<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>I recently visited all of the schools whose BME/BioE Ph.D. programs I was accepted to and have narrowed it down to Penn, BU, and Cornell. Here are the benefits and drawbacks of each school.</p>
<p>Penn</p>
<p>Benefits: Best fit with main POI, guaranteed funding/a spot in her lab, most prestigious, nice city, close to my girlfriend, grad students seemed happy/friendly</p>
<p>Drawbacks: No rotations, difficult to switch if advisor leaves/things don't work out, (relatively) far from my family</p>
<p>BU</p>
<p>Benefits: Close to home, in a nice city/great area for biomedical research, prestigious program, POI is probably my second favorite</p>
<p>Drawbacks: POI doesn't know if she will have funding for me, no other professors I am remotely interested in working with, far from girlfriend, didn't have much in common with current grad students</p>
<p>Cornell</p>
<p>Benefits: Several professors I could see myself working with, really happy, friendly students, cheap area to live in</p>
<p>Drawbacks: Not much going on in Ithaca, least prestigious program, no one professor I liked as much as the two mentioned before, far from family and girlfriend</p>
<p>Does anyone have any advice? I am currently leaning towards Penn and I know that ultimately I need to make my own decision based on my own values, but I am curious to hear opinions of people who may have faced a similar choice.</p>