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Thanks for the response I have to make a decision by 15th April Machine Learning program is definitely the main concern, but the thing is both the universities have a great faculty for their ML track. GaTech has Mr. Vempala, Mr. Chau, Mr. Gray and Ms. Park. On the other hand Columbia has Mr. Vapnik (the inventor of SVM), Mr. Jebara and Mr. Hsu. The faculty is great at both the universities, at least as far as I know. However, if someone thinks different, I am all ears.

Hello, this is my first thread here. I have recieved admits from a few universities for the Fall 2014 MS CS program, and the best admits of the lot are to the Georgia Tech MS CS program and the Columbia University MS CS program. I am interested to specialize in Data Mining/Machine Learning/Databases. Both GaTech and Columbia have a similar MS CS program with thesis and non-thesis tracks to choose from. I realize that Columbia would be a more expensive university to go to, however the cost factor isn't my priority. My main concerns are the quality of the CS program, the Machine Learning specialization track and the future job prospects. Of course GaTech has an awesome reputation as a whole and especially as an engineering school and I have spoken to a few seniors from GaTech who confirmed that the Machine Learning track at GaTech is extremely good. GaTech (#9 CS) is also ranked higher than Columbia (#15 CS) when it comes to the Computer Science grad rankings on USNEWS (which is a +). On the other hand Columbia has its Ivy League tag, is a better ranked college when it comes to the National Rankings (Columbia #4 and GaTech #36) and is at a great location (NYC). However, I have not been able to find seniors from Columbia University who could shed some light upon its MS CS and specifically its Machine Learning specialization track. I hope some members here could enlighten me about the MS CS and ML track at Columbia and GaTech as well, so that I can make an informed decision about which university to go to.