Biostat Ph.D. program, U Washington or UC Berkeley?

[starxd]

Dear all,

I've been accepted by both UW and UCB into their biostatistics Ph.D. program. While I'm lucky to be in the position of making a choice, I'm also in a dilemma. Both schools cover tuition, insurance and offer RA/TA scholarship. 

While UW ranks higher in biostat program, I think both programs are prestigious enough. UW biostat department has lots of connections with public health institutions, and has a large group in statistical genetics. Their collaboration with the stat department is also strong. In UCB, the biostat department is actually a group with faculty from stat, cs, public health departments, etc. Their connection with IT industry in bay area is tight. The placement of Ph.D. students in both programs are promising, both in academia and industry. 

It appears to me that UW has a much larger biostat department with more faculty and research groups (more funding also), and focus more on public health issues. But the faculty in UCB are all very strong in their own field of research, and focus more on statistics methodologies. And they say bay area is a more exciting place to stay than Seattle if I am open to work in industry.

Anyway, though I still have time before making decision on 4/15, I would like to learn more from you guys!

Thanks very much for your help!

[localfdr]

First of all, congrats on getting into two of the best biostats programs!

I would make this decision dependent on whether you already have clearly defined research interests and whether there is a specific faculty member at Berkeley with whom you want to work with and who is also interested in taking you on as her/his PhD student. For example, I could imagine that working with Lior Pachter or Bin Yu could lead to a very productive PhD, assuming research interests (and personalities) match. But if you are not sure about a particular Prof. at UCB with whom you want to work with, then I would go to UW because it leaves you so many more choices. 

For example, I did not even apply to UC Berkeley, because I felt that it would not be a good fit for me. UW biostats on the other hand accommodates pretty much everyone interested in anything biostats/stats related!

Edited February 19, 2016 by localfdr

[emmm]

Congratulations! Hopefully, you'll be attending Visit Days at both schools (?). If not, I do highly recommend visiting anyway and meeting with people in the department to see which feels more "comfortable" to you. It has always been helpful to me to get a feel for a place before making such a major decision. At least you  know you can't go wrong! Both are fantastic programs :-)

[starxd]

On 19 February, 2016 at 0:33 AM, localfdr said:

First of all, congrats on getting into two of the best biostats programs!

I would make this decision dependent on whether you already have clearly defined research interests and whether there is a specific faculty member at Berkeley with whom you want to work with and who is also interested in taking you on as her/his PhD student. For example, I could imagine that working with Lior Pachter or Bin Yu could lead to a very productive PhD, assuming research interests (and personalities) match. But if you are not sure about a particular Prof. at UCB with whom you want to work with, then I would go to UW because it leaves you so many more choices. 

For example, I did not even apply to UC Berkeley, because I felt that it would not be a good fit for me. UW biostats on the other hand accommodates pretty much everyone interested in anything biostats/stats related!

Thanks a lot for your useful suggestions! I can't agree more with you. I also think it's up to whether I have a target faculty member or research direction in mind. 

[starxd]

On 19 February, 2016 at 1:30 AM, emmm said:

Congratulations! Hopefully, you'll be attending Visit Days at both schools (?). If not, I do highly recommend visiting anyway and meeting with people in the department to see which feels more "comfortable" to you. It has always been helpful to me to get a feel for a place before making such a major decision. At least you  know you can't go wrong! Both are fantastic programs :-)

Unfortunately I do not have the time to visit either program. But I have contacted several faculty members of both programs and talked about my situation. They have very helpful in explaining their own program in great detail.