Georgia Tech ECE Master AD VS McGill ECE MEng Fellowship

[Lancelot]

Hi, I am a student from China who has applied to graduate school in fall 2014. Now I have to choose between the following two programs. These are both great programs so I have being through a hard time to decide.

 

1. M.S in ECE at Georgia Tech

 

ECE at Georgia Tech looks pretty strong to me both in academia and industry. This department has been ranked among the top 6 in the U.S. for many years. But the department doesn't support any scholarship for international M.S. student and the cost for the master degree is around 80,000 dollars.

 

2. MEng with Thesis in ECE at McGill

 

McGill is a pretty great university in Canada (usually among the top 2). They provide me with a Graduate Excellence Fellowship (GEF). This fellowship is to offset the international student tuition by 10,000 CAD and is non-renewable. Given their fair tuition, it cost about 40,000 CAD to finish the degree.

 

Here the problem comes. As for the ECE department, I personally think that GT is much better than McGill. But GT also recruits many more talented students in ECE than McGill. Considering my ultimate goal to earn a doctoral degree, it may be hard for a master student to find a research advisor at Georgia Tech.

 

My family can afford the expenditure to go to each school and I don't have too much knowledge or preference about these two places (Montreal and Atlanta). And I may only take the strength, reputation of the programs and the chance to find a advisor to do my Ph.D. into consideration. So any ideas about which program I should choose? Any suggestion will be highly appreciated.

[gorki]

Hey Lancelot,

 

McGill is a very good school, but engineering isn't exactly its forte. It's not bad either, but it can't compete with Georgia Tech on that. However, for a degree with thesis, you can expect to have excellent access to the professor(s) you will be working with, on par with what you would expect as a PhD student.  Doing a thesis (and potentially publishing results) will show that you have the research potential which is looked for in applications to PhD. Does the M.S. at Tech includes a research project (or the possibility of some research credits)?

 

As far as location is concerned, Atlanta is very industrial (including a lot of tech industry), but (or and) has the reputation of being rather boring. Montreal is a great place to live, especially for a student. Don't be scared by the winter weather, with a good coat and winter boots it'll be fine. It does get cold in the winter, but with a good coat and boots you'll be fine. 

 

Good luck!

[Lancelot]

Hi gorki,

 

Many thanks to your reply.

 

M.S. in at Tech has a thesis option which allows me to do a master thesis with a professor. I think Georgia Tech is better at ECE too, but the thesis program at McGill seems to be good at preparing master students for a Ph.D. career. So it seems I need to choose among these two factors.

 

As for location, both places will be good for me. So now Georgia Tech is slight better to me since I am more likely to find a suitable research advisor in a larger department.

 

Thanks again!

Edited May 18, 2014 by Lancelot