<p>Hi all -
Major dilemma here: I was accepted into Stanford and Georgia Tech and have just about two weeks to decide my Master plan (har har). My goal in life is to pursue Human Computer Interaction (HCI) either in academia or in industry.</p>
<p>Stanford:
Pro: Famous name
Pro: Good location (many friends in the area) + Silicon Valley
Pro: Pretty decent HCI group, part of CS department
Con: A little more expensive</p>
<p>Georgia Institute of Technology
Con: Not as famous (at least internationally?)
Pro/Con: location?
Pro: HCI as a separate degree
Pro: More research labs dedicated to HCI
Pro: Cheaper</p>
<p>My background: international student currently living in the United States. Graduated last year with a dual major in Engineering and Linguistics from Swarthmore, currently working in MA (very good entry level salary, can pay maybe a semester of Stanford or a year of Georgia Tech, though I'm hoping for assistantships). Very keen on getting back into academics. Failed to gain admission into Media Lab twice, so that's that.</p>
<p>I would love your two cents.</p>
<p>Go stanford if you got in. Although gatech just got its rank in computer science up to #9 with new klaus building and big change in computer science program, I believe having stanford degree will serve you better in your future than georgia tech.</p>
<p>Stanford, beautiful campus, weather.
GT, blah campus. OK weather but sky has a haze.</p>
<p>DS didn’t get into MediaLabs twice either. He got into better programs.
He didn’t get into Stanford twice either. Never applied to GT.</p>
<p>It is indeed a tough call. I have had some interaction with HCI here at GT and I have been pretty impressed with the scope of it. However, as an international you must of course weigh things like international prestige, and a Stanford degree will probably garner you more respect in places that tend to weigh highly education from the Stanfords of the world.</p>
<p>I just got back from visiting GT and I was impressed, but I might just go with Stanford. I’m not too keen on Atlanta as a place to be in either…?</p>
<p>That’s a valid reason, I guess. I hate California and the Northeast and so I wound up at Tech :)</p>