Hello everyone,
I'm having an incredibly difficult time choosing between two professional Masters programs, which essentially means the degree is taught and terminal. The main issue that's clouding my judgement is that I'm not entirely sure in which area I'd like to specialize within the broad field that is this graduate program.
Case A:
- Very large but very highly regarded public research university with in-state tuition.
- Masters program has a particular strength in my potential area of interest, and the professors I've spoken to seem approachable.
- Seems to have a lot of opportunities for students to get involved with "Centers" of research and work associated with the program
- My graduate advisor here is also in my perceived area of interest and recently won a "Mentor of the Year" award, but because this is a professional masters, the advisor-student relationship doesn't necessarily need to be as strong as it would for a PhD ship, for example, so I'm not sure how important this is.
BUT
-The program has a LOT of required courses, so there's less flexibility to take other classes within my interest.
- I literally cannot stand the city/area that it's in.
- I've lived in this state my entire life, so a part of me is yearning to branch out and explore a completely new area.
Case B:
- Smaller but very highly regarded private university out of state whose name has something of a "wow" factor, deserved or not. A part of me has always dreamed of going to this school.
- I love the campus. I love the area.
- The degree is incredibly flexible and doesn't have many prerequisites, and I'd also be able to take even more classes at highly-regarded public university nearby.
BUT
- The specialization I THINK I may be interested in is an admitted weakness of the program.
- Despite this, seems to have a lot of opportunities available in a variety of other focal areas I may decide I'm more interested in, but not necessarily a whole lot of faculty are available to support these areas, either - in other words, I'd have to work much harder than at [Case A] to seek out and make opportunities, but I've been assured that it can be and commonly is done.
- Some of the professors I spoke to didn't seem as approachable, and involvement in "Research Centers" don't appear to be as inclusive to students / as strongly developed as [Case A.]
My funding for both is pretty similar, so money is thankfully not an issue here. Both programs are approximately equally ranked, share the same size and claim to have a massive alumni network to support employment and internship opportunities post-graduation.
What seems most important to my deliberations have been "Where do I want to live" vs. "Program fit," which I'm not entirely sure should be weighed equally, but in my mind currently are. At the same time, I don't want to choose [Case A] because it seems to have a strength in what I think I'm interested in, only to find out that what I thought I'd wanted to study isn't, in fact, what I'm really interested in and regret that I didn't try to strike it out on my own at [Case B].
Any thoughts? Any advice on what factors may be more important than others?
I would appreciate any advice you can give - seeing this from several points of view would be very helpful! Thanks and cheers!