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Thanks for the detailed help! It's interesting that even though SD has the bioinformatics under the CS department too it seems that CMU's compbio under the bio dept would be getting more into the nitty gritty cs stuff. I think I didn't apply to UCSD bioinformatics systems department because it didn't offer a Masters option. Also, the program at CMU is more bare bones and flexible - there are only two core classes and the rest are all electives. However, in the SD CS department I would still have to take 3 core CS classes that probably don't have a strong bioinformatics application (Operating Systems and Computer Architecture)

I think I want to go into industry and not pursue the PhD but I would still like to get some research/thesis experience just to confirm that. I might go into something I really enjoy and realize that I do want to do a PhD after all.

Trying to make this decision, I was pretty set on CMU (loved the area, it's different from where I'm at in California, solid student culture, etc), but am now reconsidering because of UCSD's bioinformatics area concentration under the CS department. I am a Molecular Bio major with Computer Science minor. Anyone know anything about these programs? This is the MS in Compbio under the bio dept at CMU and the MS in CS program at UCSD. I know UCSD has really good bioe and biomedical in addition to a bioinformatics group with some pretty strong people, but am unsure about being in the CS dept while I'm interested in bio, and taking the 4 core CS classes. It is also near a lot of good industry which I'd like to get into after the degree. CMU seems to be more computational and focused on theory instead of application. They have a more flexible program (2 core classes then electives for everything else). I am worried about getting lost in the mathy/statistics part of compbio and losing sight of the biological problems I am trying to solve. Additionally, CMU doesn't have a good bio program, and this degree is under the bio dept. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Trying to make this decision, I was pretty set on CMU (loved the area, it's different from where I'm at in California, solid student culture, etc), but am now reconsidering because of UCSD's bioinformatics area concentration under the CS department. I am a Molecular Bio major with Computer Science minor. Anyone know anything about these programs? This is the MS in Compbio under the bio dept at CMU and the MS in CS program at UCSD. I know UCSD has really good bioe and biomedical in addition to a bioinformatics group with some pretty strong people, but am unsure about being in the CS dept while I'm interested in bio, and taking the 4 core CS classes. It is also near a lot of good industry which I'd like to get into after the degree. CMU seems to be more computational and focused on theory instead of application. They have a more flexible program (2 core classes then electives for everything else). I am worried about getting lost in the mathy/statistics part of compbio and losing sight of the biological problems I am trying to solve. Additionally, CMU doesn't have a good bio program, and this degree is under the bio dept. Any help would be greatly appreciated!