UBC (CS) vs. Waterloo (SYDE) vs. SFU (CS)

[rubiarg]

I received funded MSc offers from these three schools and I'm really confused about where I should go to. I plan on doing a Ph.D./staying in academia in the US (or perhaps in Canada as well) after completing my masters. Some points that are puzzling me:

- I haven't heard much about Waterloo SYDE reputation (compared to Waterloo CS, for instance), and I also don't know how that could impact my chances of being accepted to a PhD program later. I will be getting a degree with focus on Biomedical Eng/AI;

- Looking purely on university ranking, UBC > Waterloo > SFU. Would that matter much for a PhD in CS/ECE later?

- I have relatively the same amount of funding for all schools: $23.2k for UBC, $21k for SFU and $18k for Waterloo. I have a chance of receiving some more scholarships in Waterloo ($17.5k), but I won't know until the deadline for deciding where to go has passed;

- My PIs for SFU and Waterloo seem to be in the same level of influence/similar lines of research;

- My potential PI for UBC is on a whole different area of research, but seems like I will have an option to explore other PIs as well in my first semester;

- For SFU seems I'd have a stricter PI, who will push me to a higher level of academic rigor and help me publish at top conferences; for Waterloo, my PI seems to be a lot "chiller" in his approach, one of those really nice PIs that doesn't make you hate life while still pushing you to be better; for UBC, my potential PI seems to be similar to Waterloo's, although he has less recent pubs with MS students in comparison to the other two (he's newer to academia). All of them so far have treated me very well and their students seem to like them as mentors.

I'm trying to make a decision as soon as possible to keep the waitlist moving!