Comparison of my four active offers:
Country University Program
Ireland Trinity College Dublin High Performance Computing
UK Imperial College London Applied Computational Science and Engineering
UK University of Edinburgh High Performance Computing with Data Science
Netherlands University of Amsterdam Computational Science
Trinity College Dublin----- 80% chance land a job in IT sector Pros:
2-year post study work permit visa.
Tech hub in Europe and more finance opportunities. Cons:
Around 2/5 of the module lecturers don’t have a PhD degree.
Imperial College London----- Imperial reputation; Career in wind energy Pros:
Imperial prestigious reputation
London has 8 million people (1.2 million in Dublin), presumably more jobs.
Machine learning module included. Cons:
A new program set up 1 year ago, I’m the second cycle.
All lecturers are Earth science background.
6-month post study work visa. Might miss the recruitment window after graduation. Spring recruitment only chance.
University of Edinburgh---- Top 1 HPC program with a variety of data science options Pros:
Program with long history. It’s the top 1 HPC program in UK.
30 credit data science options Cons:
6-month visa after graduation
University of Amsterdam---- Solid computer science foundation; extra summer internship Pros:
2-year program means an extra summer for internship.
High variety of computer science modules means solid foundation.
Computational finance options Cons:
Join degree with VU Amsterdam (60% modules), which is not as prestige (QS 164th) as other universities.
General graduate level HPC engineer is not desired. Several years of work experience is expected. CGG UK is hiring graduate HPC engineer.