<p>My son has been accepted into Penn Sate U. and the University of Oklahoma's School of Meteorology and cannot decide between the 2 top rated graduate schools in the country for this field. Any advice or experience with either? He has visited both and they both have given him very generous offers of full paid tuition and nice stipends for assistantships.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>If you go by those Tornado Chasing shows on the Discovery Channel, then OU seems like the sexy place to be for field work, research and cutting edge technology.</p>
<p>Thanks beerme. I think he is leaning in that direction, but we live in MD and he is partial to the east coast and loves the mountains of PA and the great reputation of Penn State for Meteorology. The program at OU seems to be more of what he wants though - and they have been so nice to him from OU!</p>
<p>He needs to VISIT both U’s before he makes a decision. This is critical! If he is going for a PhD program he will be living and working there for 4+ years, so the "feel’ of those in the program, both fellow grad students and profs- as well as the surroundings, will be very important to his ability to do the work over the next few years. Grad school can be a very tough “grind”, and he will need to be able to find a mental balance in his life between the work and the time not spent in the lab, in order to stay focused.</p>