Purdue vs UMD (Choice between professors)

[Fishlamp]

Hello, so I'm in the fortunate position of getting accepted to the ECE program at both UMD (my undergrad institution) and Purdue, with full funding. 

 

Purdue: 4 year fellowship

UMD: 1/2 TA, 1/2 RA position for 1 year, professor guarantees full funding all the way through.

 

Now I'm going into Fields and Optics for graduate school, and was offered to join a prestigious group that is quite large at Purdue, but Purdue is in the middle of corn fields, and I would like to spend some time on my social life, and not in the academic vacuum.

 

On the other hand, the UMD group I would be joining is small, only 2 grad students and a post-doc, researching Graphene optical devices, and is located right near DC/Baltimore

 

If you were in my position, what would you do? Head out into the unknown at Purdue, or stick with UMD? I'm stuck because both professors are nice, and I just don't know what to do between the two offers, because there is not an objectively clear winner here.

 

~Fishlamp

[rising_star]

I would do what's best for my career, which may increase your ability to live near a city/metro area in the future. In other words, I'd go to Purdue.