dxfizzle

great answers. thanks!

Um, this sounds like Cornell vs Purdue. lol. Anyways, if you are pretty sure that A doesn't have much then I'd recommend you go with B. Let's assume you go with A and you stick with it and remain in your chosen line. Whenever you encounter a major obstacle, you'd likely keep regretting while you never went to B... I'd look at what the students from both A and B go on to do after their PhD. If you see what you like more at A than at B then you need to reconsider A. Bear in mind that you can go to B, make crazy awesome research, and go to industry; or go to B, make crazy awesome research and pub and go do a postdoc in a much higher school. Still winning! In the end, ranking is good and I don't agree when ppl totally bash it but ranking should also be taken with a grain of salt. Personally, I'd go with this list of self-made list of priority: -potential interests -possible advisers -school's ranking -what students do after their PhD -What's my gut telling me Anyways Congrats! Good luck!

Awesome! These are some questions: -How rigorous is the UIUC CS curriculum? Not sure if you can compare with Cornell's but that'd be great -What's the class size like? -Which do you prefer in terms of area to live in and why? -Which has more diversity in their population? -What did u like about UIUC? What did your friends like about Cornell? Thanks for your help!

Porshyen, I'm not too clear about "...nor did you offer enough information here." but to answer some of your questions: -Which program is the better fit? I intend to visit both schools but I doubt that just visiting is enough as sometimes, first time feelings might not really be accurate. Also I feel professors and students may just appear 'nice' on that day just to attract students. -Which professors have research interests closely related? Prior to applying to both schools I researched the departments and found at least 3 different professors whose research I really like (in the area of Distributed Systems). I have read that "1/3 of incoming students change the fields specified in their SOP when they eventually enroll..." and I think I will change mine. But now, I think I'm interested in Software Engineering and UIUC is pretty good at this with at least 3 professors research that I really dig. However, I have not made up my mind about exclusively pursuing Software Engineering because there are still other areas I really like: HCI, Distributed Systems, Networking. Consequently, I don't want to pick UIUC just because of Software Engineering because I am not 100% sure that's what I want to do. Moreover, I wrote about working in the area of Distributed Systems in my SOP for both schools because that's the area I worked on in my past research projects. -Importance of location: I like a safe environment and I've read that both are relatively safe. I prefer a quite place and it seems both are not really like huge cities. Now, I don't like cold! But both are very cold so I've got no choice anyways. Urbana is cheaper in terms of cost of living but the stipend for Cornell makes up for the cost of living in Ithaca too. So everything seems to even out. Meanwhile, I like the idea of randomly driving from Ithaca to NYC to see Times Square -Interactions with both schools: so far, both have been quite responsive. Some UIUC profs already emailed to say hi (I think that's pretty nice) and senior PhD students are already willing to answer my questions. Same for Cornell -What I want to do after graduation Work in industry research for a while, dabble in start-ups, return to academia as a prof (that's the only reason I'm doing this PhD anyways). Both schools seem pretty good in these areas. I recently found out about Cornell NYC tech and it seems that an entrepreneurial environment is pretty much growing bigger there. TL;TR --Cornell and UIUC have profs whose research I dig a lot --They are both in the middle of nowhere so nothing huge abt locations --I intend to visit both schools but I doubt that one time visit might help make a decision

I've got admits to both schools with funding. Both are ranked no 5 (U.S news ranking) and also in the middle of no where but I'm having a hard time choosing. My areas of focus span software engineering or distributed systems. Which would you select and why? PS: I plan to visit both but I need your opinions.

I've been looking at different grad schools for funding for masters students but nothing seems to look favorable. I know PhD students are better funded but I'd like to know which schools consider funding for masters student. I'd like more details about schools like MIT, CMU, UC Berkeley, Cornell, GaTech or any of the top 20 CS schools. But any other info about any other schools will be really appreciated provided they offer some sort of financial aid. Thanks for your help