Great investment of time and effort if you can get in a great lab or program
Pros
* Opportunity to work with smaller pool of great (internationally well known) Professors. * If you're talented and you know it, you will stand out and get rewarded (papers, referrals and etc). * This place filters out competitive people, so you won't have to work with someone who will stomp you down needlessly or take your work. * People will want to see you (as a person) succeed. Again, smaller pool means better opportunity to stick out. * Money is available. * The opportunity and reward is there, it all depends on what you make of it, in my opinion and experience. * Depending on where you are with your career, Rutgers will provide opportunities but will not necessarily hold your hand. * RU is 30 mi away from NYC and about 75 mi from Phila which means you can take a day trip to another university to attend a seminar/conference/class in case Rutgers isn't hosting that particular speaker (always a good option). * New Brunswick is surrounded by safe and beautiful suburbs with fantastic public school systems. * Healthy diversity on campus.
Cons
* Just as the stand-out PIs flock together, complacency and herd mentality with found with older PIs. Stay away from these labs and you will do fine. * Independence but isolation felt when working in newer subject areas. * Parking, parking rules and parking tickets (arrghhh). * Traffic to campus at peak times can be frustrating so plan accordingly.
