I made a mistake not applying to biostats so now can you help me with the choices I have now?

[JDM]

Hi all,

I am 1 year out of undergrad and have been aspiring to be an epidemiologist for the past 4 years. 3/4 of the graduate programs I applied to were programs in Epi because of this. However, in the last year, I've started to wish that I had applied to more quantitative programs. While I'd still like to be an epidemiologist, I'd like for the route to be a data scientist to be open. I feel that a masters in biostats would have provided me less constraining options.

I have narrowed down my options to either the MSc. Epidemiology program at LSHTM or the MSc. in Health Data Science at the University of Manchester. To me, it seems like Manchester is catered to both being an epidemiologist and a data scientist and it is the more financially sound program. However, I'm afraid that it might be a mistake choosing a program that is only 2 years old and less prestigious in name. LSHTM will teach me Stata while Manchester will teach me Java/R/SQL, although I suppose I can learn these on my own as well.

 

While I could take another year off and apply later, I'm afraid that I may not have the LSHTM option again if I apply to their Medical Statistics program. If I go to their epi program now, I could leverage the degree prestige to get into Epi/Biostat combined PhDs like the one at UCSF.

 

Can anyone spare a thought on this situation?