<p>Hello! I applied to both MIT and UCLA and was blessed to get into both. I am pretty sold on MIT, but love UCLA as well. The social life is not a worry at either, and I feel like I would fit the personality of either.</p>
<p>I got into Biological Engineering (Course 20) at MIT and MIMG (Pre Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics) at UCLA. Either way, I wish to later pursue graduate studies in Immunology and end up in research, preferably in maleriology. I am very much interested in undergraduate research opportunites and, obviously, overall quality of learning.</p>
<p>Can anyone give me insight into these majors at either of these fantastic schools to aid me in my decision process? Thank you so much! :)</p>
<p>There’s no comparison here man. UCLA is a public school and for someone who wants to do research as a profession, you will have a harder time finding quality internships at UCLA than MIT (a private and more well-funded institution…).</p>
<p>overachiever is right. Anything with the suffix of “engineering” whether it’s biomedical or electrical should not be compared to MIT. Especially for research emphasis. Even though UCLA is the 2nd best public school in the nation, MIT is in another league of its own, but be truly grateful you have that amazing choice. You obviously deserve it if you got into both, but MIT is by far the best answer in my opinion.</p>
The problem is that the OP has made it clear his intention to pursue Immunology and MIT’s major is not as relevant to his area of interest. (He doesn’t appear to be interested in any “engineering” in the generic sense and UCLA’s MIMG is not a part of Samueli.)</p>
<p>While MIT is clearly a better university than UCLA, you cannot give such general advice (MIT > UCLA) when an individual is interested in such a specific, specific area of study. The OP clearly has done a lot of research before he narrowed down two rarely compared universities. I would refrain from giving advice unless one is knowledgeable regarding UCLA’s MIMG major or role in Immunology.</p>
<p>one my good friends is an MIMG major here. the department is restructuring the upper division coursework to allow students to take two paths: one path has standard lab coursework while the other is heavily research oriented. the research path is focused on getting student’s involved in independent research, with seminar classes to help them out. my friend is enjoying the research-based path if that means anything (he’s studying West-Nile virus)</p>
<p>in short, the MIMG major at UCLA is in fact research based now. there are a lot of research opportunities in LA, so I have no doubt you would be able to find a great lab to do independent research in. I have some aspiring graduate school friends who are actually paid to do independent research and spend at lot of their time in lab since they love their subject area so much.</p>
<p>Of course, MIT’s graduate program has very high profile professors and no doubt they have greater funding than UCLA. Its an even tougher school than UCLA though, so get ready to work hard if you go there (there’s a reason why its P/NP 1st year)</p>
<p>tldr: While MIT is better funded and more high profile professors, UCLA is definitely no slouch in research and does have GREAT research labs you can work in too. Its just that we’re a public school and aren’t able to match the funding MIT gets. No doubt, MIT has better resources through funding/alumni donations. But if you end up liking UCLA for other reasons (atmosphere, weather, people, beach…the environment and people of both schools are VERY different), the MIMG program here is great for research.</p>
<p>I generally believe that picking an undergraduate program based on a single major is risky. Most people change majors at least once in undergrad. Unless you know with complete certainty that there is nothing else you would ever want to study, it’s usually better to pick the program with better overall fit. </p>
<p>That does not mean pick MIT because it’s more prestigious. It also doesn’t mean pick UCLA because it’s more fun (seriously, I live out east, and you will hate the weather.) Pick the school you think, overall, will fit YOU better. </p>
<p>I know that’s an overly broad statement. But I also believe these sorts of problems are best sorted out through self-awareness. Good luck!</p>