<p>Hi guys, I have 3 options for PhD in electrical engineering in north America. I really appreciate if you guide me to choose because it so hard. I want to study in the field of optoelectronic devices.</p>
<p>1- I got admission from EECS Northwestern for Fall 2012. But for some reasons I deferred it to the next quarter.</p>
<p>2- I got admission from ECE at Texas A&M for Spring 2013.</p>
<p>3- I got admission from ECE Mcgill for winter 2013.</p>
<p>The stipend for all of them is fare. Which has a better quality in terms of research? I don't care much about weather or the city of the university, I want to be a high quality institution with high research standards. I really appreciate your helps.</p>
<p>I would say they are all good research universities. Since you have a bit of time, you should really spend some time looking at the individual faculty in each of the programs, read some of their papers and make contact with the most promising ones. Find out about their publication record, how many students they have, if students have any complaints and what they do after graduation. Look at the funding record to see what your chances of having stable funding throughout your Ph.D. studies might be (this probably does not apply to McGill). Graduate school is all about what kind of research you do and who your advisor is so the fact that you have three choices and some time to do your homework is great.</p>
<p>Finally, to break any ties, look at the location and see if you will be happy living there for 3-5 years. I live in Evanston, Illinois and I think the whole Chicago area is great.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply. My advisor in Northwestern is somewhat better than the other two schools. But, in terms of reputation, don’t you think reputation of Northwestern is lower than Texas A&M and McGill? In US NEWS ranking, Texas A&M is ranked 18 (so it’s top 20) and Northwestern is ranked 34. Also Mcgill is the top school in Canada beside Toronto. I may have a good time in Northwestern, but I don’t know if it’s better to be a PhD graduate of TAMU or Northwestern.</p>
<p>US news isn’t a flawless ranking system. The superstar of the field I want to go into happens to be at a school which US news ranks ~25th in terms of the broader subject.</p>
<p>When you go to his “lab alumni” page, his students obviously have some of the best opportunities out of grad school, even though they don’t have the “big name” of a top 10. I highly suggest you look into faculty member’s specific research interests, their recent publication record, as well as outlook for lab alumni. In the end, your professional network may be largely built off of your advisor’s network - you may find that a lesser known school has an extremely influential professor in a field that you are interested in.</p>
<p>Also, I’m only an undergrad, this is just my 2 cents for how I see it. Don’t let ego get in the way of getting the best education for what you want to do.</p>
<p>Thanks much for your help. My advisors in Mcgill and TAMU are young assistant professors and I don’t think they have graduated a PhD student yet. But the professor of Northwestern has a big group, although her alumni went mostly for industrial job position:
[Center</a> for Quantum Devices - PhD’s Conferred](<a href=“http://cqd.eecs.northwestern.edu/history/phds.php]Center”>Center for Quantum Devices - PhD's Conferred)
Do you guys think I can go to academy by this group? It seems it’s a good group if you want to go to a company. BTW I do not have a real picture of graduate studies in USA as this is the first time I am going to the State. I appreciate your helps</p>
<p>I was accepted to Northwestern’s EECS PhD program in a different concentration, and had the opportunity to talk to a pretty wide range of professors (I was being offered a fellowship that was not tied to a single researcher). While the school is certainly nice and has excellent labs and researchers, I would note the following issues:</p>
<p>1) Northwestern seems to have a long program, with 6+ years being pretty common.</p>
<p>2) They seem to focus on training industrial researchers, so this may be a poor springboard into academia.</p>
<p>3) The amount of research freedom for grad students is pretty low compared to some other schools I visited - you tend to just do whatever they tell you, up to and including your thesis topic.</p>
<p>4) Evanston is lovely, but it is an expensive area - bear in mind cost-of-living when looking at financial support.</p>
<p>Join Manijeh Razeghi’s group. She is very good and well-known, and has produced many good PhDs. At least in academic world, which seems to be your career goal, Northwestern is at least as respected as A&M or McGill.</p>