This is a tad premature seeing as I have not been accepted to Maryland yet, but I am curious if I am missing something here.
My research over the last couple of years has focused on developing components for integrated plasmonic devices. I hope to stay in this field or closely related fields in graduate school (integrated photonics/quantum optics).
I am fortunate enough to have been accepted to Purdue (fellowship) and UIUC (RA). I am seriously considering only one other school - the University of Maryland. So here's my question - UIUC unquestionably has a better reputation than the other schools in general, but it seems like a really weak choice for my interests. Aside from Kwait at UIUC, no one else seems to have a group churning out research on the level (as measured by the imperfect Google Scholar h-index) of Shalaev/Boltasseva/Bermel/Weiner/Qi or Waks/Hafezi/Munday/Murphy. Plus, Purdue comes with all the resources behind its Purdue Quantum Center and Maryland has the Joint Quantum Institute. I am open to an academic career but I am by no means gunning for it.
UIUC is the odd man out, right? It sounds stupid when I say it out loud, but I think this is right. This is obviously a different calculation if I was biased toward electronic devices/semiconductors.
Any advice will be appreciated.
- Entangled
