Fishlamp

Hello, so I'm in the fortunate position of getting accepted to the ECE program at both UMD (my undergrad institution) and Purdue, with full funding. Purdue: 4 year fellowship UMD: 1/2 TA, 1/2 RA position for 1 year, professor guarantees full funding all the way through. Now I'm going into Fields and Optics for graduate school, and was offered to join a prestigious group that is quite large at Purdue, but Purdue is in the middle of corn fields, and I would like to spend some time on my social life, and not in the academic vacuum. On the other hand, the UMD group I would be joining is small, only 2 grad students and a post-doc, researching Graphene optical devices, and is located right near DC/Baltimore If you were in my position, what would you do? Head out into the unknown at Purdue, or stick with UMD? I'm stuck because both professors are nice, and I just don't know what to do between the two offers, because there is not an objectively clear winner here. ~Fishlamp

Hello, so I'm a senior UMD undergrad EE student, and I applied to Purdue and UMD's grad school programs, accepted to both, and am interested in both locations, professors, and have full funding to Purdue through a fellowship, and have yet to hear from UMD about funding. In the fall I applied to the NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship (NSTRF) with a professor I admire greatly who already collaborates with NASA (The fellowship requires collaboration during Grad school, and R&D internships in the summer). Due to NASA's proximity to UMD, the setup is perfect for graduating with a Ph.D. in graphene research, and then performing R&D internships over the summer with NASA. So when I hear back, this could be a great opportunity. So is it worth it to attend the same school for undergrad with a prestigious fellowship (NSTRF) or with a University offered fellowship at a different institution to work with a prestigious professor, who is an excellent fit? Thank you!