UC Davis or University of Washington (M.S. in E.E.)

[Nakhleh]

Hello everyone.

Hope this get answered. 

I was accepted to both UC Davis and the university of Washington for an M.S. in electrical engineering. I am an international student, and till now I didn't receive any words regarding funding. 

I am interested in communication and signal processing fields, mainly wireless communications' structure. At first, I was leaning towards the university of Washington, but reading more about each university's research and labs made me hesitant. From what I read, UW communication research field is not as robust as UC Davis, and by that I mean UC Davis department focus matches more with my own. UW EE department seems more focused on robotics, data acquisition and analysis, and electrical properties of materials.

Apart from the research and academic aspects, both Seattle and Davis have their distinct appeals. Seattle, I think, has the perfect city vibe and strong companies presence. Davis on the other hand sounds like a great safe college town. Again, I am an international student, so sadly I cant visit campuses and compare departments, surroundings, supervisors, etc.

Can someone please help me decide which program to attend? I would greatly appreciate if someone could double check the department research focuses I mentioned above for UW and UC Davis. Which one would you choose as an international masters' EE student, with focus on communications?

Thank you all and good luck with your applications.

[BabyScientist]

If UC Davis matches your interests more, you should go there. I went there for undergrad (not in engineering), so I can answer any questions you might have about the city/surroundings. It really is a small town, but it's only 15 mins away from Sacramento if you want city vibes, and about 1.5 hr from San Francisco if you want city vibes. I thought it was a good location for studying, because we weren't too distracted by things to do on the daily, but had the option to do exciting things whenever.