<p>Hello everyone, new one here!
I am an international student and I applied for a PhD at various universities of USA. I am interested in Computational Biology even if my background is entirely in Computer Science and I studied Biology only in a very basic amateurish level.
I got these two offers amongst the others, and I am very confused.
On the one hand there is Brown, Ivy League, very reputable, I visited it and it has an awesome campus but... if I go there I will be basically able to work with only one faculty member as the other participants are mainly focucing in more mathematical aspects that not intrigue me. This professor is young, friendly, seems excited about his work and very promising as a scientist in this field. He also has only 3 other PhD students which might be good or not.
On the other hand there is UCI which is not as strong in ranking and reputation as Brown, but is not that bad either. My main concerns are the following: West coast, that means faaaar from home. Public university so I would probably get 1500 instead of 2200 that Brown gives me. The professor that accepted me is the director of the Bioinformatics group there which has many more faculties to collaborate, is older than Brown's professor, has more papers, more work, but also many more students (around 12 :/ ).
From a less important perspective I like California's weather, East Coast's culture and proximity, I will probably be able to stay with my boyfriend at UCI whereas he has to sacrifice a lot for me to stay East Coast.
Any opinions are more than welcome. Is the reputation of Brown that important? Which group is stronger in this field?
Thanks a lot for your time</p>