laoliu102

Choose EPFL if they are offering you enough funding!

Time to make a decision, and HELP!!!....I got MSE PhD offers from UIUC, Rice, and UCLA...They are all great schools, and I can't decide now...........I have visited all three of them, and here are some pros and cons that I observed from each school: Rice: Program too small, not as highly ranked as UCLA or UIUC, only ~7 faculty in MSE department...but I like the campus A LOT!! and the professors seem very nice too with some great publications. It's also very cheap to live there compared to UCLA...Also, Houston has a lot of engineering/energy opportunities...I can imagine myself living there... UIUC: Highly ranked MSE program, lots of professors/research groups to choose from, offered me the most money and a school fellowship, but I don't really like the location and weather.........If I really and ONLY care about research, maybe UIUC is the best choice, but I also want to live happily, and UCLA/Rice would make me happier.....UIUC can be too cold in the winter, and i have had enough cold winters.... UCLA: Great location and I have very good friends there.. I also have professors who I want to work for..The ONLY thing is MONEY...They didn't offer me first-year funding, which sounds very strange...and i have to pay out-of-state tuition for a phd program, which sounds even stranger to me...........................ok, two of the professors said that they will take care of my first-year funding if I really decide to go there (but it's not official!), so HOW DO I KNOW for sure? What if I went and ended up with no funding? And even if they did give me funding, UCLA should be a very expensive place to live... ok..another one is Penn State, but I really don't like the location even though they have a really really good MSE program....