banana_panda

I'm not a MatSci person but if I were doing a PhD, I would consider the NRC ratings to be far more important than the US News. The latter seems like it is a self reported popularity contest while the NRC ratings actually take into account the papers published at a school, the impact factors, the number of citations they receive, etc. So all in all, I trust the NRC ratings a lot more. Hope that helps!

@ghanada: I'm sure BU would be great. There are a lot of optical companies in the Boston area so it seems like even after graduation, you could have a lot of potential future routes. Let us know where you do end up though! I'll do the same, but I am guessing that I won't be able to decide till I hear back from NSF.

@ghanada: I'm more interested in macroscopic imaging, so MRI is pretty darn exciting for me. I would be interesting in learning more about optical techniques though. OCT and OFDI seem pretty interesting out there. 18 is a lot of schools!! I applied to six and I thought that was a lot. What are you leaning towards right now? Vandy actually has a sick imaging program. They have a whole imaging institute with top notch hardware and tons of dedicated young faculty. Plus, they offered me a fellowship and there is a really cool PI I could work with. So that is why it makes deciding a little tough

@ghanada: I'm trying to decide between Stanford and Vanderbilt right now and then I'm waiting to see how the UW interviews go. I'm trying not to lean anywhere before I check out all the programs first. I'm actually interested in imaging too - not so much neural though. What sort of schools are you looking into?

I'm not really sure what their criteria was but to be honest, I am not too sad that I didn't get in. I wasn't really a fan of the culture that I noticed and I don't think I would have been the best fit over there. So things seemed to have worked out pretty well. See you at UW?

It's funny because I got into Stanford but got rejected after interviews at HST. I am really intrigued as to what sort of things different programs look for. I was surprised that I didn't even get an interview at UCSF and got rejected first thing in January. Definitely thought that I was going to get rejected from everywhere else at that point haha. intirb: Did you study at MPI institute by any chance?

As a native of Orange County and attending school in San Diego, I do agree that socal is a great place to live in. However, East LA is not. I would not want to be around USC for any extended amounts of time. Just my two cents. Also, if you do end up going to UCLA, ask around about the quals. I have heard of some people having bad experiences with that.

I was there this previous weekend and I would really have to disagree on that one. Everyone seemed very welcoming and happy to have everyone there.

Yo jwa, I just sent you a PM with my email address. Let me know if you have questions.

It's strange how some schools stagger their decisions. So far, Interviews: Stanford HST MEMP Vanderbilt Rejection: UCSF/Cal Still waiting on Duke and UW. Like the previous poster said about JHU, maybe they are just playing it safe. Btw, jwa1920, I am from UCSD. Let me know if you need any info!