Statistics PhD: UChicago vs CMU

[LZQ]

Hello! I hope all of you have received fantastic offers!

I'm lucky to receive offers from the University of Chicago and Carnegie Mellon University statistics PhD programs. However, I have been vacillating between the two choices for a long time. I noticed there have been a gradcafe topic similar to this several years ago, but that didn't solve my problems.

I am open to a wide range of research topics, but I prefer theoretical research to application a little bit. My research experiences during my undergraduate years focused on application, and those are good starting points, but I want to switch to theoretical research during PhD years. I think I am well prepared for it, since my undergraduate school greatly emphasizes mathematical training in its course system. Going to academia is my first choice for the future, though going to the industry is also OK for me if I really want to quit academia in the future. 

It seems that UChicago has many rising stars working on theoretical statistics. Also, UChicago statistics department has a strong connection with Booth School and TTIC, which also have many great statisticians. However, the surroundings of UChicago are too dangerous. Since I am an international student, and my parents are outside the US, they will worry about me for days and nights if I go to UChicago. There have been some terrible shootings in the past two years. One of the victims is an alumnus of my undergraduate school, and another victim has close connections with many of my schoolmates. Those were terrible news!

For CMU, it is located at a much safer place. However, their new faculties seem to focus more on applications, and they have fewer alumni going to academia than UChicago. Also, CMU is a smaller school than UChicago, so there may be fewer collaborators. 

Could you please give me some advice? Thank you very much!

[LZQ]

I have started the topic under "Mathematics and Statistics". I think that category suits this topic better. I'm sorry for my mistake.