comp_neuro_guy

NYU has very strong computational work but a lot of their scientists do old school stuff and have had their time in the sun (sorta Buzsaki, Movshon, Rinzel) and I doubt Yann LeCun would have time to work with anyone. Rumor has it also that XJ Wang is leaving but I didn't tell you that. Simoncelli, Chklovskii, and Wei Ji Ma are all good options still but their research is somewhat different. It is a Swartz center though and NYC is awesome! They just hired Christine Constantinople who has some good systems ideas using automated behavior training for rats I think.
UCL is obviously excellent with leaders in both theory (Sahani, Latham, Hyvärinen, Botvinick, Pouget) and systems (Harris, Carandini, Mrsic-Flogel) and I'd rate it #1 in the world for combining these approaches. Not sure how Brexit will affect things though and being so close to DeepMind means good industry connections (and also that faculty are harder to keep).
I will once again plug CMU/Pitt's PNC program: they're planning on growing CMU's integration of neuroscience and machine learning through a new Institute of Neuroscience (headed by Barbara Shinn-Cunningham) while still maintaining the joint venture (the CNBC means effectively Pitt and CMU are combined and it's funded by a T32). The work of Byron Yu, Brent Doiron, Bard Ermentrout, and Robert Kass needs no introduction but I've heard (from a postdoc who interviewed in ML) that they are trying to double the size of their ML department which is already #1 in the world. The CMU side of things will also be hiring more neuroscientists for collaborative work and they just built a new business school for tech transfer.

I don't really have first hand experience with the student life at UCL or NYU. Both are great options: good programs, great cities. But as you probably already know, doing science in the UK would be kinda different from the US. I'm not sure how computational UCL is (only because I didn't look into/apply to any school in the UK) but I know NYU is pretty strong in terms of computational work. 
I guess the best way now for both of us is to talk to people and find out what their experiences are...
 

I personally would choose  MIT, but thats more a function of my research interests (and those of faculty at MIT  Poggio, DiCarlo, Fiete in particular) than any other factors. What factors are you using to make your decision? Unfortunately I can't comment on the student life at either place, and I think thats probably what you were looking for in these responses. I'm not sure how many current grad students are checking this type of thread though.
Piggybacking off of your question, I am deciding between UCL Gatsby and NYU (and maybe CMU) for comp. neuro. If you (or anyone else) has heard or has any opinions about student life at any of these places, I'm all ears...

I've been lurking often but am getting antsy enough to ask: anyone know when we are supposed to hear back from Yale neuro (post-interview)?
I know they mentioned early March but I notice past years people got unofficial notices in late February? It's my top choice so I really want to just know if I do get rejected. Thanks!

Not sure if this was a wave or not, but got invited to interview at NYU today!

It looks like the invites for the biology home program just went out. I haven't seen any posts specific to the Neuro home program go up in the results section so they may not have gone out yet.