WashU vs. Case Western vs. CMU BME Ph.D.

[commodork]

Hi all. Pursuing a BME Ph.D. somewhere within the realm of medical imaging or image analysis and currently wracked with indecision. 

 

WashU (https://bme.wustl.edu/graduate/phd/Pages/default.aspx)

 

Pros:

• Highest ranked of the three
• Great med school
• Strong affiliated imaging faculty
• Generous Stipend

Cons: 

• Rotations (I'd really rather not do them)
• No strong connections with professors so far
• Farthest from home

 

Case Western (https://engineering.case.edu/ebme/)

 

Pros:

• Offer from established professor doing some amazing work in image analysis 
• Great medical school access 
• Research in field that I already have some experience in

Cons:

• Busier PI 
• Cleveland
• Seems like an intense lab atmosphere (which has its pros and cons)

 

 

Carnegie Mellon (https://www.cmu.edu/bme/Academics/Graduate Programs/phd_program.html)

 

Pros:

• New professor doing work in optics - more facetime and guidance
• Very strong engineering school
• Ability to carve my own path
• PI is very well connected despite being new

Cons: 

• Lowest ranked BME program 
• Potential risks of new professor 
• Probably limits opportunities in academia 

 

Very indecisive about all of this. It's tough making a decision without being positive what I 100% want to do or whether I'd prefer to be on the computation or hardware side of things.

[nugget]

I'm not in your field but was curious as to why you don't want to do rotations and why this is listed as a negative. It would seem to me that rotations would give you lots of varied experience to make you more well-rounded in the field and to develop a broader base of knowledge.

[commodork]

Well, partially to be able to start on my thesis research sooner. Also, I like the security and certainty that comes with having an advisor that really wants you from the beginning. But it may be good for me since I'm so indecisive. Idk.

[nugget]

I thought you meant field rotations instead of lab rotations. So I retract my last comment, then. I don't know if this would have any advantages, apart from networking possibilities and having more flexibility to alter your research focus. I hope someone here in your field will be able to give you more insight. Good luck!