UMich Ann Arbor or Georgia Tech - MSCS unfunded

[Grimmjow]

Hi, I know this is a repost and I posted this in another board, but I thought it would be appropriate here, especially to get a comparision of the programs in the field that I'm opting for.

Sorry for the repost:

My field of study would be Intelligent systems / AI.

So I have admits from both UMich and Georgia Tech for MS in CS, and I'm not sure which to pick. I don't have funding, so I'm going to try as hard as I can for an RA/TA position. I heard its very difficult but more possible in UMich because of smaller class size, than in GaTech. Being an international student, the fees are exorbitant for me.

GaTech has asked me to confirm by the 25th, so I need to figure this out, and I'm really confused. I would rather live in Ann Arbor (I've heard its beautiful but cold), and have also heard that the Atlanta area isn't the safest. However, my parents believe that GTech is higher ranked than UMich, and a better choice to pick.

I need more information before I can make an informed decision on this. I've been told both are great schools, whether I want a job or want them as a stepping stone to a PhD, but more concrete

Could you guys give me some advice on which to pick? Especially in terms of which uni is better ranked, which is better in my specific field, which has better opportunities for securing an RA/TA'ship....

Any relevant information really would help.

Or any information actually.

Thanks a lot!

[DJLamar]

I went to Georgia Tech for my undergrad. First, I think Tech is better in terms of overall reputation and rankings, especially in AI-related fields, though if you want to do NLP Tech didn't seem to have a lot going on there when I left two years ago. What area within AI do you want to study specifically? I know there's especially much going on in the areas of computer vision, machine learning, and robotics. Second, I had the impression while I was there that it wasn't that hard for master's students to get involved in research. At least, my own undergrad research advisor had about half as many master's students as PhD students in his group. That may or may not be an accurate impression though.

Finally, on the issue of crime, Atlanta isn't as safe as some other large cities like San Francisco or New York, and Ann Arbor certainly has a waaaay lower crime rate (it's an affluent college town which usually translates to super safe), but Atlanta's reputation for crime is somewhat overblown these days. 10 or 20 years ago it was probably something of a hellhole with respect to crime, consistently ranking in the top five most dangerous cities in the nation, but the city has made big improvements since then. A lot of those improvements come from replacing housing projects (some of which were in-between two areas you would want to go) with mixed-income housing, various urban renewal projects that revitalized under-utilized parts of town (the less interesting Atlantic Station and the more interesting West Midtown district, another of these is under way at Ponce City Market a couple of miles east of Tech, and the massive Beltline project which as been underway for a while and is a long-term effort in various parts of the city), and an influx of professionals and other affluent people from other parts of the country. According to this document: http://os.cqpress.co...1_hightolow.pdf Atlanta is ranked as the 25th most dangerous city in the U.S., a little safer than Washington, D.C. and a little more dangerous than Philadelphia. Atlanta's rate of improvement in crime rates also far outpaces the national average: http://www.ajc.com/o...e-a-711260.html (FYI this one cites some no longer true comparisons from a previous edition of the previous link).

Beyond that, much of the crime in the city is concentrated in neighborhoods that you would never as much as walk near anyway, mostly on the south and west sides of the city. The biggest problem you would be likely to encounter is a non-violent mugging in Home Park, a student-filled, poorly lit neighborhood (with crappy houses anyway) just north of campus which is known is a known hot spot for criminals poaching for students to steal their phone, iPod, etc. Even there, though, the muggings are increasingly rare (I get an email whenever there's a crime on or near campus due to the federal Clery Act -- I get the same emails from Cornell) and almost never violent (I can't remember a violent incident there, these guys always just threaten the students, the students hand over their phone and/or wallet and the guys go away), and as long as you don't live *in* that neighborhood you won't have to worry about it. I suggest living in the area just east of campus if you can, which is safe and has the convenience of walking to campus and lots of stuff plus good access to transit to other parts of town. If you want to do on-campus housing, the grad housing is on 10th street bordering Home Park, but that's not where people ever have problems (the thing that makes Home Park a prime target is the small, not so well-trafficked side roads with crappy lighting which are further north) and you would be perfectly safe there. The grad student housing (and on-campus housing in general) is overpriced for small rooms though, and good off-campus housing is available within about as convenient a walking distance anyway, so I say just go off-campus. In any case, if you're reeeeally paranoid, you could always just live in one of the super-safe northern or eastern suburbs and take public transit to campus.

Edited April 21, 2012 by DJLamar