got admission of MPH from Harvard and Hopkins
now have difficulty deciding which to go
my main interest lies in biostatistics
plan to get a biostat PhD degree in the future
hope someone could share his/her experiences and information regarding the biostat departments of the two schools (strength and weakness, faculty, PhD training, funding... etc.)
Thanks a lot ^^
I'm an Epidemiology Student at HSPH. I don't know much about the relative strengths of the Biostatistics Departments at the two institutions, but here are some things to think about:
(1) The MPH program at HSPH is not designed to prepare you for a research career in Biostatistics. Biostatistics students generally have their own sequence of courses that you may, or may not, be allowed to take. Those courses are designed for people with a very strong Mathematics background (ie a good understanding of real analysis).
(2) Think carefully about whether you want to do Biostatistics or Epidemiology. Biostatistics is a very technical discipline focused on mathematical rigor and proof. Almost everyone in that department have a mathematics background, rather than a clinical background.
(3) Epidemiology can basically be thought of as applied Biostatistics. Since both of you have been accepted to the MPH program, I am going to assume you are clinicians. If you are interested in analyzing any kind of clinical or epidemiological data, eg running clinical trials, Epidemiology training is going to be sufficient. If you are interested in mathematically proving that a new type of estimator is unbiased, then by all means, go for a Biostatistics PhD.
(4) HSPH has a very strong methodology group in Epidemiology, focused on modern methods for drawing causal conclusions from complex longitudinal observational data. Their thinking about causality is reflected in how almost every epidemiology and applied biostatistics course is taught at HSPH. I would count it as a major reason to choose Harvard.
