Choose between BU, USC, UIUC, please help me

firekite
Sat, 24 Mar 2007 08:16:05 +0000

Help me, guys. I hope I can make a wise choice.

I study bioinformatics in college, have some background in biology as well as computer science, but both not so strong.

I have got several offers, but it is hard to choose, and I am trying to make a wise choice as soon as possible.

Here are the programs:

Molecular and Computational Biology (http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/biosci/mcb/) at USC
Biophysics and Computational Biology at the University of Illinois (UIUC)(Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology at Illinois),
Bioinformatics at Boston University (http://www.bu.edu/bioinformatics/)

UIUC has the best reputation of the three, and the place is small, safe and cheap, so I think I will have a good environment to study. But I think if I want to go to industry, UIUC is not a good choice. The most important is that I am not so familiar with biophysic, and I do not have much background in physics, I am afraid that I will only be an average student.

USC and BU both focus on bioinformatics. USC is in a good place-LA, and the overall ranking of USC is good, hopefully it will continue to grow in the next few years. BU is in a good place, too, and the students in that program can work in Harvard Medical schoo, a very good opportunity. BU has more facilities coming from different apartments, like biology, biochemistry, bioengineer, chemistry and so on. USC has much less facilities， mostly assistant professors.

I think bioinformatics in BU is better than USC. But overall, USC is much better than BU. My parents want me to go to USC. Because they know USC ranks 27, but BU ranks about 80.

So, please help me guys. If you were me, which university will you choose? You can say anything you want, and I will be very grateful!