University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign vs University of Maryland

[d_rose]

I am an international student and I have high chances to being admitted by these universities. I am wondering which one would be a better fit for me. I do not want to decide on this matter only based on rankings (even though I currently incline to it). My research interests are in theory, to be more specific in approximation algorithms for graph problems and polynomial algorithms for planar graphs. I have closely gone through the research made by the faculty and have done a list of pluses/minuses (I will not paste it here to not suggest anything). I would like to hear some opinion other than mine, what do you think about these universities? What are advantages or disadvantages of those? What do you think about research groups in theory there, what about the places to live?

 

Thanks!

Edited January 31, 2014 by d_rose

[flm0003]

I'm unfamiliar with the theory dept at UIUC.  I was a PhD student at UMD and may know a little about their theory profs - who were you looking to work with there?  In terms of places to live, UMD offers so much more, being close to DC, Baltimore and Northern VA.  UIUC is a sterile midwestern town in the middle of nowhere.  I may be biased, though, having lived in MD my whole life.

[compiler_guy]

Have you tried contacting professors or graduate students in those groups you are interested in?