U of Chicago vs. Caltech

[Senior]

Dear Fellows,

I have been admitted to molecular engineering Ph.D. program at U of Chicago and interviewed for the medical engineering program at Caltech. Although my undergraduate is in engineering and all of my experience is with numerical methods, I prefer to do research in biochemistry/cell biology field using experimental methods in my graduate studies. The professors of both programs are awesome but the interdisciplinary nature of Chicago's program, which allows students to take courses from the biology and chemistry devisions, and the research theme there is closer to my interests.

On the other hand, the research at the medical eng. program at Caltech is more focused on the "engineering" side of the bioengineering field which I'm not interested in much. Also, I guess the atmosphere at U of Chicago is happier and more friendly than Caltech. However, I have to admit that it is very difficult to say no to "Caltech".

I wanted to ask for your suggestion regarding my choice. Besides does anyone know if it would be possible to change my program at Caltech to Chemistry or Cell Biology after I get there or not?! If it is so, then the situation is quite different.

Thanks in advance for your help :-)

[Argon]

I don't have much input, but the UChicago program is brand new. I was a bit weary about this, but it seems the professors are all well-established in their field. Still, it'd be something worth looking into in more detail I'd imagine (personally).