PhD School Decision

[b-man]

Hi everyone,

I will graduate from my undergraduate school (EE) this June and afterwards will hopefully start studying in a PhD program. I have got admissions from 4 schools and am having difficulty choosing which one to go with. I am open to any suggestions since I am really troubled. I am listing the schools I got accepted and their offers:

-Stanford University, EE, PhD: One year fellowship

-Carnegie Melon University, ECE, PhD: One year fellowship

-UC, San Diego, ECE, PhD: Three years fellowship

-EPFL, EDIC, PhD: One year fellowship

Before I got any acceptances, I was thinking that I'd absolutely choose Stanford if I'm accepted. But, after I got the good news, I have done some online research about Stanford and found out that they eliminate many of the accepted students after the qual exam. I think I am competent and rank 2nd in my undergraduate school (and my school ranks in top 200 in the world ranking), but I do not know how I will rank among the very best students at Stanford. I am from a Europe country, so it is unknown to me whether I am good enough to pass the quals in a school in the US, which happens to be one of the best schools in the world. 

One other issue is the funding. I learned that San Fransisco is a very expensive place and the money that I would get from Stanford may not be enough (I will not be getting financial support from any other places including my parents). The places where CMU, UCSD are located seem to be more suitable from a financial perspective. Also, I heard Switzerland to be a very expensive place as well, but the money they're giving is, I think, high enough.

Lastly, I'd like to add that there are professors in each and every one of these schools, whose research I am interested in.

Any suggestions or comments are welcome.

 

 

[rising_star]

Have you talked to any current students at Stanford about your two main concerns (money and being forced out after quals)? I imagine they'd be able to tell you if the stipend/fellowship amount provides sufficient financial support. They would also probably be able to tell you more about why students are eliminated after the qual exam and how that actually happens. Talking to them should be your first step.

I don't know anything about ranking but, I can say that you shouldn't be comparing absolute dollar amounts. Instead, you'll want to use a cost of living calculator because San Diego is also a fairly expensive place, though maybe a bit less so than Palo Alto. You should also look at the placement record of each of the departments and of your potential advisors at each institution. CMU and Stanford have the advantage of excellent industry connections to companies like Google, which is valuable if that's where you want to end up after the PhD. If your goal is to teach after the PhD, then you may want to look at the pedagogical training and experience you'd get in each program and where they place their graduates. Good luck!

[b-man]

Thank you rising_star. These are some great points to consider. I have contacted one student at Stanford about the funding and received the answer that the amount of money they're giving is just enough and no more. Maybe, I should contact him about the quals issue, as well. Thank you. Any other suggestions and comments are still welcome. 

[mbfox125]

The advice to ask student about funding is really good. San Diego is expensive (less then San Francisco though) but graduate housing to very affordable compared to other options and many people I know in the STEM fields feel they get enough funding. Also UCSD is guaranteeing you three years of money, but the others only one check with students to see how easy it is to get more funding beyond the first year. Is if a fight or do pretty much all students in good standing continue to be funded. Unfortunately if you cannot visit you might have a hard time getting a feel for the culture of the programs and the students. You can ask current students this and see how open they are with you. Also the weather in North California and South California is different and so is the culture. Not incredibly different but I know plenty of people who really like on but not the other. 

[b-man]

Thanks a lot @mbfox125. Yes, unfortunately I won't be able to visit the schools. I really have to learn the situation with Stanford. I have one other question though. How is Stanford perceived among the other universities I have listed above? I mean, after I graduate, will it matter much whether it says Stanford or any of the other schools above on my PhD diploma if I apply to jobs in industry (such as Google)? Or, is it the quality of my work during the graduate study, that really matters?

[mbfox125]

Quality of work will always (well almost) matter the most, but yeah Stanford stands out from the crowd, but it's not like you are not going to be able to get a job regardless of any of those choices. You can check with the departments to get placement rates, but I am sure they are all very good. I would first figure where you think you'd be happiest I don't think you can go wrong as far as quality goes. 

[seaslugs]

I was a Stanford a few weeks ago, in a related engineering but not EE. Apparently the revamped the EE quals to be less harsh and weed out less people. 

[b-man]

Thanks @mbfox125. I will consider your points in my decision-making. Thank you @seaslugs, that's kind of a relief to hear that they'll be less harsh

[compscian]

@b-man What is your area of interest? I'd assume the choice will also depend on that. For example, Stanford is very strong in many areas, but not all. In areas like control theory and others, EPFL and UCSD are stronger. CMU also has its strengths, but there isn't much reason to choose it over Stanford in ECE.

A few more things to consider: At UCSD, you have a 3 year fellowship. This means financial independence from your adviser for three years, which will make you an attractive candidate for the best of professors at UCSD. Even if things don't work out for example, there is absolutely no pressure since you are financially secure. Thus, you can take your time, interact with many professors and pick the absolute best at UCSD.

However, if your only problem with Stanford is low stipend, you shouldn't be too worried. Most students there do summer internships which pay a lot. You can save this up to cover your additional expenses throughout the year. The qualifying exams on the other hand is a real concern. 

[b-man]

Thank you for your comments. My area of interest is communications and/or digital signal processing. @compscian, what do you think Stanford is like in these areas? Also, the 3-year fellowship is, I think, very appealing. I heard about the internships as well. I will be an international student though, do you think it will cause any problems regarding the internships?

[compscian]

@b-man Stanford is definitely very strong in those areas, right there at the top along with MIT, Caltech, and Berkeley. I must however warn you that digital signal processing is dying a slow death with everyone switching to statistical inference or compressed sensing type problems. I think Prof. PP Vaidyanathan is probably the only DSP-proper researcher who is active. UCSD is also very strong in communications and the new-age signal processing.

If you can make sure that (a) you will have access to a lab of your interest (never take it for granted at top univs, especially if you don't have an outside fellowship); (b) you have no problems with funding; (c) you are confident about doing very well in quals (Stanford is notorious for it) - you should probably go to Stanford. If even one of the above isn't guaranteed with high probability, I'd go with UCSD primarily because of the 3-year fellowship, and also because it is definitely good for your research area!

[b-man]

Thank you @compscianfor the suggestions.

[ShogunT]

Regarding to DSP: as far as I know UCSD Prof. Truong Nguyen is a good one. No one sticks with solely filters design anyway.

Regarding to internship: don't worry. I am an international student and did my summer internship at a good tech company in the U.S. (the like of Google, IBM, Qualcomm..). I don't think being an international student is a problem for getting summer internship in tech companies.

[Sura]

Hey @b-man, Electrical Engineering PhD accept at other universities here. I got rejected from Stan tough. My specialization is communication theory (information, coding theory, wireless theory, information security, signal processing etc.). I personally would not put CMU and UCSD in the same boat as Stan and EPFL. But mind that Stan communication group comprising of Andrea Goldsmith, David Tse, Wiessman etc etc. is currently working on applied problems (like Andrea is full on wireless and Tse on bioinformatics, ML, Wiessman too shifting to ML). EPFL has an extremely strong (and highly interdisciplinary) theory group and you must be aware of the fact that most coding theory inventions/discoveries have been courtesy of EPFL EDIC. Amin Shokrollahi, Martin Vetterli, Rudiger Urbanke to name a few extremely renowned computer scientists/electrical engineers at EPFL. Stan on the other hand is not EECS (like EDIC) and you may want to consider that based on your broad interests. Ultimately my advisors tell me that Stan is the best place in case you want to start up or go into the industry, get contacts while EPFL would be better in case you wanted to work on hardcore theory problems and be a part of technological revolutions in communication sciences. 

Also if you are indeed considering non-academic factors, EPFL pays unlike any other school, and you should save handsomely. Stan pays well for US standards though and the stipend should be sufficient to carry you through your studies (the information is from PhD students at the respective schools).

The best advise would come from someone who is working on communication track at either of the 2 places. All the best!

Edited February 29, 2016 by Sura

[cramerrao]

I made an account just to jump in on this thread.

I don't go to UCSD, but I know quite a bit about their program with regards to communications and DSP. I am a DSP person and am fairly familiar with some of the top schools in that area. UCSD is very strong in communications, it's their strongest area of ECE. I would definitely say it should be included in the conversation with Stanford. I don't know enough about CMU or the international schools to give an opinion on them. UCSD has a lot of top notch communications professors as well as a lot of diversity in their projects. Even the DSP research at UCSD mostly has communications applications. Something else that makes UCSD very good for communications is that it is located in the telecommunications capital of the country. Meaning there are more telecommunications/communications companies located in San Diego than anywhere else in the country. The biggest one is Qualcomm, who hires a ridiculous amount of UCSD students. It also happens that the UCSD school of engineering is named after the co-founder of Qualcomm, Irwin Jacobs.

From my own research and from what professors and industry people have told me, Stanford is a little weaker in both communications and DSP than their high ECE ranking suggests. I'm sure they deserve the overall ECE ranking because some of their focus areas are definitely the best/second best in the country, I just don't think communications and DSP are some of those areas. UCSD is stronger in those areas than their ranking suggests. So all in all I think they are pretty comparable in terms of education and research in those areas. Of course, it depends on the professor you work with.

As far as living goes, I'd highly recommend looking into the graduate housing offered by UCSD if you don't mind having a roommate. I have a friend living there now and the apartments are nice, inexpensive, and located in a nice area. You really can't get much better housing in the area for the price. The stipend is enough to comfortably live on, even if you don't go with the graduate housing, unless you get one of the many $1400+ apartments in San Diego with no roommates.

This came off as more of a sales pitch than I had intended. I promise I'm not affiliated with UCSD! I actually didn't even apply to their PhD program.

[b-man]

Thank you @ShogunT, @Sura, and @cramerrao. I am really confused these days. What you say definitely help. I hope I make the right decision.