Donald Draper

Hello guys, I applied to some universities for Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. program, and I have received a few admits. Out of those, NCSU and UDelaware are my top priorities and I am finding it difficult to choose between the two. I have been in contact with my potential advisers in NCSU and UD, and both of them have offered me a funded position in their respective labs. On one hand, NCSU's engineering program is ranked higher (#24) than that of UD's (#46) and I have a couple of acquaintances at NCSU who have all said that the university is great. On the other hand, the research interest compatibility with my potential lab in UD is higher as their current and future research plans align almost perfectly with that of mine; their PI's research impact is also higher. Having said that, the lab that I am interested to join in NCSU are doing similar (and very interesting) work but a subset of what I want to do. I know that for a Ph.D. a lab and the professor matter the most, but I just cannot get myself to reject a big engineering school like NCSU. Any thoughts on this will be really helpful. Thanks in advance. Best, Don