MS SE in CMU SV vs MS CS in Columbia

[jasson15]

TL;DR

If I want to join/found educational game startups, which grad school is recommended, CMU or Columbia?

Objective

I want to join the startups related with educational technology, gamification, and so forth. My final goal, definitely, is to run my own startup in educational game industry.

(This is also the reason why I apply to these graduate programs this year!)

Admitted Schools

CMU SV: MS in Software Engineering (Sillicon Valley Campus)
Columbia: MS in Computer Science
Gatech: MS in Computer Science

Pending

UCLA: MS in CS
USC: MS in CS
Cornell: MEng in CS

Pain points

I've never been to US. Everything I heard of was from my friends and drama.  I know the popularity of tech startups in Silicon Valley is beyond question. But I want to know if educational game startup is still the case?

The following is my analysis (based on my very very limited understanding of US).

CMU SV
Pros

• 3 semesters => cheaper tuition fee
• Tech startups, Angels, VC are everywhere

Columbia

Pros

• CG/CV lab is excellent (e.g. many papers in SIGGRAPH every year). => It may be benificial to game development
• Ivy league => I may build connections with business people
• There are vibrant art and music activities in New York City => It may be benificial to game development

Cons

• 2yr program => high tuition fee
• less tech startups in NYC

 

Finally, I surveyed https://angel.co and I found:

• # of K12 startups : SF > NYC
• # of language learning startups : NYC > SF

Thanks for reading my long post. Welcome to any advice from you guys!

[shreks7]

Hey,

Please check your PMs ! Thanks.

Appreciate it.