TKassis

There are many excellent US universities for your field. I think some of the best for Biomedical/Bioengineering would be (in no particular order): 1- MIT 2- WUSTL 3- Johns Hopkins University 4- Georgia Institute of Technology I also heard Duke University has a strong graduate biomedical engineering program...

Considering that you will graduate from the Georgia Institute of Technology, I think your chances of getting into the schools you mentioned is pretty high. Can't give you any numbers, but an engineering degree from Georgia Tech is considered top notch by any university you apply to.

No question about it, Georgia Institute of Technology beats the rest of your list. You should apply to as many universities as possible. I know for the electrical engineering department at Georgia Tech this year the graduate acceptance rate was around %11, I'm not sure about the computer science department, but I assume it is similar.

That's a hard decision. Columbia has a well established name as a university. Georgia Institute of Technology however would be superior for your degree option. GA Tech's reputation is growing at an amazing rate, over the past 10 or so years it has seen substantial development. I assume your degree is non-researched based, in that case it might not make much of a difference what you choose. Georgia Institute of Technology would be my first choice however, but then again, you said your course availability as a distance learner might be a problem...

Totally agree LingGrad2009.

I still think a Skype-in number is more than adequate. Landlines are just expensive. 911 calls might be a problem, but let's face it, what are the chances of your cell phone not working, having no one around and at the same time having a life threatening emergency?

Thank you Linggrad2009 for the clarification. In such cases I guess where a discussion is involved I do not need a voice recorder.

MaximKat, you are definitely right. The chance of needing a phone for an emergency when it is down and not having any other alternatives is probably 1 in a million and really not worth the cost. We Americans are very bad at cost-benefit analysis in daily life. That's why we spend trillions of dollars on our military of which much of the spending is for hypothetical situations whose chance of happening cannot whatsoever justify the cost.

I agree, that doesn't really make sense. I mean, knowing another language is good, but I don't think it should be a requirement for a PhD in Math!!!

Sorry for any misunderstanding people, but when I talk about lectures I'm referring to any type of classroom instruction. I did my undergrad in England and am not familiar with seminars...

belowthree; foreign language requirements are usually only for PhD students in fields like history, theology, international affairs... science and engineering PhD's never have a language requirement.

kahlan, you need to do a cost-risk assessment :-) It is really not worth paying for a landline just in case of an emergency. It is like building your house with 12 inch thick concrete walls just in case a plane falls on you.

No, if you have a cell-phone it doesn't make sense to get a landline. Not worth it.

Thank you Kahlan, I would like to record all the lectures so that if I need to go back later during revision or self-study. I will not listen to them unless there is something I didn't understand in class from the first place. I can't take notes about something I don't understand (that's when the audio file will come in). Minnesotan, I am doing a Master's so I have a lot of courses to take in addition to research.

Don't expect funding for a Master's, especially not this year. Funds are very limited and reserved in most cases for a Ph.D. unless you have a very high GPA.