

With all due respect to Paul...if Raleigh is a great college town (it's a large city), then Chapel Hill, just a few minutes away is college heaven . After college, I worked in the Research Triangle Park, and lived less than a mile from NCSU....used their track, and b-ball courts several times a week....it's a fantastic school for engineeeing...

Do not dismiss RTP as part of the equation imo....particularly for the medical field. For decades that area had the highest concentration of advanced degrees of anywhere in the world (now Silicon Valley)...many world wide corporations do their r&d there....pulling in the best from locally and around the nation. Duke's Medical School and facilities are second to none...world wide. There is life after college too...

Olivia is gonna kick butt and take names no matter where she lands though

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by KC911

If this is the same cutie that Markus posted a pic of many years ago....Olivia would be Goldielocks...I'm just sayin'

Those sharks that swim on the land populate all colleges....hopefully a bright girl knows how to handle them.

[Geneman]

Consider UPENN , Philly: I have been a Molecular Biologist Cancer Geneticist for 28 years at UPENN/ The Wistar Institute, currently Deputy Director. Really great campus, much less expensive to live there than many of the Environs mentioned, Integrated Schools on campus of Med., Vet. Dent. PH. you name it. Judged from deepness Mol. Bio. mojo only, the best schools in your list would be Berkeley ( +/- Antifa riots...) , UCSF, then MSU and UNC. If she knows basic MOL BIo, ( which is just a tool set) , have her select based on the biologic systems and processes she is most interested in: Cancer, disease pathology, developmental molecular biology etc, and then factor in the model system that people are using at the centerMouse, Flys, worms, yeast, bacteria). Keep in mind these systems differ alot in the speed with which you can extract results ( mouse models using reverse genetics being longest). This is impt as if it is a year only, she will want to have a well delineated project which is doable in that time ( and publishable!). Just my 2 cents. and we have cheesesteaks in Philly. btw its a great time to be in genetics: we are almost down to the $100 USD human genome sequence produced from a cheek swab !1 anyone up for it? i say we sequence JJs DNA to learn why the canadians are so weird....

[KFC911]

She's probably limited to the schools Markus listed....exchange programs.