I am a international transfer student.
I got offers from UW Madison in general studies and Umass Amherst Honors College in computer science.
I am interested in artificial intelligence and plan to go to grad school.
I want to go to Umass since their CS program is very good and has an artificial intelligence concentration in undergraduate CS program, but I cannot just simply decline the offer from UW Madison.
Since I am going to grad school, I am looking for the research opportunities, internship opportunities, and anything that can make me become a stronger applicant.
Umass accepted me to the Honors College, so I think there will be more opportunities and resource for me, but I am not sure about that, and I don’t know how many opportunities are there in UW Madison.
By considering the factors of graduate admissions, which school should I choose?
PS: How is the weather in the two area?
PS: A Chance Me question: I am waiting for decision from Georgia Tech. My current GPA is 4.0, have completed 45 units and 26 units in progress, and the last one course for major preparation is in progress. What is my chance?
Wisconsin and Georgia Tech are ranked significantly higher in C.S. than UMass. I would recommend Wisconsin, or Georgia Tech if you are admitted. If you really like UMass, then you can attend there. But overall strengths, and specifically for your major, clearly favor Wisconsin for your current acceptances. Make sure you are not confusing UMass with MIT – even some of the major international rankings have made that mistake in the past, and it affected rankings placements. That mistake I believe has been cleared up now, but kind of screwed things up re: UMass rankings in past years.
UMass has a great reputation for AI. Even a student like me whose major is not CS know it. If you are willing to go to UMass grad school and continue your research there, it would be a good opportunity to go to UMass. If not, probably choose another school has a higher overall rank. People tend to believe that students from top schools are better than students from schools that may have higher major ranks.