PhD offer advice

[Barny]

I have a couple of PhD offers to consider, appreciate any advice you can give me as to which one I should take if I want to work in finance in the future.

UCL - fluid dynamics/molecular dynamics - working on simulation codes for non-newtonian fluids using the lattice-boltzman method - the codes will be running on the world's largest supercomputer with ~ 650,000 processors. Very high performance computing oriented - highly parallel code. Downside - the codes are in FORTRAN.

Oxford - laser physics - mostly experimental but a chance to do about 30% numerical simulations.

Cambridge - superconductivity or surface physics - Both mainly experimental with the chance to do about 30% theory (in the SC case) or 30% computational (in the surface case).

Imperial - Space physics - analysing data from satellites to test atmospheric physics models - numerical simulations of the models, and also model building. Think I can use any language I want.

I have to make the choice by today, so I'd appreciate some speedy responses

 

[bigbadwolf]

Cambridge is a nice place to live. Oxford to a (slightly?) lesser extent. And London sucks. Knock UCL off your list at once. Imperial, of course, is also in London but you will have to decide. I would choose Cambridge -- nice place to live and the company of some of the smartest people on the planet.

 

[Barny]

Well, I'm already at Cambridge, and I hate it, so I'm not sure I agree that it's a nice place to live. Subjective opinions about whether a particular city is nicer, what do you think about the merits of the projects and the institutions themselves?

 

[marina]

I have a couple of PhD offers to consider, appreciate any advice you can give me as to which one I should take if I want to work in finance in the future.
I have to make the choice by today, so I'd appreciate some speedy responses

If you want to work in finance in the future, then you better study finance now.

 

[bigbadwolf]

Well, I'm already at Cambridge, and I hate it, so I'm not sure I agree that it's a nice place to live. Subjective opinions about whether a particular city is nicer, what do you think about the merits of the projects and the institutions themselves?

It's a toss-up between Cambridge and Imperial. For physics in general, Cambridge is at the top of the heap, followed by Imperial. What I like about the Imperial project is the testing of models and your latitude in choosing a language.

If you don't like Cambridge, I wonder how well you will like London -- dirty, congested, exorbitantly expensive. Ah well.

 

[Barny]

Well, I chose UCL instead, thanks for the input