Need Help: Stanford BioE PhD versus MIT EECS Area VII PhD?

[jeffma87]

Dear all,

I have been really fortunate and been admitted to PhD programs at MIT Area VII (BioE) and Stanford BioE PhD. My undergrad was in BME/EE double major. My MSE was in BME. My focus was in Medical Imaging, including computer guided diagnostics, computer vision, machine learning, etc.

I want to continue my PhD work in these areas. I love both places and they both have several labs that do the work I love. Which one would you guys recommend? They are both super prestigious, but I just want to know which if I want to be a BME faculty eventually?

My current thesis advisor and my parents and mentors say that MIT is the best school for EECS and will give me the best chance for faculty positions. But Stanford is equally ranked. I'm leaning heavily towards MIT, but I want to see of anyone here can make a good case for Stabford.

Thanks!!

-DL

[ghanada]

Those are both fantastic schools and you really can't make a bad choice here. Have you visited both and talked to potential advisers at each school? Since rankings and prestige are nearly equal, it might be best to just pick the place that you feel you will have a better relationship with your adviser. Also, consider where where in the country you can see yourself ending up. I am from California but I live in Boston now and I can definitely say that on the west coast everyone highly respects Stanford (prob a bit more than MIT) and on the east coast the exact opposite is true with people really respecting MIT. And it would probably also make sense that the place you end up choosing will have more networking and more connecting to the area around it. Finally, the last point I would say is that since you want to stay in academia you will definitely have to do a post-doc. I have heard it is always best to do a post-doc someplace different than your grad school so you should maybe factor in if you think one of these schools would be better for a potential post-doc than the other.

[HassE]

I agree with ghanada, I'm from Boston did my undergrad in Boston and I feel MIT is more prestigious than Stanford, however it seems like the opposite in the west coast. To me, Stanford is very good in many things, Engineering, Law, Business, and even other things like Football as they've been getting a lot of attention in the media, however with MIT you only think of one thing to me, a Genius in Engineering. Boston is amazing, however from what i've heard Cali is also very very nice. Two very different atmospheres though.

I'm curious just because you mentioned imaging, it's a field i'm currently involved in right now as well. Do you mind posting your stats? Whered you do your undergrad and where'd you do your MS. Any publications? MS-thesis? or non-thesis.

Thanks

[jeffleung1992]

Sorry to resurrect this old theread, but what did you end up picking jeffma87, and are you happy with your decision?

Thanks!

[Avatar123]

"Last Active May 19 2012 04:59 PM"

 

I double you'll get a response, but I'm betting that he went to MIT.

[TheMostPowerfulApplicant]

Haha, both are amazing. It's too bad you can't do both!!!