Value of large faculty and rankings?

[Bricktop]

I have an extremely hard time deciding between two universities for my CS PhD.

First of all, I'd like to say that right now, I'm more interested in working in the industry after my PhD, than in academia. Of course I would like to have a job that requires "PhD-level" work (for example, some research lab). I realize that in 5-6 years, my interests and desires can change quite a bit, but right now I'm more industry-oriented.

Another thing worth noting is that I don't have a clear-cut research interest yet. I'm interested in a lot of areas, but if I had to choose my PhD topic right now, I would have an extremely hard time. So I can't choose my university based on perfect advisor matches.

The two universities I can't decide between are Georgia tech and U of Chicago. My dilemma is mostly caused by the differences in reputation and faculty size.

Georgia Tech is ranked top10 in CS, and has a very large faculty, while UofC is ranked top10 overall, but is well below the top10 in CS (but still has a pretty good ranking), and also has a smaller faculty. This would imply that GaTech is the better choice. However, in everything else, I consider UofC to be better (city, housing, funding, atmosphere). The number of faculty I share interests with is kinda proportional to the faculty sizes. I feel that I would have a larger number of choices at GaTech, but it is also true that it is enough to have 1 or 2 professors with whom I work with. So after choosing my advisor, having another 200 faculty members around is "useless" to me. So I don't know if a bigger faculty is actually that much better. I have looked at many professors at both universities, and there are multiple people at both universities with whom I'd gladly work with. So there are many potentially good matches at both universities, but obviously more at GaTech, simply because of the very large faculty there.

I'll try to summarize the questions I'm most interested in:

1. How important is ranking? Do I miss out on something big if I don't choose the top10 ranked univ in CS (gatech)? For example during a CS-related job application, would a GaTech PHD be significantly better? How does the extremely good overall ranking of UofC come into this picture? Is it "useless" to me that UofC is ranked as a top10 university in the world?

2. Do I make a bad choice by seriously limiting the number of potential advisors by choosing a smaller faculty? I realize that this might be a stupid question (because it depends so much on my individual preferences and ability to choose an advisor), but I'd gladly hear anyone's personal opinion on this, or some personal experience from people who went to smaller CS departments without clear-cut research topics.

But apart from these questions, I'm really interested in any kind of input on any of these 2 universities, or any advice from people who were in similar situations, or just any advice overall

Many thanks in advance!

[<3Brains]

I don't know the answer to "how much do rankings matter?" -- I'd like to know more about it myself, and I suspect the answer is not clear cut at all and depends on what you want to do. One thing you should take into consideration, I think, is where you might want to work after you're done. I live in Atlanta and I know that around here, GaTech graduates are super well-respected. I think that's true generally in the south. Perhaps in the midwest the UofC name has more leverage.

About the size of the faculty, it seems that since your interests aren't solidified it'd be a significant advantage to have a large range of top-notch advisers to choose from. You may even discover interests that you wouldn't have been able to consider at UofC.

[explorer-c]

1. How important is ranking? Do I miss out on something big if I don't choose the top10 ranked univ in CS (gatech)? For example during a CS-related job application, would a GaTech PHD be significantly better? How does the extremely good overall ranking of UofC come into this picture? Is it "useless" to me that UofC is ranked as a top10 university in the world?

2. Do I make a bad choice by seriously limiting the number of potential advisors by choosing a smaller faculty? I realize that this might be a stupid question (because it depends so much on my individual preferences and ability to choose an advisor), but I'd gladly hear anyone's personal opinion on this, or some personal experience from people who went to smaller CS departments without clear-cut research topics.

I have a similar problem only even more confusing, to choose between GT (rank 9 CS, not that highly rank overall) and another university (rank 6 CS, Top 5 overall). After careful consideration I chose GT because it has the best fit for me, and also because the excellent graduate placement record in the lab that I want to join (a few even go on to be a faculty in other top ranked university). So, here's my suggestions to your questions:

1. Rather than ranking I would look at a particular lab that you want to join and see the placement record for their alumni.

2. If you think you have an equally good fit at both university, I personally will always choose the larger faculty simply because I will have more options and collaboration opportunities.

Edited March 4, 2010 by explorer-c