Purdue v.s. Maryalnd at College Park (ECE Computer Vision)

[aquariusjay]

Hello,

I got the admission from Purdue and Maryland at College Park. Both in ECE PhD program. Regarding the research area, Computer Vision/Pattern Recognition, I am wondering which one I should go. I tried to compare these two universities below, but still cannot make a good decision. Please help me out with the decision.

Purdue UMCP

usnews ranking 10 15

related labs Robot Vision Lab Center for Automation Research(cfar)

location college town close to DC

my feeling more academical more close to industry

There seems more active research going on in cfar at UMCP. But, it also seems that PhD students graduated from both universities can find a descent job in the industry (My goal is to work in a research center after graduation).

Thanks in advance for the help.

[bon to the jour]

I don't know anything about your field, but I grew up around College Park, and it's not really a fun place unless you are a binge-drinking, compulsive facebook-friending teenager. Granted it's near DC and Baltimore, but it's not really that easy to take side trips into those cities --- parking is a major pain in the ass, and an expensive one to boot. Also, since there are 30,000 to 40,000 students on campus, you can imagine that College Park is mostly just campus and an Ikea. On the other hand, since it is such a big institution, there might be more opportunities for grants and funding. I know it's not much, but I hope this might help a little.

[aquariusjay]

I don't know anything about your field, but I grew up around College Park, and it's not really a fun place unless you are a binge-drinking, compulsive facebook-friending teenager. Granted it's near DC and Baltimore, but it's not really that easy to take side trips into those cities --- parking is a major pain in the ass, and an expensive one to boot. Also, since there are 30,000 to 40,000 students on campus, you can imagine that College Park is mostly just campus and an Ikea. On the other hand, since it is such a big institution, there might be more opportunities for grants and funding. I know it's not much, but I hope this might help a little.

It's interesting to know this. Thanks for sharing the view from a native. It's very unlikely to know this for an international student. By the way, there are also around 40,000 students at Purdue University according to wiki. But the campus is larger.