UW vs JHU, PhD biostatistics

[kingsdead]

Hey all,

This forum has been very helpful to me the past year or so. I think this will be my last time asking you all for help. I've been admitted to Washington and Hopkins for a PhD in biostatistics, and while I'm aware of how lucky I am, I'm also feeling anxious about the choice I have to make now. I was hoping you all could help me compare and contrast the two. I have looked but haven't seen any threads comparing these two explicitly.

About me: I don't really have fixed research interests. I think I would like to work in global health, but beyond that, it isn't clear what I'd like to do. My background is not in statistics so I know very little about what kind of stats I'd like to research. I'm also undecided about what I'd like to do after graduating, though I think academia would be appealing.

Some more details: the money at Washington is around 34k/year. In addition I've received a fellowship from Washington at the ARCS foundation which will give 7.5k, 5k, and 5k in years 1, 2, 3 (as far as I can understand). At JHU, the funding year 1 will be 25.5k plus 6.5 to move in/other expenses. The base funding seems like it will increase slightly years 2 and 3 with the possibility of further funding (5-10k extra per year)

Some questions I am hoping for help with:

1. Washington seems to have access to more NGOs, eg Gates, while Hopkins has the stronger public health program. Where do you think options for global health research would be better?

2. It looks to me like Washington has a larger faculty and hence broader research interests, which I think might be good for me given that I don't know what I want to study. Is that accurate/does that make sense?

3. While the funding seems better at Washington, I can't tell where would be better after factoring in living expenses. Although I don't want money to be a large factor in my decision, the past two years have made me more conscious of the (lack of) money in my bank account than before. I also know very little about the ARCS fellowship and can't really tell much about what that would entail so any details would be helpful.

4. If anyone could comment on differences regarding the cultures of the department I'd really appreciate that. Any information contrasting the two in general would be awesome.

Thank you everyone for all the help so far. I hope to pay it forward on this forum in the following years as I gain more experience!!

[likewater]

I actually find myself to be in a good position to add to 3! So the main living expenses as a grad student will probably be housing and then transportation/groceries as I'm sure you know. Groceries will probably be slightly more expensive in Seattle, but not by much and it's sort of hard to calculate how much the difference amounts to yearly. Transportation costs are more or less the same, public transit exists in both places and I haven't heard horror stories from either. If you have a car though, parking kind of seriously sucks in both places unless you get lucky (or want to play the game of illegal street parking...)

At JHU, most people whose departments are in East Baltimore (where the School of Public Health is) live in the Fells/Upper Fells/Butcher's Hill area. Area is relatively nice (given that it's Baltimore) and the campus is within walking distance if you wanted. There are also shuttles if you don't feel like walking. In recent years though the rent in the "nice" areas of Baltimore though has been rising. I think you could probably squeeze a nice 1 bedroom for $1000 in Fells/Butcher's Hill relatively easily, and if you're deal savvy a bit lower is probably doable.

In Seattle, most grad students live either within University District or nearby such as in Ravenna. A 1 bedroom will probably run you around $1300-1800, an (admittedly) large range. So it is definitely still more expensive to live in Seattle, but not as much as it used to be and if you get roommates the difference between the schools diminishes a bit.

Overall, I would say that without the ARCS fellowship the monetary situation at JHU looks better, but with it I think you'll actually have more funding at UW. Regarding the ARCS fellowship itself, I can't speak much about the specifics of how the funding works, but I can say that the fellowship itself is rather prestigious and even noting that you received the fellowship at all is worth something.

Beyond cost of living, I will say that whether or not you prefer Seattle or Baltimore should also factor into your decision, especially since you're deciding between such elite institutions so there's no real wrong answer. Here I'll just be straight up about it: I greatly prefer Seattle. I think it's a great city with a lot of things to do, in particular the food is fantastic. Baltimore, especially certain parts of it, has been on the come up recently though. Violent crime still gives the city a bad reputation, but if you're city-savvy and don't live in the particularly bad areas I don't think it'll ever affect you. Of course it is still something to think about, after all peace of mind is worth a lot. If you're more outdoorsy, Washington state is absolutely beautiful, the forests, mountains, and lakes are probably some of the best in the country, and here I really don't think Baltimore or Maryland can really compare. Baltimore does have relatively close proximity to DC if that is important to you though, and DC can be pretty exciting. Weather is also subjective, but I can say that Baltimore/DC summers are absolutely brutal and I would definitely take the misty, temperate climate of Seattle over the summer humidity any day.

Regarding 4., UW and UNC have historically been the two biostat departments with a more heavy theoretical focus. Hopkins is definitely no slouch in this area though, so I definitely would not go to Hopkins thinking that you'll get very little theoretical training if you happen to despise it. I know UW has a pretty grueling set of qual's at the end of your second year (sort of like UNC in that respect also actually), while Hopkins only seems to have a set of exams after your first year. I am not sure about the difficulty of those Hopkins' exams. Hopkins biostat has had a huge push in data science related stuff in their department recently, integrating a large part of it into their curriculum, so if you're interested in data science that's a plus for Hopkins. Of course, UW still excels in topics such as machine learning (think Daniela Witten). I can't comment on student culture, so hopefully a current student could chime in.

I agree with the point you made in 2, and that seems to be the general consensus at any graduate program really (large departments allow for more varied research which is better for undecided people), but especially for stat/biostat where the culture seems to be that most incoming students are not 100% set on their research interests compared to something like CS. Adding on to it, it seems that Washington biostat has a closer relationship to their stats department compared to Hopkins biostat and Hopkins applied math/stat. This might expand your pool of potential co-advisors/advisors.

On 1., I think post graduation the proximity to NGO's will be a plus for Washington. During your PhD years I'm not quite as sure though. I'm sure opportunities to be a collaborating biostatistician on a global health issue will present itself at both institutions, but whether or not you can make it something like your dissertation work is probably a different question entirely. This seems like another question for the department's themselves (although I probably expect a generic, vague, positive answer from them).

 

At the end of the day though, there's no real incorrect choice here. So I wouldn't worry too much or have any regrets. Best of luck to you on your decision, and congrats on your amazing admissions!

 

[kingsdead]

Thank you so much for the amazingly in depth answer – that's exactly the kind of thing I was hoping for. I still have yet to make a decision but you have given me a lot more to think about!

[JackZ295]

On 3/7/2020 at 3:53 AM, kingsdead said:

Thank you so much for the amazingly in depth answer – that's exactly the kind of thing I was hoping for. I still have yet to make a decision but you have given me a lot more to think about!

Hi @kingsdead! I'm also considering Hopkins' and UW's ScM/MS/PhD programs in Biostatistics, and I was wondering which choice you ultimately went with and why. 

[Boolakanaka]

On 3/5/2020 at 4:41 AM, kingsdead said:

Hey all,

This forum has been very helpful to me the past year or so. I think this will be my last time asking you all for help. I've been admitted to Washington and Hopkins for a PhD in biostatistics, and while I'm aware of how lucky I am, I'm also feeling anxious about the choice I have to make now. I was hoping you all could help me compare and contrast the two. I have looked but haven't seen any threads comparing these two explicitly.

About me: I don't really have fixed research interests. I think I would like to work in global health, but beyond that, it isn't clear what I'd like to do. My background is not in statistics so I know very little about what kind of stats I'd like to research. I'm also undecided about what I'd like to do after graduating, though I think academia would be appealing.

Some more details: the money at Washington is around 34k/year. In addition I've received a fellowship from Washington at the ARCS foundation which will give 7.5k, 5k, and 5k in years 1, 2, 3 (as far as I can understand). At JHU, the funding year 1 will be 25.5k plus 6.5 to move in/other expenses. The base funding seems like it will increase slightly years 2 and 3 with the possibility of further funding (5-10k extra per year)

Some questions I am hoping for help with:

1. Washington seems to have access to more NGOs, eg Gates, while Hopkins has the stronger public health program. Where do you think options for global health research would be better?

2. It looks to me like Washington has a larger faculty and hence broader research interests, which I think might be good for me given that I don't know what I want to study. Is that accurate/does that make sense?

3. While the funding seems better at Washington, I can't tell where would be better after factoring in living expenses. Although I don't want money to be a large factor in my decision, the past two years have made me more conscious of the (lack of) money in my bank account than before. I also know very little about the ARCS fellowship and can't really tell much about what that would entail so any details would be helpful.

4. If anyone could comment on differences regarding the cultures of the department I'd really appreciate that. Any information contrasting the two in general would be awesome.

Thank you everyone for all the help so far. I hope to pay it forward on this forum in the following years as I gain more experience!!

Hmmmn, so to be transparent, my youngest D is in her 3rd at Udub in computational biology, and she had a similar decision to make. Udub had better research opportunities and in some instances, more resources. As to locale, that was easy, Seattle is a great place to go to school even with the rain---she loves it.