Hi,
I have had offers from University of Colorado - Boulder, and GA-Tech, and I'm very excited about both! I'm trying to pick them apart.
GA Tech, both the university and school (Computer Science) is ranked far above CU Boulder - GATech CS is top 10, vs 40 for CU Boulder on US News and World. How much weight should I give this and will it matter when it come to PhD admissions and/or employers?
Subjectively, both programs have a great program for my domain - artificial intelligence - and both have an interdisciplinary approach which is a definite win for me.
I am concerned that GA-Tech is more industry/application focused (I'm more interested in academia or research jobs.) I am also concerned that the existence of the new Online Masters will dilute the value and indeed, the experience, of the on-campus masters. This is compounded when I check the accept/reject ratios for GA Tech on this site. There are zero reported rejections for the Masters program. I find this apparent non-selectivity difficult to reconcile with the program's high rank.
My only concern with Colorado is related to the US News and World ranking-- does 40 necessarily mean it isn't as rigorous academically? It has a much lower endowment than GA Tech but will that affect me day to day?
Any thoughts or experiences with either of these programs? Interested to hear any insight, but especially interested in figuring out the pedagogical difference in the programs.
Thanks in advance!