loud kettle
Intended major: Bioengineering related
Career goal: PhD (anywhere in the world), synthetic biology/cell therapy research or maybe startup, prefer US.
JHU non-BME (probably ChemBE) vs. Imperial College London Molecular Bioengineering
JHU pros:
Great research opportunities, lower student/faculty ratio, ChBE students can take BME electives and work in BME labs, in the US—feels more at home, greater alumni and professor connections if I choose to return.
JHU cons:
Major not exact fit, Baltimore, ChBE apparently extremely hard, not sure if ChBE is looked down on by professors etc. as just a BME reject major, have to apply and sometimes interview for clubs? WTF?
Imperial pros:
Major pretty much exact fit (synthetic biology being an entire study option), Master's in 4 years, location in London, much more interesting clubs and societies
Imperial cons:
People universally agree there's a lot of stress, large populations of antisocial international students—as one myself, I want to find people I can connect to, high M/F ratio (minor issue), almost no alumni connections, moving to a more different country (minor issue), way less research funding than JHU
Tiebreaker factors:
Quality of Molecular Bioengineering education at Imperial, research quality at Imperial, social life at Imperial, how easy it is to do life sciences related research for ChBE majors at JHU, how a UK degree will be perceived in the US
eager ledge