UMN or Notre Dame (physics phd)

[xywang]

Hi All,

I received offer from University of Minnesota (twin cities) and University of Notre Dame, both are PHD programs.

I love the location of ND, as well as its focus on education (and the status of being a private university). There's a good professor in condensed matter physics who works actively and has collaborations with Argonne National Lab and Duke University. However, physics in ND is ranked low in usnews (56th).

UMN enjoys high reputation in research, and is ranked top25 in usnews. But I am not sure if it offers excellent education other than research, and that the climate does not seem to be very pleasant.

Could you give me some suggestions on choosing between these two universities, in terms of research environment, education environment as well as others? Thanks

p.s. My goal is to become a physicist in the future.