<p>I am an international student from Europe, and now I really have to make a decision on where I will end up for my further education.</p>
<p>The reason I post here in the graduate school section is, that I hope to eventually study science/technology in a great grad school over here in USA, where science/tech is unparalleled both in academia and in industry globally. More over, I want to keep my options open as it's also my interest to apply science/tech in the business world, and US seems to be the country where lots of science ppl pursue something in finance or business start up, after they graduate.</p>
<p>In overall, I do know I wanna go to a great grad school in US, and hope to possibly create/invent technology of great value. I am more inclined towards the industry/business at the moment, rather than academia.</p>
<p>So, At which university, will I have a better prospect into a great grad school in US, RHIT or Imperial College London?</p>
<p>I've asked the professor at Imperial. He said ultimately, it's dependent on the grades I receive at Imperial, and indeed there are people from Imperial who go on to US for top grad schools.</p>
<p>I guess, it doesn't really matter where ever I attend for university?</p>
<p>Scratch that. You misspelled RIT up there so I didn't realize what school you meant until I looked in other posts.</p>
<p>I'm not sure where RIT undergrads do end up for grad schools but it's quite huge on technology science and does require co-op experience... that I would check with RIT about your visa regulations when the time comes for you to leave the university for a quarter (or two) to do your co-op work... But the advantage of co-op work is that you'll get paid and not have to pay the school anything at all and you get work experience under your belt before applying to graduate school (who like to see experience).</p>
<p>If you're not sure about going to grad school, definitely go to Imperial because of its reputation.. if grad school is your thing, both are fine.. RHIT will seem to give you more research experience.. just my 2 cents</p>
<p>Imperial has a good reputation in Europe but it isnt very well known in the US, at least amongst the general population. It is another one of those UK schools that Commonwealth centric rankings like the THES try to oush down everyones collective throats but to say it has the saem cache as top US schools would be a stretch.</p>
<p>Between Imperial and RIT, it depends where you want to work, in my humble opinion.</p>
<p>jackwang - I would urge you to take a good look at Imperial. It's international reputation is much much stronger than RHIT. In fact, RHIT is not very well known in the States.</p>
<p>Well, so is Cooper Union and Harvey Mudd I think in the states.</p>
<p>General Public Reputation of a school doesn't really bother me since I am aiming for a great grad school in the US. In fact, I also have never heard of Georgia Tech, UIUC, or even Carnegie Mellon before until recently. </p>
<p>The fact that RHIT has a lot of connections with the industries, and professionals know these schools in US's academia and industries, which can provide opportunities for research, and especially internships attracts me.</p>
<p>Besides, I love the strong venture/business/entrepreneurship program at RHIT.</p>
<p>Any way, I am still open to advices. The deadline for me to choose is by the end of this month (April).</p>
<p>Correlated with reputation is the opportunity to work with recognized people in your field. Getting into a top graduate program in the States requires that you have significant research experience as an undergraduate. Going to a more reputable university often (but not always) means that there are more opportunities for research, especially research with well-known faculty that will write you letters of recommendation when it comes time to apply. I don't know enough about the specifics of your program at ICL or RHIT to voice an opinion by urge you to consider this point since you are more familiar with program specifics. When I was applying to undergraduate schools a few years ago, I too looked at RHIT but ultimately decided against applying for what I felt like a lack of research funding at that school.</p>
<p>BTW, I was referring more to reputation among academia than the lay population. Cooper and Mudd are well recognized in academic circles. RHIT less so. Just my thoughts - congratulations and best of luck to you!</p>
<p>But can't you get undergraduate research experience at other univerisites during summer in the US?</p>
<p>Besides, what do you mean that RHIT has no undergraduate research opportunities? I am thinking of doing mathematics, as one of my majors, and RHIT does offer some undergraduate research opportunties every summer officially in mathematics.</p>
<p>And, leejwwc, do you mean that Cooper and Mudd offer many opportunities in undergraduate research?</p>
<p>I'm not too sure about the specific research opportunities available at each school - I defer that judgment to you. I can only state in terms of generalities. If you think that RHIT will provide the opportunities you are looking for then by all means that is great. In general, large research universities like ICL will have more research going on then small schools like RHIT, Cooper, and Mudd. That's a function of more faculty, more funding, and more facilities at larger universities.</p>
<p>^but schools like ICL'll have to take care of their grad students before they think of you undergrads.. this is especially the case in UK unis where undergrads don't get much research experience.. Schools like LACs and RHIT tho have fewer profs.. they'll only cater the undergrads..</p>
<p>I find it strange that undergrad research opportunities are limited to American students.</p>
<p>For example, on harvey mudd's website, it claims that the summer research opportunties for undergraduate are limited to US citizens. In this case, how about an international student studying at Harvey Mudd? Is he excluded from such opportunties?</p>
<p>I know a female international student at Mudd who is doing research over the summer through Mudd. The main problem was that the professor had to secure special funding for her. Lucky the profs here really look out for us =)</p>
<p>jack - a lot of summer programs are sponsored by federal institutions and not the host institutions, i.e. by the NSF or NIH and not by the universities. The universities provide the resources to carry out the research. There are exceptions though. Specifically, look for programs that don't call themselves REUs (Research Experiences for Undergraduates), e.g. SURPs or SUROPs - those are sometimes funded by host institutions and not the government.</p>
<p>The reason I stress that large research universities (at least in the States) typically have great opportunities for undergraduates is b/c of my own experience. I go to a private research university and study biology (a reputable and well funded department). Almost all the undergrads in the department have worked in research labs as independent study at least one semester, many multiple semesters including myself. I feel that this type of long-term exposure is paramount to getting the requisite experience to be successful in graduate school, where I will be heading next year. I've also had a summer research internship and a publication, which I feel my experience at school helped me obtain. In general, I feel like a lot of these opportunities were handed to me readily, whereas at a smaller school I <em>might</em> have needed to actively seek them out.</p>
<p>Well, even for huge universities like Berkeley, undergrad research opportunities are limited to US citizens (ie, they are funded by NSF). </p>
<p>Any way, I guess I am picking RHIT over Imperial, not just for possibly research opportunities, but also many other things.</p>
<p>Besides, I have never heard of any one from Imperial going to US for grad schools. Most of them either go directly into industry, or pursue a PhD at Imperial again.</p>