matchachoco

Hi! I have received admissions to a few MS in Biostat programs, and I narrowed down to UNC and Duke. I am an international student and hope to find a job in the bioindustry in the US after graduation, and I currently have almost no intention of pursuing a PhD in Biostat. In college, I majored in biomed and took an interdisciplinary program on Biostat, which covered the math prerequisites and also Intro to Stat, Intermediate Stat, and some programming courses in R and SAS. The pros and cons of the 2 programs for me are as follows: UNC Pro - Better program reputation - Solid training - Leaves the door open for PhD opportunities - Chapel Hill is a safer area Con - Courses are very rigorous, not sure if a non-stats background like me can handle - Funding is limited so RA positions are competitive, some people end up as volunteers - Most students continue to a PhD degree so not much assistance in finding a job - Unsure of employment rate for non-PhD pursuing people Duke (w/ 2.5k scholarship) Pro - Better school reputation - Many faculties to do paid RA for master's project - Career coaching sessions, heard that employment rate for non-PhD pursuing was nearly 100% - More alumni connection in the industry Con - Unsure of course quality - The discrimination incident What concerns me most about UNC is the course load, I'm afraid I can handle it. Surely, going to Duke would cause less academic pressure, but I still hope to learn useful things to prepare me well for my future career. I wonder whether the program reputation will affect landing a job significantly? Please give me some advice, I'm currently torn between the two, and Duke wants us to reply earlier. I appreciate any reply!