<p>I am wondering about these two schools. Money-wise, BU offered me a fellowship that requires no service from me during the first year. Subsequent years will involve doing RAship with my chosen professor. In the case of USC, I have to do a TAship (I think).</p>
<p>In the case of identifying PoIs, I was able to identify more PoIs in BU.</p>
<p>It looks like that I am leaning towards BU, but I am not sure. I havent visited any of these schools; I am an international student. Any comments/ideas are welcome?</p>
<p>What do you guys think about these two programs and their reputation in bioinformatics?</p>
<p>I got rejected from other schools, so these two will have to do :)</p>
<p>Anyone?? 
It’s very hard to make decision without visiting the schools. Any comment is appreciated.</p>
<p>Hey, I saw your question earlier. I’m going into comp bio grad school this year as well. Unfortunately I don’t know enough about these schools to offer any really substantive help. I would suggest getting the email adresses of a few current students in labs that you’re interested in joining (you can usually find them online pretty easily), and send each of them a short message asking if they’d be willing to answer a few questions. In my experience they’re usually pretty happy to help, especially when they know you’ve already been admitted. For the most part, they also seem to be pretty honest if there is something they don’t like about their program.</p>
<p>Congratulations on your admissions! From what I hear they’re both good places to study bioinformatics. If you have questions about Boston or LA I might be able to help, I used to live in LA and I grew up not too far from Boston. Boston and LA are very different cities, so if that’s a factor for you I’d be happy to help as I can.</p>
<p>Thanks blusterbluth!.. I may throw georgia tech (bioinformatics) into the mix. Do you have any opinion on georgia tech bioinformatics? How is it compared to BU or USC?</p>
<p>Unfortunately I don’t know too much about Georgia Tech either (I mostly looked into schools in the pacific northwest, northern California and the midwest). I’ve heard good things about Georgia tech, and in general Georgia tech is very well respected in computer science and engineering, but I’m sure you already know more about the specifics of their program than I do. I am guessing you will have more luck emailing students and/or faculty directly. You might get lucky and find someone knowledgeable on this site, but I think a lot of people are coming here less regularly now that the admissions season is winding down.</p>
<p>Once again, congratulations and best of luck!</p>
<p>Thanks blusterbluth 
Good luck to you too</p>