croyd

Yeah, I was including previous graduates. My thinking is that's an indication of his capability to mentor/train top-notch researchers, which would carry between institutions. His graduates from Northeastern seem to be doing pretty well; one of them is actually an assistant professor at Indiana, and there are post-docs at Brown and Harvard as well.

Thanks for the input, getting some outside perspective is very interesting. One thing I want to clarify- I got a sense that graduate students at Yale are strongly supported at the department/university level in terms of support and resources available, at least relative to my other options. I think of the higher stipend as representative of that support; the dollar amount isn't so important to me. Yale requires two semesters of TA-ing. At each school I'd be joining a fairly well-funded group, so I don't think I would be under any pressure to TA frequently. There's not much opportunity to *lead* classes at any of these places, but one of the graduates at Yale said she thought the TA experience there prepared her pretty well. As far as living in Bloomington, or a similar town like New Haven, I know it's not that bad, just a bit pedestrian compared to Boston. In reality, though, I'm not that outgoing of a person- maybe pedestrian should be a positive rather than a negative. Really, the most appealing thing about Boston is the proximity to all the other good schools. The professor at NEU is actually very flexible about finding a suitable topic. Plus, if that doesn't work out, there's a number of others there that I'd be interested in working with. I think I'd summarize my current thinking on research fit/placement records/living situations as: Indiana: * slightly better research fit as well as flexibility * not a great placement record, but not many data points to go off of * very comfortable place to live Northeastern: * good research fit and lots of flexibility for finding an area * very good placement record * very costly place to live Yale: * good research fit but less flexibility * decent placement record * comfortable living situation (I want to emphasize again that I haven't really sorted out what exactly I want to work on during my phd, so it's a bit of a stretch to say that one place is the best in that department. I place a lot of value in the flexibility of the groups at Indiana and Northeastern.) Indiana versus Northeastern seems like a tradeoff between placement record and living situation, while Yale is a compromise on each axis. I'm starting to think that I might be overly concerned out about living arrangements relative to the academic factors, though...

Hi, I'd appreciate any opinions or advice on the schools I'm considering. I have three good offers, each of which I find strongly appealing, and am having a hard time trying to make a decision. A little background: I will be pursuing a computer science phd. Specifically, I'll be working in the area of programming lanugages (PL), but I haven't figured out what sub-area I'm most interested in. My 'Plan A' after finishing is to continue in academia. -------------------- Indiana -------------------- * A more direct fit for my research interests as they are today, but I suspect my interests will change a lot over the course of a phd. * Large amount of collaboration between different faculty and students, meaning I would be able to work with different people on different projects until I find what I'm most interested in (without worrying about funding). * Really large PL group - at 6 faculty members, that's about as big as gets in this field. Many schools don't have more than 2. The upshot of this is that they have a great community within the department plus offer interesting topics classes more frequently. Lots of flexibility if my first choice adviser doesn't work out. * I'd mostly be working with junior professors, so it's hard to tell how successful their graduates are/would be. * School seems to be somewhat 'middle-of-the-road' in terms of reputation/prestige. * Low cost of living, but Bloomington isn't that exciting a place to live. -------------------- Northeastern -------------------- * Also a large PL group of 6 faculty. More weighted towards senior professors; there's only one junior professor. Most of the same benefits of Indiana, although they don't seem to offer topics courses with any regularity. * In fact, the coursework requirement is very light, requiring only 6 classes, plus a thesis requirement rather than a qualifying exam. * Professor I'd be working with has very a strong track record for graduating successful students. I think ~10 of ~20 graduates are in academic positions (TT faculty or postdoc, with the majority being TT). However, a lot of those were at Rice (stronger reputation) instead of Northeastern. I'm not sure how much that changes things; the graduates from Northeastern seem to be doing quite well. * For a senior professor he's very hands on and demanding and gives plenty of feedback/criticism. Current students all have a very high opinion of working with him. * This professor is also something of a polarizing figure in the field. He's very outspoken, which seems to have resulted in being rude to people at conferences and what not. Some of this repuation would probably transitively apply to me. * Housing in Boston is super expensive, and made more tricky because I have a dog to take care of. This is somewhat mitigated by my having worked full time for the past few years and saved some money. * Boston is more exciting place to live. -------------------- Yale -------------------- * Hands down the most prestigous school; likely beneficial for a potential academic career. * Very small department (20 professors), but they just announced plans to hire another 5-7 over the next few years. * There are two POI's I could work with: one senior with a large group (~10 students + 3 postdocs) that I'd likely be joining, and one junior. Both are good fits for my interests, but as I mentioned before those aren't exactly nailed down yet, so a lot less flexibility than my other options. * Senior professor's placement record not as strong as the professor at Northeastern. * Significantly more funding (50% higher stipend!), plus a lower cost of living, would result in a real quality of life increase. * More graduate-school wide events and support, making it easier to make new friends and socialize outside the CS department (for example, there's a school subsidized graduate-student-only bar on/near campus).

Along those lines, Yale just announced they're increasing the size of the department: http://seas.yale.edu/news-events/news/yale-launches-expansion-department-computer-science

I'm also considering joining the PL group at Northeastern and dealing with the same questions. One thing that has helped me is noticing that graduates from the 'PLT' group at Northeastern (formerly at Rice, I think) seem to be doing pretty well after graduating: http://www.ccs.neu.edu/racket/people.html