Need Help Deciding (Electrical Engineering Ph.D)

[jimmy_01]

So I got into some pretty good grad schools, and I can't decide on where to go for my EE Ph.D studies...Here are the schools I got into:

 

- Johns Hopkins University

- Mcgill University (Canada)

- University of Cambridge (England)

- EPFL (Switzerland)

 

Now in terms of rankings, I know that University of Cambridge tops for Engineering.

 

Is Johns Hopkins recognized for Engineering? I know that their Biomedical Engineering program is pretty insane, but EE, not so sure....I did want to do research involving biomedical applications, but using electrical engineering methods...Is it possible to transfer into the Biomedical department if I got admitted into the Electrical Engineering department? Does anyone have any experience transfering departments while completing a Ph.D?

 

Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks!

 

 

 

[tarrman]

What are your research interests, and what are your plans for post-graduation?

[TeaGirl]

I think the most important thing is to figure out who your prospective advisor will be, what it is you want to research and how strong that research is at each program, and what your plans are post-graduation. Each program is in a different country so that will change things a lot, and also, in Europe PhD studies tend to be strictly research (more like work) and 3 year programs while in the U.S. it's hard to finish in 3 years and may take 1-2 years longer and involves course work. Not sure about McGill/Canada.

 

JHU is a top 20 school in EE, so it's a great school. As far as transferring, if your interest is in biomedical, I don't see why you can't do that in EE, but have a co-advisor from the biomedical dept. or take some graduate BME classes.

I'm afraid I don't know enough about the other programs to help out other than they all have great reputations in Engineering.

[jimmy_01]

What are your research interests, and what are your plans for post-graduation?

My interests lie in control systems. Specifically, I would like to apply control system theory to biological systems, such as regulating neural networks, or controlling glucose levels in diabetes patients with micro-electronics. So really, my interests involve applications from both EE and biomedical areas.

 

I think the most important thing is to figure out who your prospective advisor will be, what it is you want to research and how strong that research is at each program, and what your plans are post-graduation. Each program is in a different country so that will change things a lot, and also, in Europe PhD studies tend to be strictly research (more like work) and 3 year programs while in the U.S. it's hard to finish in 3 years and may take 1-2 years longer and involves course work. Not sure about McGill/Canada.

 

JHU is a top 20 school in EE, so it's a great school. As far as transferring, if your interest is in biomedical, I don't see why you can't do that in EE, but have a co-advisor from the biomedical dept. or take some graduate BME classes.

I'm afraid I don't know enough about the other programs to help out other than they all have great reputations in Engineering.

Thanks! I wonder if I would be allowed to take some BME classes and count towards the EE Ph.D...I guess this is something that I would have to discuss with my advisor.

Edited March 17, 2013 by jimmy_01

[NanoTech]

you should choose the one that offers you the money - full tuition/generous stipend.

provided that you got your fellowship from all four institutions, then you should go to cambridge.

[tarrman]

I agree with TeaGirl about JHU. Although you won't be in the BME dept., their presence most likely heavily influences the bioengineering portion of the EE dept. I'm sure you can get involved in some top notch research at JHU that's perfect for your interests (and remember BME spawned from EE).

 

I suggest either contacting the school or looking at the website at some of the professors to get an idea what kind of research they're doing.

 

I don't know much about the non-U.S. institutions, but they're all pretty presitgious schools.