<p>My sister has been accepted to pursue her Masters in Sheffield University in the UK and University of Tennessee. Both full scholarships, both in civil engineering. </p>
<p>The differences are:
University of Tennessee is two years masters, and the scholarship also offers for her to finish her Doctorate.</p>
<p>University of Sheffield only offers one years master. </p>
<p>She is in a dilemma. The ranking of Sheffield is much better and the university life also looks nicer. She prefers the UK too.</p>
<p>But she does not want to miss the opportunity to study the doctorate too. Many tell her though that her interests might change and she might be stuck with something she does not like.</p>
<p>SO what do you guys think? US vs. UK? Tennessee VS. Sheffield?</p>
<p>If she is going to a well-ranked college for her MS, how does this keep her from getting her PhD later on? You talk as if by going to Sheffield she’s ruling out the possibility of getting her PhD later.</p>
<p>You are right. But many tell her that the higher education in the US is better than the UK and to forget the ranking. I don’t agree with them, and that is why I am posting here to get another perspective.</p>
<p>I am from another part of Europe and let’s just say that the 1 year British MS CS destroyed the job market in the 80’s (when we had no CS degrees to begin with). Everybody went to England, got their 1 year MS, came back, and no matter how you dice it, could not perform (on average) remotely as well as the 2 year US MS degrees…</p>
<p>If it is Cambridge, Imperial, ETH Zurich, Delft or </p>
<p>Yes, many say that 2 year masters graduates are much more qualified, which makes sense.</p>
<p>Sheffield university is the 110th on the world and is very good in engineering.</p>
<p>[World</a> University Rankings 2012-2013 - Times Higher Education](<a href=“http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2012-13/world-ranking]World”>World University Rankings 2013-14 | Times Higher Education (THE))</p>
<p>If she visited both schools and prefers Sheffield then it is a better choice. After getting her MS she can still apply to PhD programs including one at UT. If she does well she will be admitted somewhere for sure.</p>
<p>A one-year MS? I dunno, sounds sketchy.</p>
<p>What area of engineering? For example, the faculty at the UTK Materials Science department is very good.</p>