Advice With Choosing MS Statistics Program: UChicago vs ETH Zurich

[humdedumde]

Hello GradCafe statistics community!

I have been accepted into MS Statistics programs, and have narrowed my decision down to two options: UChicago and ETH Zurich. I'd appreciate your advice towards helping me make a decision.

My objective is to spend more time with professors/doing research (even if not for my thesis) as opposed to loading up on coursework (I did enough of that in undergrad…).

I’m a US citizen, so I’m leaning towards ETH as the cost is lower, has a vibrant math department, and it’s a unique experience to study abroad. My concern/question is that the ETH Seminar for Statistics, located within maths, only has 4 faculty members (Meinshausen -> Citadel recently) and statistics senior scientists. I wonder how that will impact my level of interaction with faculty and what I’m able to do for my thesis. I can only imagine one faculty member juggling so many underlings.

UChicago also has a robust statistics department with a high faculty count and variety. The program is capped at maybe 50 people, which is great. But it is not abroad, nor is the tuition inexpensive, even with the merit scholarship. Besides that, any other considerations I should be aware of?

Would appreciate every bit of advice!

Edited March 1 by humdedumde