mtzh4 Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 (edited) Hi, everyone: Since one of the schools require me to respond by March 29th, I probably have to make my decision now, the schools on hand are: 1. U pittsburgh: PhD in biostatistics, concentration in statistical genetics (thus the direction of future dissertation), RA, monthly stipend of 1.9k + tuition waiver, SPH ranking 11, overall ranking 58, 2. Univ of Southern California: PhD in biostatistics, under medical school department of preventive medicine, first two years fellowship 30k/yr, 3rd yr on RA monthly stipend of 2.5k+ tuition waiver + insurance, thus can decide dissertation direction on 2nd or 3rd year, cannot find the subject ranking (their professor claim this is because they do not have SPH, but they have the most NIH grant among all departments of preventive medicine, and probably top 10 in NIH grant among all medical schools... ), overall ranking 25 3. Still pending: Boston U, UCLA, Brown U... Boston Univ has probably waitlisted me, the admission said the result would be coming up soon. Brown U has contacted my thesis advisor, but not pretty sure if they will give me an offer. UCLA will probably reject me, though no news so far... 4. A few safeties, for personal reasons, gonna reject them within this week. Can anyone give me some suggestion on the selection? Thanks so much. BTW, I am currently a master at Yale Edited March 14, 2013 by mtzh4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acdelco Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 who do you have to tell by the 29th? can you ask for an extension or contact the ones you are waiting on and get an update. I'd say Pitt or USC are good options. Pitt is a lot cheaper city to live in than LA so that is something to consider Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtzh4 Posted March 17, 2013 Author Share Posted March 17, 2013 Pitts asked me to reply by 29th. They don't let me extend simply because they have to leave the chance to other possible comers , they are more research based thus need to recruit a certain amount of phd each year. I asked BU for update about 10 days ago, they said it would be coming up soon but still no news so far. UCLA did not reply my email. Brown told me I was waitlisted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhpark3 Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 Well, it looks like you are constrained to a field (genetics) at pitt, while you have more freedom at USC. Also, 30k/yr for two years for free (fellowship) is huge because it's good money, and you don't have to waste time with TA or RA and focus on your studies. The stipend of 2.5 seems much better. Plus LA has better whether and I think you will have more contact with collaborators at a school that has a better medical school (that's how it is at UCLA). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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