USC vs WUStL for MS in CS

[mchy]

I am a CS student from India and wish to pursue PhD after MS in HCI or AI.

I have admits at University of Southern California (USC) and Washington University in St. Louis (WUStL).

Though USC is higher ranked and cheaper than WUStL (#20 against #39) in US news, considering the massive number of students that are admitted to USC, does it make a good university to perform research for MS students?

Like with around 300-400 grad students, what are the odds that you can actually establish a rapport with teachers and do some research together?

On the other hand, WUStL has smaller class size and more research oriented nature in general. So what should I choose:

(rank + cost + location) vs (smaller classes + better exposure)?

[bdexicon]

I can't speak for the fields of HCI or AI, but I was recently admitted to the USC Computational Biology and Bioinformatics PhD program and there are several PIs who are very enthusiastic about MS in CS students working in their labs. There is certainly research to be done at USC -- you should contact a few PIs before you make up your mind to see what opportunities are available.

Oh, and if you're interested in CompBio, the PI I have in mind is Dr. Xianghong Zhou.

[Pauli]

USC has an amazing graphics and robotics program, but I haven't heard much of either their HCI or AI program.

[jjsakurai]

USC also has an awesome NLP group