Differences in research interests and course listings

[qqyyzz]

I know the decision deadline is soon approaching and I'm happy to say that I've been accepted with funding into some very good programs. In order to try to decide I've been looking at research interests and course listings. I am mainly interested in machine learning/data mining and I was hoping on getting people's opinion on this board. It seems a few of the programs I've been accepted to have a good number of professors that work on machine learning and data mining research. But in terms of coursework these departments for whatever reason do not have a dedicated course in either machine learning or data mining.

I'm trying to decide between higher ranked universities that don't have coursework in ML/data mining versus lower ranked universities that have these courses. My main concern is that I would eventually want to do ML/data mining research or work in some applications that requirement ML/data mining. I'm not sure how difficult it would be to start doing research without some graduate courses first. I suppose I could take the courses from the CS department but that would require both a lot of prereqs from the CS department as well as worrying about which courses would count for credit.

For the record here are some of the programs I'm considering: UNC, iowa state, wisconsin, ohio state and purdue. I've been visiting schools these two weeks as well.

Edited March 25, 2012 by qqyyzz

[cyberwulf]

Don't worry about whether a department has a formal course on machine learning/data mining. What matters is the presence/absence of faculty who work in the area.

[Statistique]

Don't worry about whether a department has a formal course on machine learning/data mining. What matters is the presence/absence of faculty who work in the area.

Seconded.

Plus, faculty will often teach little seminar-style courses for grad students in specific areas, if there's enough interest. You might be able to talk someone into teaching a class if you are feeling like it's really an issue. It shouldn't be, though.

Congrats on all your offers!