asadun

I'll be attending UNC Chapel Hill for CS. Got full funding into the PhD program. I'll probably be living off campus. Plenty of nice places within walking distance of UNC.

Hey. Has anyone heard from the CSE PhD program at UCSD? Its getting kinda late, and I still havent heard from them. I really want to go there!

Thanks a lot! And the vice versa is true, btw. I found it out.

You're quite right in that my family is not from the academia. In fact, mostly they think Im crazy to want a PhD so early But thanks for appreciating the problem. At this point I do feel that a visit would greatly help me in deciding, but its a little prohibitive at this point . But I cant visit, and so have to resort to external advice. All my work so far in undergrad research has been in Computer Vision and Geometry, but only because no one at my uni was doing Graphics, or I would have done it. But now I have the chance to go to a kick-ass graphics program, versus a kick-ass vision/geometry program, and im torn. Im really into both universities, but its just a matter that I like the research at UNC a little more than the research at Duke. But that aside, every other factor points me in Duke's direction - even my current faculty members are telling me to go to Duke. I really wish UNC had offered me a package like Duke did, but those are the breaks, I guess.

No I havent visited the schools. Its just that UNC's research in Computer Graphics fascinates me a lot, but if I go to Duke, I'll probably be working in Theory or Computer Vision, both of which I am also very good at, but I dont like as much as Graphics. Plus, Duke is where one of my profs got his PhD from, and his advisor is calling me there, and he's really, really good in his field. Also, Duke offered a really good financial package. Bottom Line: I dont know if Im willing to risk having a lesser passion for my research for extra money and so-called 'prestige', since everyone seems to know Duke, but arent sure about UNC (even though I am). And most of my faculty members and family want me to pick Duke, even though I keep telling them that UNC is the best in Computer Graphics.

This is from where I got the ranking: http://www.cs.unc.edu/Events/News/USNews.html Im sure its not a fabrication if they put it up on their website. Plus, I've been following the US News and World Report rankings, but I always take them with a grain of salt. Much better source of rankings here: http://graduate-school.phds.org/rankings/computer-science Also, I do intend to pursue an academic career, so if someone could help me out with this decision, maybe someone who's been to the two schools, that would be really awesome.

Hey all. I got into the CS PhD program for Duke and UNC Chapel Hill. Both offers are fully funded. Duke offered a fellowship (much better), UNC offered a TA/RA position. People from Duke have been emailing like crazy, including a few really awesome people I would like to work with. However, UNC has a much bigger department than Duke, more profs have funding there, and they have the best Computer Graphics program in the US, and I would really love to work in Computer Graphics. But I hear that Duke's program is considered more 'established' than the one at UNC, and that Duke's name counts for a lot. How true is this? Can anyone offer any advice on which school I should be picking?