<p>Hey everybody,
I am from Germany and i will start my undergrad studies next year here in Germany. Afterwards I would like to go to the US (or GB) for my grad studies.
I am looking for a school with a good, international research reputation (like ivy, mit, stanford or whatever) but also a good social live. I dont want to be at a university full of nerds 
I do like big cities, but it is ok if the school is a few miles out of town. A nice setting with good weather would also be nice.
I know that I will not find a school that matches all my requests, but what do you think, which school is best for me. My subject will be somewhere around Bioengeneering and Biomedical sciences, good interdisciplinary programms in this area would also be good.
I hope you can help me out!</p>
<p>go to GB man, oxford is a great palce ive been to the campus, social life is great there are sjhops and resturants right outside and in the university. i ant to go there.</p>
<p>Great programs include Stanford, Duke, JHU and UC San Diego. All good weather.</p>
<p>What do you consider nice weather? Most Americans would not consider the weather in Philadelphia nice, but being from Germany I think it’s almost too warm. I am having a hard time dealing with average daily temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius in the summer (compare that to 22 degrees in Munich).</p>
<p>“I am looking for a school with a good, international research reputation (like ivy, mit, stanford or whatever) but also a good social live. I dont want to be at a university full of nerds”</p>
<p>I hate to be the one to have to tell you this, but graduate school is about being a nerd. You will have time for some fun, but mostly you will be slaving away in the lab or the library. When you aren’t in the lab/library, you will probably be grading the homework of the undergraduate students that you are teaching or helping to teach. Unless the career you have chosen absolutely requires a post-graduate degree, and/or you are blindly and passionately in love with your research subject, your years in graduate school will be a very long and bitter slog. Graduate school is not for the faint-hearted.</p>
<p>Graduate school is not like undergraduate school. The researcher that you want to work with may be at never-heard-of-it-before-U in a truly unexpected part of the world. Wait until you have a better definition for your graduate school goals before you start worrying about which school is best for you. For more ideas, you may want to take a look at the Grad School Forum. Click on “Discussion Home” in the upper left of this screen, and then scroll down until you find it.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>
<p>i concider nice weather temperatures around 80-90 degrees in summer and lots of sun, in winter snow is ok, but i dont like a 6 months-snow winter.
@happymomof1
I know that my special research interests will have a great impact on the choice of the university. I just wanted to check the possibilities, especially because i am also planning a year abroad in my undergrad time, i am not sure where to go then, of course this will be affected by my final choice of subject.
However, if anyone knows a cool university, just tell me ;)</p>
<p>With all the info you gave the best school would either cal poly in San Luis Obispo, California, UC San Diego or UC Berkeley. I don’t know if UCLA has a good science program although I doubt it has a bad one. I’m also from Germany so…where are you from in DE?</p>
<p>Hi Ichich
I’m German and about to start my undergrad degree in the US. I looked into A LOT of schools. So if you have any questions, pm me…</p>
<p>Besides, you do have 3 more years, so first you should worry about your grades.
Good US schools are very competitive…</p>
<p>OP, you basically described Stanford in a nutshell, except for the bioengineering aspect. I think it’s one of the more obscure majors and I think schools like Rice and JHU will have slightly stronger programs. Both schools also match what you’re looking for. Wait, no, JHU doesn’t have a social scene…</p>