Thank you very much for all advice!! I truly appreciate it. As for the grade, I will go with the first score.
I have thought about Biostats, but I've decided to just stick to stats...especially on the topic of time series and stochastic process.
Thus, I want to give a second thought on schools which lean on Biostats. Could you provide further information on this matter by any chances?
(By the way, I changed my lists above a little bit.. I added Columbia and Boston U, and removed Emory and OSU. )