Where do I go? PhD in Electrical Engineering

[NanoTech]

I've got my official admittance emails from Stanford/Cornell/CMU/Princeton/UIUC for a PhD in Electrical Engineering and am wondering which one I should choose if all things equal (such as funding). The problem is that I really want to work with a professor at CMU, but its ranking is not as high as Stanford.

I was born and raised in California and went to Berkeley... so it's time for me to move out of California.

Edited February 21, 2014 by NanoTech

[hikaru1221]

Stanford - if you can't secure a supervisor or at least funding, then the risk is apparent. At least, my guess is for other places, they admit "just enough" applicants.

By the way, it seems that aside from Stanford, CMU is the other option to you, so why bother with the rest? And have you contacted with the prof at CMU? I'm unsure how things work out at CMU, so I can't comment more

 

P.S.: I don't see how ranking really helps. I mean, the schools you got are nearly of the same league, in terms of engineering.

 

P.S. #2: After talking with various professors, I suppose we should be more open to new research directions and not tie ourselves to a single professor. 

[zaphyr]

Though I couldn't get in Stanford EE as the professor in my area prefered to keep his group as small as possible for the time being ( as far as I know nobody else could get in this year, too), the heavy course load for MSc/PhD at Stanford was one thing I was thinking about that might distract you from your own research and publication. The other peers I think may have lower number of courses for PhDs  as the case for Berkeley.   

[hikaru1221]

the heavy course load for MSc/PhD at Stanford was one thing I was thinking about that might distract you from your own research and publication. The other peers I think may have lower number of courses for PhDs  as the case for Berkeley.   

 

I agree on this point. The first time I saw the 135-unit requirement, I freaked out, like What?! That is 3 courses per quarter for 5 years! On the bright side, at times I do realize courses that are seemingly irrelevant may become very handy. Still, such hefty coursework requirement seems discouraging enough to those who want to focus on research.

 

@zaphyr: All the best to you for other schools

[NanoTech]

Stanford - if you can't secure a supervisor or at least funding, then the risk is apparent. At least, my guess is for other places, they admit "just enough" applicants.

By the way, it seems that aside from Stanford, CMU is the other option to you, so why bother with the rest? And have you contacted with the prof at CMU? I'm unsure how things work out at CMU, so I can't comment more

 

P.S.: I don't see how ranking really helps. I mean, the schools you got are nearly of the same league, in terms of engineering.

 

P.S. #2: After talking with various professors, I suppose we should be more open to new research directions and not tie ourselves to a single professor. 

 

Good point. Perhaps I should just visit CMU, Cornell, and Stanford instead of visiting all five schools (actually three more acceptances). The CMU professor has already expressed a strong interest to work with me. That’s really nice. My parents want me to go to Stanford though. Anyways I will eventually choose one of these three schools.