I am lucky enough to be an Fulbright Scholar (coming from the UK to study for a PhD in the US). I want to ask two questions:
Firstly: I just took my GRE, the scores I got were 670V, and 710Q. I hoped to get higher than that in the quantitative section but somehow got flustered by one of the first questions. Do you think I should retake this? The schools I am aiming for are top tier as shown below.
Secondly I want to find your opinions on institutions to study at. Eventually I am interested in large scale brain simulation. My first degree was in electronic engineering and second in biomedical engineering with neurotechnology. By brain simulation I hope to model large numbers of accurate neurons, as well as simulate environments. I am also very interested in using evolutionary methods to optimise cortical structure and even learning rules. Work I have currently does has used fmri data, and methods from graph theory to analyse schizophrenic brains. Please see the collections in my mendeley profile at http://www.mendeley.com/profiles/zenna-tavares/, to see the kind of research I am interested in.
So the kind of institution that is ideal for me is one with a strong neuroscience department, but also with a strong computing and engineering and modelling resources; and ideally a history or at least potential for collaboration.
The location is also very important. I have only visited Miama in the US, so most of my information about different places comes from these forums and from friends. I am from London and expect that I would like New York very much. I have also heard great things about Boston. Essentially, I don't to be somewhere that is too far out in the sticks, and ideally has a fairly cosmopolitan environment.
Through the IIE, I have to select six institutions. My current short list (roughly in order of preference) is:
(all neuroscience departments)
MIT
Stanford
Columbia
Caltech
Princeton
NYU
Berkeley
Rockefeller
Cornell-Weill
Yale
Harvard
I also need one backup, which at the moment is:
Rutgers-Newark (chosen just because it is very near new york, and one of my professors recommended it to me) or Brown (as I am in contact with an enthusiastic professor there)
Any advice or comments are appreciated
Zenna