jd1

Thanks for all the replies. Very helpful. Options 1 and 2 are Waterloo and MUN respectively. For Computer Science, there's really not much of a comparison. For the sub-field of AI that I work in currently, MUN happens to have some great researchers, and Waterloo has none at all.

So, I have basically the best/worst decision of my life. I have three great opportunities for graduate studies, and no easy way to pick between them. I thought maybe some advice from the internet would help. The crux of the issue is that each school's offer dominates the others in one or more respects, but is dominated in the others: - All schools offer significantly (i.e. 5 figures) more money than is required to pay tuition and living expenses. - All schools have supervisors I've met and believe I'd enjoy working with. - All schools are in locations I'm comfortable living in. Thus, the differences become: Option #1 offers the best guaranteed finical position, the most international prestige, and is where my significant other wants to go. On the down side, it has no active research in my specific sub-field, so I'd have to switch after already having built up a considerable body of publications and knowledge. Option #2 offers the some of the best research opportunities in my sub-field in North America. On the down side, it's a tiny school with little reputation internationally. It offers a decent financial package with a net worth about 50% that of option #1, but which is still large enough to yield a very comfortable savings account. Option #3 is staying where I am now. I'd get to keep working with my current research group, which would make it really easy to generate more publications since all the infrastructure is already in place. If I get all awards I've applied for, this school offers the best financial position. More likely, it would be somewhere in the neighborhood of option #2 money-wise. On the down side, I'd be doing two degrees at the same place, and becoming increasingly like the "lifers" (those who do all their degrees at one place) I see wandering the halls. Thoughts?