<p>Having a hard time deciding. On one hand, UCSD has a much smaller EE department and EE student pop. which might be good in terms of research opportunity. Plus UCSD gets a crapton of research money and is ranked as one of the best research universities by NSF (Although I dont know if its necissarily directed towards EE). On the other hand, even though UCSD's ECE program isnt bad, Georgia Tech has a much more prestigious EE program (according to US News World report and whats going around the engineering community) with a more renowned faculty and judging from my visits to both campuses, the students at GTech seem somewhat more motivated about learning and school than UCSD students, which adds a larger sense of motivation to the environment (this is just what i noticed offhand). Offers in terms of finaid are close/about the same and both campuses are about the same in terms of quality. I guess it basically comes down to small dept. + good research benefits at UCSD vs. much greater prestige at GTech. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>Hey anycraft, I’m a current GT EE student myself; while I can’t speak on behalf of UCSD, I can however tell you how GT is. Really, in my opinion, if you want to do research, how much research funding or how the NSF technically classifies a school is…not, irrelevant? But I mean, both UCSD and GT are large enough, renowned enough, and have large enough engineering departments that they should be doing more than enough research and getting more than enough funding. Practically I mean, if you want to do research, you can. Though I would say, you have a better chance of getting into research with a larger department, than a smaller one, because with a smaller department, professors might be more limited in terms of research scope, and be less inclined to choose you if you don’t exactly match, you know what I mean?</p>
<p>Other than that, frankly, I am of the opinion that UCSD has a pretty decent engineering department, and is an even more decent school. Basically, these two schools are close enough in rep., that I feel that final thing you should consider is/was your impressions in visiting both schools. In all honesty, that is probably the best way to decide (considering the schools are so close), how did you feel about them both when you visited, etc.</p>
<p>Best of luck!</p>