Decision Help--Industrial Engineering

[RoboTicks]

Hi All,

I have recently been accepted into the Masters' program in IE dept at Gatech(GT) and Vatech(VT).

And now i have to decide which school to choose.please help..

my profile is listed in my account info. I dind not apply to really cool schools like Stanford, MIT and Cornell because the costs there would have been extremely high.

1. Both the schools have almost similar costs for the two yr program..on paper cost of attendance at GT(Atlanta) is ~65K and at VT (Blacksburg) is ~62K.

2. The respective locations are Atlanta(large town) and Blackburg(relatively smaller university town). Will this have a bearing on the kind of jobs offered? Where do I have better options for getting a good job?

3. My research interests are more into production systems and manufacturing rather than OR and stats(GT specialization). VT seems to have more faculty working in production systems and robotics. While GT IE program is more specific for OR and Logistics, VT offers a good bouquet.

4. The IE dept of GT is extremely LARGE while VT is modest in these terms. So if I do have a change of interest that I might have more options at GT than at VT. But this also means that GT is adamant not to fund masters' students in IE program by giving them RA's and TA's. while VT might have better options.

5. Further I am highly interested in PhD. I did not apply to PhD in these programs becuase I was misled into believing that getting into PhD is very tough for international students and then you might not even get the masters' spot. Hence I applied to the masters' program. Now first going ahead with masters' program, I will have to take some loans from my home country. And then I will not be able to go on to PhD straight after masters' since I need to repay.....

Is it possible to ask the graduate program cordinator at both the places to consider my application for PhD programs at this point of time. Will it be worth it?? Plus would I even get a consideration.

I have also applied to PURDUE, Penn State and Texas A&M in masters' I am hopeful of admits there as well. Since the decision in any of these places isnt made, should I inform these departments to consider me for PhD or dont consider me at all (Since IMO , speaking in terms of ranking, costs and return on investment-- GT=VT>PSU>PURDUE>TAMU)

6. I am an international student from India. and both the places have good numbers of familiar people. further i am open to meeting new people. I guess socializing scene is almost equivalent at both places.

Please help me decide.

Thanks for your time.

[RoboTicks]

gentle bounce..

people I would really appreciate some help here..