Wisconsin it is
Today, pressed by the April 15 acceptance deadline, I decided to attend the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
There were a few reasons that I chose UW over UCSD:
- Wisconsin is far closer to Missouri, and in the same timezone.
- Visiting UW the physics department just seemed more active, with several major experiments, including one in each of the areas of study I think that I'm interested in, namely IceCube and the Madison Symmetric Torus.
- I saw graduate students doing much more hands-on work at UW, actually building the equipment that they would then use.
- I was offered a summer research position at UW, and while it's not necessarily the area I want to study ultimately, it's a great opportunity.
All in all I feel fairly happy with my choice, and don't think that I'll have reason to regret it.