CS PhD advice: Michigan vs Wisconsin

[abgoldberg]

So I've been admitted to the following two PhD programs:

University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) Comp Sci & Engineering
University of Wisconsin (Madison) Computer Sciences

I'm trying to balance out department strength overall, reputation, program requirements, location, campus life, stress level of students, and of course--the research and professors. I'm getting good financial support from both places (guaranteed 5 years at Mich, 4 years at Wisc (first as fellowship)). The stipend amount is a bit higher at Mich, but so is the cost of living in Ann Arbor. I'm considering how hard it really is to get RAs and funding support without brutal amounts of TAing at each place. I was just wondering what people had to say about these two programs on any of these (or other) factors. I'm curious to hear people's honest opinions of these programs based on what you either personally know or have heard from friends.

Thanks in advance.

[ChoBaka]

Well, I've heard Wisconsin is really strong in Computer Architecture and Databases. I also heard that it's not so good for things like Robotics, HCI, and AI. Ranking-wise Wisconsin is ranked higher than Michigan, but I don't think there's enough of a difference in relative strengths between the two departments to base your decision solely on that. You might want to ask around and see what Michigan is strong in (isn't their AI lab pretty strong?) and try to match that with your interests. If you don't have a clear cut interest right away, you can try to gauge how well rounded each department is.

[gforce]

I second ChoBaka.
This might seem cliched but a good way to compare them would be to check out the number of publications at the top-10 international conferences (VLDB, WWW etc.) over the past few years.
Based on my findings, I'd recommend UWisc-Madison.

[abgoldberg]

Thanks, I'll try to take a look at which seems to publish more. I am actually interested primarily in AI, so I am leaning toward Michigan based on the amount of cool research. I think that's probably the most important factor, since at some point I'll be out of courses and everything and just doing research... You guys agree?

Then again, research interests change, and there are some other areas like optimization at Wisc that sound interesting. I was contacted by a prof in that group, even though I think it was clear that my primary interest was in AI. I wonder if this is indicative of anything.

What about comparisons of the cities? Anyone want to compare Ann Arbor and Madison? (I know there are online city comparison tools. I'm looking for personal opinions.)

[abgoldberg]

Does anyone else have anything to add on this?

Umich vs. Uwisc:
In terms of AI research/profs?
In terms of CS in general?
Ann Arbor vs. Madison?

Anyone know people at either place who love it/hate it? Thanks!