First of all, you should definitely go to Stanford or MIT or Berkeley if you can. I will not bullshit you into believing otherwise. (In case you did not notice, I got my Ph.D. from Stanford. And as a Taiwanese American, I have never attended any schools in Hong Kong.)However, if you cannot get into the top (~20, and shrinking) US schools, you should probably consider HKU, or the other 2 top Hong Kong schools, HKUST and CUHK, or NUS in Singapore. The reasons are as follows.
Also, as background information, I applied faculty jobs for top schools all over the world (a quite unique and interesting experience). I got offers from both North America and Hong Kong, and finally opted for HKU. So I am putting my money where my mouth is.
- Rankings
- HKU, HKUST, CUHK, and NUS are all highly ranked by various methods, such as US News, QS, and Times. And these 4 schools have been rising relatively faster than other universities in Asia, North America, and Europe. They are likely to get even better.
My personal opinion is that it is better to go to a top Asian school than a non-top US school, for a very simple reason: there are legitimate reasons for top students to go to the former (e.g. family or geographic preferences or visa problems) but not the latter (e.g. if you are really good and you can make to the US, why can't you attend a top school?).
- Research
- The rankings can vary a lot depending on the particular methods, so let us look at research publications, which are more objective to judge and more relevant for grad studies. At least for the fields that I know a few things about (e.g. graphics), these 4 schools have solid publications (e.g. SIGGRAPH).
- Funding
- I am not sure if this is a temporary economic glitch or more permanent geographical shift, but unlike their European and American counterparts, Asian schools tend to have better financial supports for both faculty and students. (During my interview with the US schools, some folks told me to stay put because "the funding situation is really bad now and likely to get even worse in the future".) Graduate students in HKU usually get full financial support, and this cannot be said for the US schools, now or later.
- Culture
- Schools in Hong Kong, just like the island itself, have a nice blend of eastern and western cultures. (This is likely true for NUS as well, but since I do not know much about Singapore, I will leave it out of the discussion here. Some of my friends in NUS commented that "people with non-conforming personality might not be very suitable for Singapore", though.) All 3 schools have a high degree of international faculty and student mix. The classes are conducted in English. (I do not know how to teach technical materials in Mandarin anymore, and I cannot even speak Cantonese.) And the schools are highly focusing on research (the main purpose I was hired for).
I believe every student, regardless of your geographical origin, can benefit from experiences in Hong Kong. Asian students can stay close to home while receiving western style education, while non-Asian students can experience the eastern culture with less language barriers than other Asian schools.
- HKU
- So why HKU over HKUST or CUHK? A quick answer is that I am there.
