Accepted Manuscript-Guest Blog: "10 Musings and Observations from Cold Spring Harbor Labs"

courtesy of notnotpwang

1. There are a lot of fobs here. I mean A LOT. In actual CSHL labs, there seems to be at least 60-70% fobs.

2. CSHL grad students are treated like kings. They almost always graduate in 4 years and if they live in the on campus housings they get maid service. They might also get laundry service (not completely confirmed).

3. Except if you're a grad student from SUNY Stony Brook. Apparently there is some caste system action between SUNY students at CSHL vs. Watson CSHL students. Awkies...

4. The food here is horrible. And I should know. When I was in high school our school contracted the same company that services the Illinois State Prison system. The school was charged $3 a day per student. The food at CSHL is no better.

5. Except when there are meetings. When there are meetings going on, the CSHL cafeteria magically disappears and themed buffets take over. Except it's the same line up for every meeting. In case you're interested in what meals you'll be having when you come for a meeting here sometime during your career, let me save you the trouble and surprise:

3 day meeting= Seafood Buffet Dinner->Southwest Buffet Lunch->Italian Buffet Dinner->California Buffet Lunch->Lobster/Steak Dinner Banquet-> Brunch Buffet Lunch

4 day meeting= Seafood Buffet Dinner->Southwest Buffet Lunch->Italian Buffet Dinner->California Buffet Lunch->Asian Buffet Dinner->Pub Buffet Lunch->Lobster/Steak Dinner Banquet-> Brunch Buffet Lunch

6. The "bar" here is weird. First off, there really is nothing to do on campus except for the small pub that's located in the basement of the dining hall. It does not accept credit cards nor does it accept all orders. Example: they have the ability to make Long Island Iced Tea but refuse to do so... "Wait CSHL is on Long Island and I can't even get a Long Island Iced Tea here?!?!"

7. Everything here is biology themed. The bell tower has ATGC instead of NSEW. Even the artwork is biology themed (see Figure 1: The Waltz of the Polypeptide). Except the main road on campus is called "Bungtown Road"... wait shouldn't that be like Double Helix Drive or something?

8. Insert awkward story about James Watson. Yup, everybody who comes here seems to have at least one.

9. Most interesting/insightful science related hallway posting I've seen while here: "The reason the general population does not understand science is because science is boring. We need to appoint a Science Pope. And she should have enormous boobs."

10. Despite CSHL being a strange place, courses here are intense but really worth it. Allow me to quantify: in 2 weeks at the cost of $3000 to my lab, I've learned more than 4 years of college ($175,000 of tuition) and 2 years of graduate school ($180,000 in opportunity costs) combined. I don't even need to run a T test on that to know it's statistically significant.