Masters EE: UBC Okanagan vs Stanford

[ElectricCrayon]

UBC is fully funded for the duration of the program, and is a research/thesis based Masters in EE.

 

Stanford is unfunded (very expensive) and course work based MS (although I have heard you can get a TA/RA after going there).

 

I plan to do a PhD after masters, so which option is better? I have heard that UBC Okanagan is not of the same calibre as the Vancouver campus, is this true?

[Slutsky_Walrus]

I'm in another discipline but was in a somewhat similar situation in terms of choosing between ranking and funding.

I gave up the funded offer (17k) at a top tier 2 school to attend arguably the top program here in Canada. I was told to keep my doors open for international PhD programs (and the top Canadian ones), I should choose ranking over the money although I'm guessing the money difference for you is bigger than 17k?

[ElectricCrayon]

Yes the money difference is quite large. Stanford is around 80k a year without funding. But, as I said there might be TA/RA opportunities there.

[Slutsky_Walrus]

Seems like quite a disparity in the quality of your options, where else did you apply?

[gorki]

Gratz on your offers.

 

You need to tell us more about what you do within EE, in particular, is there someone at UBC you would like to work with?

Assuming yes, I would accept UBC's offer. It will help your application for PhD to have research experience, especially if you can get a publication or two out of your thesis. For TA and RA at Stanford, I would expect PhD student to have priority over masters, but I might be wrong. In any case, I don't think it make sense to pay for gradschool in science and engineering. 

[Slutsky_Walrus]

Gratz on your offers.

 

You need to tell us more about what you do within EE, in particular, is there someone at UBC you would like to work with?

Assuming yes, I would accept UBC's offer. It will help your application for PhD to have research experience, especially if you can get a publication or two out of your thesis. For TA and RA at Stanford, I would expect PhD student to have priority over masters, but I might be wrong. In any case, I don't think it make sense to pay for gradschool in science and engineering. 

 

I don't know about the engineering side, but everything I've heard about UBC for my discipline says all the big name faculty are busy doing their own research and won't bother much with students unless they're PhD students. Ie. undergrads and masters students don't see them much. 

 

The little I've read about UBC-O today (I didn't even know there was a campus out there, I'm going to UBC Vancouver this fall) seems to indicate a small program with a lot of faculty-student interaction regardless of student level. If OP can go to UBC-O and kick ass, ie. graduate top of his class, along with getting to know faculty well, then it might be the better option even without considering the 80k.