<p>I need to make a decision very soon and I was hoping if anyone could give me advice on which school to choose for BME:</p>
<p>UMaryland PhD- full support/stipend, location and program not as appealing
Columbia MS- like one of the PI's research, like the city, good program, but expensive
UPenn MS- top program and ranking, have not found a PI I'm interested in, most expensive</p>
<p>I don't know what to do. Please give me any suggestions!!!!</p>
<p>What is the field? How much would you have to pay to study at Columbia or Penn? How long would you have before you needed to locate a PI at Penn? Would you go straight to work after completing these programs, or would you try to stay for the Ph.D.? Will you receive an M.S. en route to the Ph.D. at MD, or do they only hand them out to people who they determine aren’t going to make it the rest of the way?</p>
<p>The general rule of thumb for Ph.D. programs is to go where the money is. If you aren’t good enough to receive full support, you probably aren’t good enough to get a job after you graduate.</p>
<p>For more opinions, re-post this in the Grad School forum. Click on “Discussion Home” in the upper-left of this screen, and scroll down to find it.</p>
<p>I think this is an appropriate forum for this thread. There are no ‘decision’ threads in the grad school forum. Perhaps that is a specific area that CC should address.</p>
<p>Anyhow, I would take the full fellowship package at Maryland. In grad school funding saves so much stress and worry and Maryland is a GREAT place to get a funding package from.</p>
<p>If your end goal is a PhD, then Maryland should be your choice. Being accepted at in Masters programs at C/P gives you absolutely no guarantee of getting into a phd program later. Pretty much all PhD programs are fully funded, so the hard part is getting accepted.</p>
<p>thanks for the suggestions!</p>
<p>The reason why I am even considering columbia or upenn is the fact that I may want to go into industry right after my MS, and later go for an MBA. MS at these institutions may give me a head start in some selective companies. The PhD at MD is extremely appealing, but I don’t think I can be here for another 5 years without losing my sanity. It may be possible to leave the PhD program with an MS but that would not be ideal. The cost of columbia 40K and upenn 50K tuition + another 20K for living expenses. I’m not quite sure if it is worth the investment.</p>
<p>blegh!</p>
<p>Lots of people leave Ph.D. programs after completing the M.S. I did because my department flat-out ran out of money. Other people that I know left because they had a change of heart about their professional goals, or their advisor didn’t get tenure (some follow the advisor to the next place), or their advisor died and they didn’t like the options that remained, or they did poorly on their prelims and got the Master’s diploma and the boot. I’m sure that you can think of other reasons as well. Beginning a Ph.D. with full support is no guarantee that you will complete it, and you are by no means obligated to keep working toward it if your life takes a different turn.</p>
<p>In other words, you are perfectly free to look on this as a choice between an M.S. with full support at MD (with the option to continue to the Ph.D. if you so choose), an M.S. with partial support at Columbia, and an M.S. with no support at Penn. Depending on your earning potential if you go straight to industry after the M.S. you probably should eliminate Penn which leaves you with a choice between MD and Columbia.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>
<p>50% of all Ph.D students drop out- it is rigorous and you are not obligated to stay. Take the funding get your MS and then decide if you want to continue. If you do well at Maryland you will CERTAINLY be in the running for a high quality MBA program, Maryland is not a chumpy little school haha.</p>