I have been admitted to Stanford's ICME program as master student (no funding) and UIUC's fully funded PhD program in CS (scientific computing group).
While UIUC is slightly stronger in the research fields that I am interested in, Stanford program is in a lot better location and is a little more appealing to me in terms of its reputation.
However if I were to choose Stanford, I would need to pay for masters out of pocket and still deal with the uncertainty of getting into the Stanford's PhD program (minimum GPA requirement, quals, and finding faculty with funding who would take me on).
Any advice on choosing between the two, especially from Stanford or UIUC students, is greatly appreciated.