Deciding on a Graduate School

ragnarok7331

Hello. I am an undergraduate at the University of Illinois, studying physics. I will be graduating in the spring, and am planning on going to graduate school for theoretical/computational astrophysics. I applied to three places - the University of Illinois, the University of Chicago, and Northwestern. I was fortunate enough to be accepted to all three of them. I have been trying to make a decision on which one I should go to, and I have talked to several people to help me decide. However, I am still stuck. All three schools have research that I would be interested in, and they are all fairly well-known in the astrophysics community. All of them have given me comparable financial aid programs when taking into account differences in standard of living costs. However, all of them have aspects that concern me. For Illinois, as much as I enjoy it here, I would be missing out on the experience of going to a new university. For Chicago, I am concerned that the urban environment would frustrate me, as large crowds tend to kind of overwhelm me and make me frustrated. For Northwestern, the department is small enough that my options would be limited. Although I am interested in the research all three professors are doing, if it turns out that is not what I would like to do, I do not have many options. Also, because the department is smaller, there will probably be less activity there (professors visiting to give talks, etc.).

I don't expect anyone here to be very familiar with the astrophysics programs at the schools, but I am wondering if anyone knows of different important aspects to the school that I may not have yet considered. Does anyone have any advice?

tl;dr - Got accepted to three graduate schools. All have their downsides. Not sure which one I should attend.

matisyahu

Can you elaborate a bit more on your issues with crowds? I live on the far north side of Chicago right now, and from my experience, the only real big crowds Ive run into are either in touristy areas downtown (Navy Pier, the museums, etc), the loop, sporting events, or big things like the Taste or the Nov 4th Obama rally. However, you might have a completely different definition of "big crowd," and we also might get the Olympics in 2016, so that's kind of a wildcard but hardly something I'd divert my life plans for.

Have you spent any considerable amount of time in the city? I would suggest visiting a friend if you can, or staying near the campus for a few days somehow. The U of C area isn't right in the thick of things, which my assuage your fears a bit.

Your concerns with Northwestern (program size, limited options) seem to be more serious than your concerns with the other schools, as if you'd only be going there by eliminating the other schools in the interest of experiencing new things and avoiding crowds. Evanston is a nice place though, definitely nicer than the baking swaths of asphalt and strip malls of Champaign-Urbana.

CrystalMethodist

Go visit!

Don't they have open houses for PhD students? We have that here. You come, meet the professors, walk around the campus, meet the prospective students, etc.

It's worth the three plane trips now to be sure about how you're spending the next (don't think about it) years of your life.

Hlubocky

I haven't attended the U of C, but it is definitely in an isolated area on the south side of Chicago. I'm sure there are things to do around the campus, but if you want to go downtown or north side or whatever, it will be a bit of a trip (though I guess if you are at NU it is about the same distance, just in a different direction).

I too graduated from UIUC, though with an undergraduate degree in Computer Science and decided to stay there for my MS. I guess Physics is different since you pretty much need a PhD, so the choice has a bit more gravity. I now work downtown Chicago and love living in the city. I guess like others have said, you won't really know if you like it unless you visit.

Hypatia

Like CrystalMethodist said, I was under the impression that schools have open houses for graduate level applicants that they've accepted as a little "we really want to convince you to come here!" thing. Look into it, because that's when they schmooze you, tell you all about the things particular to their program/research, and try to get other students to tell you what life is like there.

Evil_Reaver

Honestly, you should only be considering U of C and Northwestern. It's not in your best interest to go to graduate school where you received your undergrad. You need to branch out, make new contacts, and move on from the place where you just spent 4 years.

grungebox

To be honest, of those three I'd choose U of C because your primary complaints are non-academic in nature (crowds). Your complaints about the other two are somewhat more academic, and you def should avoid going to grad school at your undergrad if you can avoid it. Picking an advisor (esp. if you don't have a fellowship*) can be tough if your options are limited.

*If you haven't applied to Hertz/NSF/NDSEG/other big fellowships, make sure to do that next year.

Lepton

CrystalMethodist wrote: »

Go visit!

Don't they have open houses for PhD students? We have that here. You come, meet the professors, walk around the campus, meet the prospective students, etc.

It's worth the three plane trips now to be sure about how you're spending the next (don't think about it) years of your life.

This. When I was choosing a grad school for physics, departments would fly me in and pay for a hotel and food. Since UC and NW are both in the same city, it should be pretty easy for you to set up a trip to go visit them both in a 2-3 day trip. When you go visit, make sure you talk to other grad students. Maybe they'll answer some of your concerns.