When I was applying to graduate school, I had no idea what to look for in a program. My only limitations were geographic location (somewhere east of Chicago), Master’s degree not needed for the doctoral program and application due date (after the fall semester was over). Because of this, I wound up applying to a wide variety of schools. I was looking anywhere from UNC-Chapel Hill, which has sub-divisions of epidemiology, to SUNY Buffalo, which has about four or five professors in their whole department.

At first I thought that bigger must be better. There are more professors with whom you can do research, more classes offered and lots of really smart people with whom you can surround yourself. But, as I was visiting the various schools, I realized that smaller is actually better — at least for me, anyway. In a large school with lots of students, you have to look out for yourself. People might not be readily available to answer questions on which classes to take and make sure that you’re doing everything you need to do to graduate on time. Although it’s not best to have your hand held throughout graduate school, a little guidance is always appreciated.

My favorite part about being part of a smaller program, though, is the ability to work with people in many different disciplines. In a larger school, you have to pick your track early on, and you’re surrounded by people with similar interests. As I was sitting in our weekly epidemiology student seminar on Monday, I realized that I was surrounded by experts in many different fields who each contributed their own bit of knowledge to the topic. Many times students are stuck only going to “lab meetings” in their own individual research group. While this is a great way to catch up on the latest research in your field, you fail to get the outsider’s perspective. Each week, I get to hear about something completely new and exciting related to epidemiology. Though I may not have access to three of the world’s leading experts in my preferred epidemiology track (whenever I figure out what that is), I think the advantages of being in a smaller program win out in the end.