Aerien: Thank you so much for sharing your thought. Very helpful.
Either Souther California or DFW would make a optimal location for my future working and living. That's probably why I cannot decide which school could be a better option. SMU could offer me the chances to get into EE companies including Samsung, Ericsson and TI. But I guess SoCal does have more hi-tech job opportunities than DFW does, like you said.
Thanks again.
aerien wrote:
Congratulations on getting into both schools!!
Where do you want to be located long-term? SMU is great for the DFW area, and UCI is great for Southern California. It will be more difficult, but probably not impossible, to get to Southern California from SMU and vice versa.
Based on your post, I assume you want to stay in electronic engineering, or something similar. I don't know much about hiring in DFW except that there are definitely jobs there, but the Irvine area has more hi-tech/engineering jobs than you could ask for. Yes, USC and UCLA are nearby too (UC Davis recruits more into San Francisco, which is pretty far from Irvine); UC San Diego is relatively close by as well. However, the Irvine area is an up-and-coming Silicon Valley of sorts -- many many tech companies are in the area, including Google, Oracle, Kingston, etc etc. Hyundai (if you want to focus in electronic engineering in the auto industry) also has its headquarters nearby -- and they do recruit from UCI.
Hope that helps! Sorry this is more of a one-sided post, but you'll have great options no matter where you go.