PhD dilemma: SFU vs Calgary

[oa69]

Hi everyone. I am having a sort of dilemma for the choice of PhD in Economics at  SFU (Simon Fraser), and at U of Calgary. The main dilemma comes from the fact that I do not know exactly what is the difference in prestige of Economics at SFU and at Calgary. I just guess SFU is slightly better in the view of academia. 

 

Basically, the credit (and thus the job chance) that PhD graduates from each of these programs will get at the end of the day is my number one priority. In my understanding, both schools are close in terms of ranking, but SFU is slightly higher regards ideas ranking in Economics. Vancouver is clearly a better city to live, but Calgary has its own strengths such as hosting a lot of companies and industries in there, despite of its very cold winters as I heard. I did not find a clear edge for one over the another in terms of the phd placement for the recent years that are mentioned in their websites.

 

 

Regards SFU: I give credit for living in Vancouver and for the prestige of SFU, also graduating in Vancouver would address me chances to find job afterwards, but I don't have clear information about it. funding would be around 15K after tuition, but they told me there is a chance to increase it up to like 19K per year in future days.

 

Regards Calgary: The fact that some recent graduates of of program are hired by local companies and industries is a plus for me. I do not know about the school prestige in Economics (although Calgary is one of the bests in Engineering). funding would be around 19K, there are also other university-based scholarship application that I applied and their results would be released in May-June, which may increase the funding even more. 

 

I am an international student, getting my MSc in Canada right now. Another thing that is good to know for me is the chance of getting Permanent residence like by province programs in Alberta or Vancouver, which makes finding local job chances important for me. I dont know about the comparison of these two provinces.

 

Sorry for the long topic and Thanks for your time reading it, and your help will be really appreciated.

I have to make a decision soon this week.

Edited March 17, 2014 by oa69