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UCSB vs. Purdue vs. Dartmouth


PandemoniuM

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The 415 is pending! Right now I am hesitating among these three institutions. My target program is Ph.D. program in Computer Science, and I have got offers from all these three. My personal preference is definitely UCSB, but Purdue is so good in engineering, so I don't really know which one to choose...

UCSB is sooo beautiful and it's in California (lots of opportunities, good weather...)...that's y it's indeed appealing to me.

Anyone with your opinions upon this, please help me make a decision! I really appreciate all kinds of suggestions and opinions!

Feel free to tell me what you think!

Thank you very much!!

Cheers,

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Where are you from? I am from Southern California so I know UCSB well, and I interviewed at Purdue in February so I am a bit familiar with it. I'm not an engineer so I don't know about rankings- is there a huge discrepancy between these schools? Did you go visit them all? Which advisor is better? Based purely on location, obviously UCSB wins, though Santa Barbara is unbelievably expensive to live, I hope you got a great stipend! West Lafayette scared the $*@% out of me as it is approximately 1.25 hours from civilization. That said, it was lovely and the people I met were SO nice I can't even explain it. I am not going to Purdue but I left with a very good impression of the school, I think if you're from the Midwest or used to that kind of life it would be great. But being from San Diego, I think I would die in West Lafayette. Looks like I'm headed to Phoenix anyway!

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Oh thank you so much for your opinions! That's exactly how im thinking too! Im not from the States, im Chinese, so yeah, part of the reason I choose to go to the US is to experience different lifestyles and cultures, and UCSB is definitely better than Purdue in this...

Thank you!

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Also, CA has one of the highest concentration of Asians and Asian-Americans in the country so I think it would be easy for you to find a community (though UCSB itself seems like a pretty homogenously white campus) if you get homesick- especially if you are willing to travel to L.A. once in a while.

I can't say anything for sure about UCSB, but down here at UCSD the campus is about 40% asian and 40% white. I'm sure they have demographics on their website but I'm too lazy to look it up. I would assume that Purdue would be much more 'white' than UCSB though.

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Oh, thanks so much for you both!

Yeah, i also think it's very important if i can get better assimilated to the environment. CA is definitely more populated with Asians than Indiana, and true, SB is really close to LA.

I actually have checked out the ethnicity distribution of UCSB on wikipedia, thou White/Caucasian takes the most of all, i think for CS programs, there're usually quite many Asians, especially Chinese...so it shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks again!

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Hi,

First of all, congratulations for being accepted to three highly successul programs. Try to think that each of them would be a good choice, none of them is bad.

In my opinion, you should also consider what you will study for the next 4-5 years. This is PhD, not an exchange program, so try to figure out an initial belief or expectation about your thesis. My recommendation is that

-categorize your abilities, research interests. consider the future and importance of the subject in the area and select some possible research topics for yourself.

-check faculty member profiles, pick out some possible professors with a good track of record matching with your interests

-print papers of those selected faculty members and read them, choose your favourites.

-do not hesitate, contact with them, talk about possibility of a joint research, their availability, their interests for future research.

And finally, don

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hey, kylebrown, thank you so much for your comments!

yeah,i agree with you in that academics plays an important part in choosing the schools. whether the professors are doing research in some areas that attract you or not, whether you're interested in some of the specific projects or not...i actually have made some contact with several of the faculties from all of these three institutions, and all of them have left me an indeed nice impression. im sure im gonna have a good time studying with any of them. the thing is, im currently a master student from China, so i guess i have to finish my Ph.D. program in the US institution that im gonna choose, which means a 4-5 year time devotion straight, thus i really don't want to spend these years in some town that i dont really like. so yeah, i agree with you about your last part too. i personally think whether it is likely or not for me to make new friends there, or find my potential life partner or anything like that, holds its very significance. and btw, im a girl, not a guy=)

Thank you again:)

cheers,

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I think it's rather shocking that W. Laf would scare the #$%@ out of anyone. I'm finishing up my senior year here and I pleased with my decision to come here. Granted, it's not urban at all, but the Purdue community is the life and soul of the W. Laf/Laf area, so I feel it's a youthful area overall. One of your concerns was the amount of Asians/diversity on campus and I feel it is quite diverse. I don't know the demographics or statistics in that area, but I certainly have my share of friends from other counties including Asian countries. I don't know if my comments will help your decision process, but I just wanted to let you know the opinion of a person from inside the source! ;)

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