UCSD , MICHIGAN , USC , PURDUE , UC SANTA BARBARA

[berkin19]

Hello guys, 

I have been admitted to MS in UCSD MICHIGAN USC PURDUE and UC Santabarbara in Electrical Engineering. My program in UCSD is Artificial Intelligence and Robotics and Control. In Michigan and Santa Barabara field is communications. Purdue and USC admitted to all programs. I am an international student and I want to work in the US after completing my graduate studies. The thing I am curious about which school and field give me much more chance to find a job. Furthermore in which field I can earn good money. I love both telecommunications and machine learning. What are your thoughts about the school, job opportunities and prestige of schools? I am very confused about the decision. Thank you for your reply.

[mr_grad]

I live in Los Angeles and am fairly familiar with the schools. Of course, I haven't been a grad student at them all so take this with a grain of salt. 

 

Firstly, congratulations those are all excellent programs. Purdue is not on the same level IMO as any of them, personally I would take that off.

 

If you want to work here and be well positioned to find a job - I would choose the one of the schools in California. Why? Because most of the students will be from California so you are already building a good local professional network. In addition, you could easily find an internship in Los Angeles / San Diego (etc) without potentially having to relocate. That's obviously beneficial financially. So personally, I would take a hard look at the California schools (although Michigan is an excellent school - but is 'communications' what you would like to do?).

So in my opinion two solid choices would be USC or UC San Diego. USC is a different crowd... I know USC accepts A LOT of graduate students to CS so you apparently sometimes it is difficult to get into popular classes. Maybe try do some research on this to validate/invalidate that claim yourself.

Los Angeles is very expensive to live in, but obviously huge opportunity.

San Diego is very nice, and more affordable (not cheap though). 

Hope that helps. Those are amazing programs - you could do well with any of them. Congrats! Think about location, professional networks (longterm), and which of those subjects you really want to do. 

Take a look at indeed and glassdoor for the most in-demand jobs... you can also see what's available in the area. This is a good indicator.

A summary

http://blog.indeed.com/2019/03/14/best-jobs-2019/

https://www.glassdoor.com/List/Best-Jobs-in-America-LST_KQ0,20.htm

 

Hope that helps.

 

[DiscoTech]

Avoid USC like the plague. It is a shameless diploma mill that is unlikely to give you meaningful graduate training. 

[FunInPhonology]

UCSB is super gorgeous and still carries a good reputation. 

 

Try to visit any campus if possible to see how you feel.