CS Ph.D. USC vs UMass Amherst

[hungryturtle]

Hi all, 

 

I've been admitted to USC and UMass Amherst for CS Ph.D. program. Both schools are almost equally attractive to me, so I thought I would like to listen what you people would choose if you were in my shoes. I will make a decision after visiting the two schools soon and talking to the faculty and grad students, but any comment would be helpful for me! 

 

My research interests are information retrieval/extraction and social network analysis. UMass is highly known for its IR research with great faculty members (several big guys in the field). UMass offers $27,000 stipend for the first year, and then I need to find assistantship, such as RA/TA. 

 

USC, on the other hand, has a big research center (Information Science Institute), which does research on various topics on information integration on Web, social media analysis, etc. USC offers me a graduate fellowship which guarantees for four years of funding ($30,000) including first two years of no obligations. It's nice to know that I don't need to worry about funding throughout my Ph.D.. I do love nice weather in California, but I am also afraid of dangerous neighborhood as I heard. I also do not enjoy living in a big city. 

 

I think I will know better where I want to spend next (at least) five years once I visit there and talk to people, but I would like to know your opinions too! Any comment would be appreciated, thanks.