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UCL or Carnegie Mellon University for Robotics and ECE

Just got an offer from both and am stuck between the two. The UCL offer is for Robotics and AI and the CMU offer is for ECE in their engineering department. Just wanted to know others thoughts in terms of job prospects and sponsorships and overall opinion.

For context:
I have already taken price into account.

I’ve always wanted to study in the US but most of my friends and family are in London.

The UCL offer is A*A*A and CMU is practically unconditional.

Thank you.
Reply 1
Original post by Under-1029
Just got an offer from both and am stuck between the two. The UCL offer is for Robotics and AI and the CMU offer is for ECE in their engineering department. Just wanted to know others thoughts in terms of job prospects and sponsorships and overall opinion.
For context:
I have already taken price into account.
I’ve always wanted to study in the US but most of my friends and family are in London.
The UCL offer is A*A*A and CMU is practically unconditional.
Thank you.

It depends on what your future career ambitions are. I would think that ECE would offer you a broader range of tech roles to go into than Robotics and AI, however if you are really interested in robotics then it may be better to have a degree purely focused in that. Ultimately, it's very hard to say which is better, but if I were in your position, I would definitely go to CMU. As long as the financial costs are not an issue for you, this is an amazing opportunity, and it's not as if you can't come back to London during long breaks (e.g. summer break). If your goal is to come back to stay in London forever, I don't think it would hurt to explore more of the world for 4 years and return to life here afterwards. If this is your dream then I'd 100% recommend you pursue this. If you end up loving the US and wanting a career there (temporarily or otherwise), it will be much easier to get into the job market, as the degree you'll have is from a US institution. If you do decide to come back to the UK, make sure that your degree meets the standards needed for you to go into your desired career. I don't know much about the tech industry, but if there is a regulating body in the UK for you to go into certain roles, make sure your degree is eligible for accreditation. This may mean that you need to complete certain modules in your ECE degree so that you meet UK standards.

This is such an amazing opportunity so congratulations and I hope everything goes well for you!
Reply 2
Original post by bibachu
It depends on what your future career ambitions are. I would think that ECE would offer you a broader range of tech roles to go into than Robotics and AI, however if you are really interested in robotics then it may be better to have a degree purely focused in that. Ultimately, it's very hard to say which is better, but if I were in your position, I would definitely go to CMU. As long as the financial costs are not an issue for you, this is an amazing opportunity, and it's not as if you can't come back to London during long breaks (e.g. summer break). If your goal is to come back to stay in London forever, I don't think it would hurt to explore more of the world for 4 years and return to life here afterwards. If this is your dream then I'd 100% recommend you pursue this. If you end up loving the US and wanting a career there (temporarily or otherwise), it will be much easier to get into the job market, as the degree you'll have is from a US institution. If you do decide to come back to the UK, make sure that your degree meets the standards needed for you to go into your desired career. I don't know much about the tech industry, but if there is a regulating body in the UK for you to go into certain roles, make sure your degree is eligible for accreditation. This may mean that you need to complete certain modules in your ECE degree so that you meet UK standards.
This is such an amazing opportunity so congratulations and I hope everything goes well for you!

Thank you so much for your thorough and detailed reply. I hadn’t thought about the validity of the degree overseas so I’m now taking that into account. I think I really like the interdisciplinary aspect of US Unis as I don’t want to just stick with the Robotics course in the UK and want to have some fluidity in the modules I do.

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