College list critique - CS PhD (HCI/graphics)

[Muscovy]

Hello! I'm about to start my senior year of college and will almost definitely pursue a PhD after graduation. I've made a list of potential graduate schools, but I need to cut it down significantly. I would appreciate general feedback or suggestions - how's the university, any notable faculty, surrounding environment, good spread of reach/safety, etc. Thanks all!

 

Academics

- Honors program, 4.0 GPA, though not from a particularly prestigious university

- GRE: 167Q/166V/4E

- 3 separate research experiences

 

Desired Location

- Urban (think NYC, Boston) but OK with others if they aren't too remote

 

Areas of Interest

- Human Computer Interaction

- Graphics (as relating to HCI/interactive media)

 

(Already considered but cut from list: Texas A&M, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon)

 

MIT (Media Lab)

Stanford

NYU

U of Washington

UC Berkeley

UCLA

UC Irvine

Stanford

Columbia*

U of Maryland

UT Austin*

UPenn

Harvard**

 

* = on list primarily due to location

** = on list primarily due to funding opportunities

[chrisleeon]

Any publications? Otherwise it is very hard

[Neeraj]

Hi Muscovy, 

 

This is an impressive list. 

All schools in  California will have the added opportunity to work close to the Bay Area and there by better exposure in terms of job opportunities.

 

According to the latest stats, following are the top 4 schools for HCI (according to research papers published)

1. CMU

2. Georgia

3. UC Berkley

4. UC Irvine

 

Wish you all the best for your admission cycle.

 

Also, I was curious why you would remove Cornell from the list.

(According to my limited research, it is one of 10 school according to the number of publishings)

 

Cheers

--

Neeraj