Georgia Tech vs UT Austin for PhD ECE: Which is better?

[Usman Akram]

Greetings:

I have received fully funded offers in PhD Electrical and Computer Engineering from both Georgia Tech and UT Austin (DICE track). Currently, I am confused about making a decision. My area of interests are Communication Systems, Signal Processing, Machine Learning, Information Processing etc.  Which of these universities is better in terms of research in these fields? Which of these universities is better overall (in general terms)?

[vpaglioni3]

Rest assured that, either way, you are in a great spot for what you want to do. If you have an idea of which professor you want to/will be working with, check out their publications and reputation in the community. Who you work with is more important than where you go - especially when your choice is between two elite schools like UT-Austin and GT. 

For living, I can attest to the awesomeness that is the city of Atlanta. I was a Georgia native who was lucky enough to do undergrad at Georgia Tech, and the city is BOOMING with new start-ups, Fortune 500 industry and interesting labs. It's also just a fun place to be and really is a "City in the Forest." GT is centered right in Midtown with a lot of great food, living and drink options around, as well as great access to concert/sports venues. On the flipside, it has no real public transit (MARTA is kind of a joke) so you might want a car - which brings us to the almost unbelievable traffic that plagues the city at all hours. 

Austin is also supposed to be an amazing place to live, but I think it's a bit smaller than Atlanta (never been).