Stanford vs. GaTech

[<3Brains]

Hi all! I am lucky enough to be making a tough decision in the coming months. I was accepted to Stanford EE with a fellowship and to Georgia Tech ECE (Bioengineering Program) with a TA. The name (and campus...and fellowship offer...) of Stanford would be hard to turn down, but Georgia Tech's program might be a better fit for me. I'm interested in Biodevices, specifically for neuroscience research/applications.

There is one person whom I'd really like to work with at Stanford but not many others, plus the program is *only* EE with no bio focus, although I think the coursework is flexible? There are many faculty I'd be happy working with at GaTech and also the program (specifically the coursework I guess) is a better fit for my interests.

Help! There are so many factors to consider...

[joro]

Go with the fit, not with the name.

[Slorg]

Are you planning to visit both? Meeting with faculty and current students might help more than my random internet advice.

[scyrus]

Are you actually interested in pure EE research/coursework? I have similar interests to yours, and am planning on applying to Stanford Neuroscience next year because they have, specifically, a Neuro-engineering program. I would think that's the better fit for you, right? I know it is for me.

I'm currently an undergraduate at Tech, so maybe I'm biased, but for what it's worth Tech is ranked 2 nationally compared to Stanford's 10 in biomedical engineering. Also, if you consider that you will actually be studying what you want at Tech(instead of spending 5-6 years researching and learning about something only tangential to your interests), I think maybe you should weigh Tech a little higher.

That said, taking the lenses of objectivity off, Stanford is my dream school and I would be hard-pressed to turn them down if I were in your position. Whatever you chose, you can't go wrong so good luck!

And yes, do as Slorg says =)

[quadsbaby]

Stanford's EE department tends to work pretty closely with the medical folks. The group I worked in last summer wasn't even biodevices, and we ended up collaborating with the genome center.

[<3Brains]

Yup, definitely planning to visit both schools. No worries, not gonna base my decision on what anyone here says, just hoping for some other perspectives and/or information I didn't know/think of

Also, yeah, I am interested in pure EE coursework. I have always leaned towards physics/math/engineering and wasn't ready to jump into a pure neuroscience program (although maybe it would have been a better fit since I could mix in some EE).

[explorer-c]

Yup, definitely planning to visit both schools. No worries, not gonna base my decision on what anyone here says, just hoping for some other perspectives and/or information I didn't know/think of

Also, yeah, I am interested in pure EE coursework. I have always leaned towards physics/math/engineering and wasn't ready to jump into a pure neuroscience program (although maybe it would have been a better fit since I could mix in some EE).

If you have visited both campuses, would you mind describing what you think about them?

[Ninjagecko]

I'm deciding between the same two schools, although not for Bioengineering (EE+Materials, instead). I haven't seen Tech yet, but my impression from Stanford is that there are virtually no boundaries on what you can count as EE research. They plug the fact that the EE building is across the street from the Medical center.

What are people's impressions of Atlanta? Palo Alto is not a good city for students...

[DJLamar]

Atlanta is a pretty cool city. It's fairly big, growing fast, and getting better every day. The cost of living is relatively low for a city of its size, there is a healthy nightlife, and there are tons of very good restaurants and cool, interesting neighborhoods. As far as cost of living goes, you can get a one bedroom apartment within walking distance of campus for no more than $700 - $800 a month. I live with three roommates right now about 2.5 miles away from campus and I pay $450 a month.

Downsides to Atlanta:

- The weather, though warm and frequently sunny, is not what I would call temperate. It gets really hot and really humid in the Summers, and you'll get tired of sweating during one minute walks between adjacent buildings during the Summer pretty quickly.

- Public transit here is not so great, and is even supposed to suffer some serious cuts sometime soon. The buses are fine if you have to get from point A to point B with regularity and can schedule trips to be regular and align with the bus schedule -- they're mostly reliable, it's just that (outside of downtown, I guess) the bus might only come every thirty minutes or so. The train is much better -- I think on weekdays during non-peak hours it still comes every ten minutes -- but the subway grid is really just a big plus sign with a couple of extra branches, so unless you live near a subway station (and there are two right next to the school) it won't be that convenient to get to it. Once you are on the train, though, you can get to a lot of cool places in different parts of the city. Overall, however, Atlanta is a lot more convenient, interesting, and fun if you have a car, so bring one if you can.

- Crime is a bit of an issue. I would say most of the bad stuff is localized to certain parts of the city though, and restricted to people being silly and walking alone very late at night in a known hotspot for student muggings (almost all of the victims of the crime streak that happened this past year were doing just that). As long as you're not a fool, you'll be alright.