选offer请教: Cornell vs. Oxford_16 Fall Chem PhD
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本科: 化学 @ 香港理工, GPA 3.95/4: 海本研究生: 无T单项和总分: 雅思7.5 G单项和总分: 329 sub专业和分数: 99% 背景的其他说明（如牛推等）: 两个香港老师，一个北美老师，无paper
日前很高兴拿了牛津和康奈尔的offer，牛津的方向是无机化学，镧系金属。康奈尔还没定，不过主要是化学生物。牛津申的早，导师以前是牛津教授的学生，offer给的也早，缺点是1point3acres.com还没开始审批，估计4月份以后才能有消息，但是让我2月9号之前接受，我已经接了。。。康奈尔1月28来的offer，$34000一年，邀请我去school visit，十分慷慨，4月15号之前给答复。还申了ucsd和unc-ch，不过已经知足了！
主要是牛津那边导师有关系，不去的话是不是有点尴尬？主要的忧虑是1point3acres.com，万一不给或者给的少也不知道能不能1point3acres.com。谢谢大家了！
还想问在英国和美国的环境有什么不同，我跟教授聊了聊，自己列了一个表，还望去过的长辈们请多多指教！
补充内容 (2016-3-21 15:54):
最后决定去康奈尔啦，牛津那边奖学金到现在还没信，去了campus visit之后就觉得实在不应该放弃这么好的学校，哪怕另一边是牛津。有些厌倦了大城市的拥挤，很喜欢伊萨卡这样到处是风景的小镇，远离大城市的喧嚣，有很多徒步径、瀑布，还有五指湖，每天都能看见晚霞和星星。镇上的人基本上都和康奈尔有关系，素质非常高，犯罪率低，晚上不锁门。没有那么多中国人，只有两家中餐馆。老师都很和蔼，水平不比牛津低。同学之间的互相支持，没有哈佛那么惨烈的竞争……本来刚收到康奈尔offer的时候觉得就是拿来找牛津逼奖用的，潜意识里也在寻找一个合适的理由放弃它，但是去了之后发现一个都找不到，反而牛津那边显得很高冷，offer来了2个多月还没有奖学金的消息，办事效率和诚意明显不如康奈尔。学术方面，牛津那边的导师水平很高，方向也熟悉，可惜奖学金（如果给的话）最多给三年，感觉做不了太多东西，毕竟博士阶段还是以成果为重，读多两年多出点paper还是值得。康奈尔这边是化学生物，没做过，导师还没定，慢慢来。康奈尔一个去年新来的教授跟我说的话我觉得很有道理：In a small town, if you are a jerk, you quickly lose friends. But in a large city, people can behave badly because it’s largely anonymous. 所以结论就是：去了牛津如果感觉不适应的话我可能会后悔一辈子，去了康奈尔反而没有遗憾，因为没有见过牛津是什么样。牛津可能更好，但我看不见，我只相信我看到了一个足够美好的康奈尔。
I would love to go for a visit to Oxford to have a look by myself, but I couldn’t due to practical constraints. I trust what I see here in Cornell, everything is peaceful and everyone is caring for each other. Oxford could be even better, but I didn’t see it for myself. A quantum mechanical metaphor is that Cornell is a localized point at 95 percentile and Oxford could be 98, but with a large blurring uncertainty around it. Everyone hates uncertainty like Einstein did, so do I. Trusting something that we see is human nature, and for the same reason I love fluorescence because it gives us the power of visualizing otherwise hidden mysteries. It could turn out to be our weaknesses sometimes instead, because our eyes may not be able to see something too deep. But that is the intrinsic flaw of human nature, something that God decides. It’s like falling in love with somebody first and then give her up for somebody else I haven’t seen before. I don’t yet have a spouse but I think I will be loyal to her in the same way if I have one in the future. Now I fall in love with Cornell, it’s cruel for me to give her up and fall in love with Oxford completely. The bond is just too strong. She may not be the best choice in the world, but I love her and enjoyed every moment that I spent with her. It’s unfair for me to give her up. I follow my heart, like I always do, and that’s why I’ve come a long way here. My heart is filled with Cornell already. I’m grateful to get into a dilemma between these two schools, something that I never dreamt of when I was young. It’s a shame that I have to turn down one of the excellent schools in the end, I’m sorry it’s Oxford.
日前很高兴拿了牛津和康奈尔的offer，牛津的方向是无机化学，镧系金属。康奈尔还没定，不过主要是化学生物。牛津申的早，导师以前是牛津教授的学生，offer给的也早，缺点是1point3acres.com还没开始审批，估计4月份以后才能有消息，但是让我2月9号之前接受，我已经接了。。。康奈尔1月28来的offer，$34000一年，邀请我去school visit，十分慷慨，4月15号之前给答复。还申了ucsd和unc-ch，不过已经知足了！
主要是牛津那边导师有关系，不去的话是不是有点尴尬？主要的忧虑是1point3acres.com，万一不给或者给的少也不知道能不能1point3acres.com。谢谢大家了！
还想问在英国和美国的环境有什么不同，我跟教授聊了聊，自己列了一个表，还望去过的长辈们请多多指教！
| [align="left"]Comparison by Country[/align] | [align="left"][align="left"]US[/align][/align] | [align="left"][align="left"]UK[/align][/align] |
| [align="left"]Academic style[/align] | [align="left"][align="left"]More stuff to do and to learn, big group, one chem and one bio, ambidexterous training[/align][/align] | [align="left"][align="left"]Relatively less work, shorter duration, small group[/align][/align] |
| [align="left"]Impression[/align] | [align="left"][align="left"]Broad, claim new territories as much as possible[/align][/align] | [align="left"][align="left"]Sharp, deep, focus. Learn from classics and history, dig deep within from an original viewpoint[/align][/align] |
| [align="left"]Culture[/align] | [align="left"][align="left"]Diverse, big group[/align][/align] | [align="left"][align="left"]Small elite circle, do Asians fit?[/align][/align] |
| [align="left"]Most treasured characters[/align] | [align="left"][align="left"]Ability to work efficiently[/align] [align="left"]Ability to learn new things[/align][/align] | [align="left"][align="left"]Ability to discover insights to guide research topics[/align] [align="left"]Ability to express ideas on target[/align][/align] |
| [align="left"]Time to talk to supervisors[/align] | [align="left"][align="left"]Shorter?[/align][/align] | [align="left"][align="left"]Longer?[/align][/align] |
| [align="left"]Food, weather, history, etc.[/align] | [align="left"][align="left"]Countryside, far from urban area (Cornell) [/align][/align] | [align="left"][align="left"]Historic campus, 80km from London, ‘no delicious food’[/align][/align] |
| [align="left"]Work load[/align] | [align="left"][align="left"]Higher? 12h per day?[/align][/align] | [align="left"][align="left"]More time for social events?[/align][/align] |
| [align="left"]Other aspects?[/align] | [align="left"][align="left"] [/align][/align] | [align="left"][align="left"] [/align][/align] |
补充内容 (2016-3-21 15:54):
最后决定去康奈尔啦，牛津那边奖学金到现在还没信，去了campus visit之后就觉得实在不应该放弃这么好的学校，哪怕另一边是牛津。有些厌倦了大城市的拥挤，很喜欢伊萨卡这样到处是风景的小镇，远离大城市的喧嚣，有很多徒步径、瀑布，还有五指湖，每天都能看见晚霞和星星。镇上的人基本上都和康奈尔有关系，素质非常高，犯罪率低，晚上不锁门。没有那么多中国人，只有两家中餐馆。老师都很和蔼，水平不比牛津低。同学之间的互相支持，没有哈佛那么惨烈的竞争……本来刚收到康奈尔offer的时候觉得就是拿来找牛津逼奖用的，潜意识里也在寻找一个合适的理由放弃它，但是去了之后发现一个都找不到，反而牛津那边显得很高冷，offer来了2个多月还没有奖学金的消息，办事效率和诚意明显不如康奈尔。学术方面，牛津那边的导师水平很高，方向也熟悉，可惜奖学金（如果给的话）最多给三年，感觉做不了太多东西，毕竟博士阶段还是以成果为重，读多两年多出点paper还是值得。康奈尔这边是化学生物，没做过，导师还没定，慢慢来。康奈尔一个去年新来的教授跟我说的话我觉得很有道理：In a small town, if you are a jerk, you quickly lose friends. But in a large city, people can behave badly because it’s largely anonymous. 所以结论就是：去了牛津如果感觉不适应的话我可能会后悔一辈子，去了康奈尔反而没有遗憾，因为没有见过牛津是什么样。牛津可能更好，但我看不见，我只相信我看到了一个足够美好的康奈尔。
I would love to go for a visit to Oxford to have a look by myself, but I couldn’t due to practical constraints. I trust what I see here in Cornell, everything is peaceful and everyone is caring for each other. Oxford could be even better, but I didn’t see it for myself. A quantum mechanical metaphor is that Cornell is a localized point at 95 percentile and Oxford could be 98, but with a large blurring uncertainty around it. Everyone hates uncertainty like Einstein did, so do I. Trusting something that we see is human nature, and for the same reason I love fluorescence because it gives us the power of visualizing otherwise hidden mysteries. It could turn out to be our weaknesses sometimes instead, because our eyes may not be able to see something too deep. But that is the intrinsic flaw of human nature, something that God decides. It’s like falling in love with somebody first and then give her up for somebody else I haven’t seen before. I don’t yet have a spouse but I think I will be loyal to her in the same way if I have one in the future. Now I fall in love with Cornell, it’s cruel for me to give her up and fall in love with Oxford completely. The bond is just too strong. She may not be the best choice in the world, but I love her and enjoyed every moment that I spent with her. It’s unfair for me to give her up. I follow my heart, like I always do, and that’s why I’ve come a long way here. My heart is filled with Cornell already. I’m grateful to get into a dilemma between these two schools, something that I never dreamt of when I was young. It’s a shame that I have to turn down one of the excellent schools in the end, I’m sorry it’s Oxford.
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