There are 146 R1 universities in the United States. There are about 35 in the western half of the United States. There are no R1 universities in Alaska. There are 105 public R1s. R1 universities are widely considered the top tier for PhDs. In my field, I had a once in a lifetime opportunity to get hands on training with a new, otherwise inaccessible technique. I did well, and like I said, was recruited heavily. This included turning down a job at the premier institute in Germany where this technique (cryo-electron microscopy) was basically developed. My PI was prestigious and well respected in the field. His previous students went on to ultimately take director positions at places like Pfizer.
Yes, I could have taken $30k/year to go a school on the California coast, but it'd have come out to about the same once you adjust for cost of living.
>That was your problem. Not "H1Bs" or "foreign" researchers. $16,800 is not significantly less than what other PhD programs I looked at were paying. Low 20s was pretty common.
From what I remember, Cornell was paying like $24k/yr at the time.
Just saying "R1, public land grant university" isn't relevant.
> I wasn't a great undergraduate and didn't have the background I'd have liked for the field I went into
That was your problem. Not "H1Bs" or "foreign" researchers.
UC Berkeley alone can graduate around 700-800 Bio and bio related undergrads (MCB, Chemistry, etc) a year. Let alone the dozens of other similar programs (UCs, UMich, UW, Big 10, etc)
That said, with your background in structural bio you will do well in the bioinformatics and potentially even ML space, and will probably be able to realize some actual changes that you wouldn't be able to in the more traditional and hierarchical system that exists today in Life Science research.