Which university is more prestigious, Georgetown or University of Washington?

This is actually what I do, and I've spent time going through every single damn program in the US trying to figure out where to apply, since there aren't that many straight computational linguistics programs. Here's the deal: Georgetown is still seen as better in computational linguistics, and it was one of the only programs in existence as of about 7-10 years ago when I was straight out of undergrad. U of W's computational linguistics program is fairly new and I know they were really publicizing it and getting the classes shaken down as of last year (one of my old advisors is friends with Emily). I also know my current university has hired linguistics professors from Georgetown specifically because they were from Georgetown. U of W is seen as a good, respectable school, but it doesn't have that little extra cachet that Georgetown does in regards to linguistics in general. However...I've also heard grumblings lately that the students Georgetown is producing are somewhat old-fashioned, and I have not run into anyone from Georgetown that I can recall at artificial intelligence or cognitive science conferences. The professor we hired specifically because she was from Georgetown ended up being let go because she was *so* traditional and had no flexibility. There are basically two main views of computational linguistics - the cognitively-focused side and the statistically-focused side. (I'm assuming you kind of know that already.) I get the impression Georgetown does the latter and only the latter. Since I am a proponent of the former, I have a weird mental dichotomy going on of being jealous you got into Georgetown and a suspicion that knowing what I know now about their views and methods that I might turn it down if I got in today. Also - if you just get a Master's, no matter where you go, it's going to be nearly impossible to find a job doing actual research. That was what I ran into a few years ago, and it's taken another Master's and most of a PhD later before I'm finally in a position where I get paid decently and get to present my own project proposals for things I'm interested in. At this point, there are not actually that many jobs out there for computational linguists that actually WANT computational linguists (as opposed to computer scientists that know commonly used computational linguistic algorithms), so it's hard, if not impossible, to get your foot in the door with a Master's. That would give Georgetown the edge there. (Data point - I work for the govt. Once I finish my PhD, there will be two people in the ENTIRE US GOVT with the job code for "computational linguist." Those two people are me and my boss.) However, if you're doing a PhD and want to go into actual fun, new research, I'd check on that new U of W Ling-CL program they're advertising and see what research they're doing and if their views are compatible with yours. (I don't even think they had that last year.) I think that program will be more sustainable over the long run, and U of W faculty also seems to have more friendly connections with outside communities, and a great CS program. Er - on preview I saw Alison's. I agree wholeheartedly with the computer science thing. One of my degrees is in CS, and we used to mock Georgetown's CS. However, I disagree with the funding thing. There are only a handful of schools that offer great packages for CL, unless stuff has changed drastically in the past few years. If the CL program is part of a CS program, there is much more likely going to be funding than if the program is part of a CogSci or linguistics program. CS programs just have more money.

$50,000, seriously? And you don't have the money? If I had to chose between paying $1,000 a month for more than four years (just to put in perspective, interest-free) and, well, not... With a masters in computational linguistics, how much could you expect to earn after graduation? I assume that your staring salary would be about $50K maxing out at about $75-100K at the height of your career (Google confirms). Seriously, it's not worth it. Not even close to worth it. Not to mention that UW is a very good school, and living in Seattle is much more likely to score you those internships that will make or break your career. $50,000.

I see lots of ads on the bus and metro for new master's programs from Georgetown. I know their law school and undergrad are good, as is their business school, and their foreign service school. Outside of those, it seems easy to get into most of their other programs and they're really creating a ton of cash cow programs that are diluting the "brand." Georgetown seems really suspect outside their professional programs. Honestly, don't be fooled by the Georgetown name. I would think that the state school program would be more competitive. You can get into a really elite private school for nearly any master's level program if you pay the big bucks, and it's not worth it.

I'm a computational linguist. I went to George Washington as an undergraduate, but I took all of my linguistics courses at Georgetown. I found the quality of the classes to be high and the faculty to be attentive. However, though I applied to and was accepted by the Graduate program in linguistics at Georgetown and I turned it down. I did this because almost every other school I applied to offered me funding and Georgetown did not. After pestering the department, it was clear that the money wasn't there, and this was during boom times.* Ultimately, I chose to go to graduate school at Carnegie Mellon. Also, a good part of being a computational linguist, the part that will keep you employed more that other linguists, is having good programming skills. The University of Washington has better facilities and faculty than Georgetown. It's a lot harder to make up for mediocre infrastructure within a computer science department than a linguistics department. Plus, there is not that much of a prestige difference between the two schools within the computational linguistics community. Sure, Georgetown has history within the machine translation community, but it takes a lot of blame for setbacks to the field. It's much more important to latch onto a faculty member who is doing new and interesting work. Think about who you'd rather work with rather than the department itself. if you're planning on skipping the research assistant route all together go with U of W. It's a much, much better deal. *Really, no one should be paying for a computational linguistics degree. There is plenty of money available in grants to keep any graduate student in the black as a research or teaching assistant. Most departments won't guarantee funding to masters students, but the money is out there. Based on my experience, I think you'll have a better chance of finding something at U of W than Georgetown. Being persistent over the summer could secure you something by the fall.

Actually I'd say UW is the better choice. Georgetown, to me, reads as more of a professional school/degree (Law, MPA, etc) whereas as a the flagship state libarts school (think Indiana, as opposed to Purdue), nobody would ask, "you can get an MA in linguistics there?" I just don't think of G'town as the sort of school that one attends to get something like a trad arts-letters-science MA. Now if you're from WA state and you did your BA there, you might look a little more provincial if you went to UW for your grad school, but otherwise I'd perceive UW to be the better degree.

I have to agree with those who say this may be an East Coast/West Coast thing. Where do you want to end up? And what, exactly, do you want to do with this degree? Academia or private sector? (I'm really entertained by this question as my mother went to both schools for linguistics - undergrad at Georgetown, masters and PhD at UW.)

I've taken classes at both - spent my freshman year at UW, and spent a summer at Georgetown. I live in DC now, but I hated Georgetown. It's tiny, there are little to no research opportunities (compared to a huge research institution like UW), and the people that I met were not nearly as interesting (interpret this as you will) as those at UW. I ended up at the University of Wisconsin, which will always occupy the largest chunk of my higher education heart, but the University of Washington has the most beautiful campus I have ever seen, has all of the opportunities Georgetown has x10, and I would tell you 500 times over that while you'd be perfectly satisfied with Georgetown (if you don't mind the small school atmosphere), you would fall head over heels in love with UW. Go Huskies! Let us know what you decide, and if you need any more info, feel free to drop me a line! Good luck!

I think you should care a bit more about how the specific programs to which you've been admitted are viewed among those in the profession. I'm not sure you've been out of undergrad, but once you're trading on a grad degree, what matters is the quality of that program, not the quality of the school as a whole. If you aren't really sure you want to stay in computational linguistics, you should not spend your own money to get a degree.

UW is consistently on top lists for computer science! According to US News, it is currently number 7. It will also be tens of thousands of dollars less. I don't think the UW computational linguistics masters program is part of computer science -- it seems to be an independent "professional masters program" with distinct faculty (some overlap with linguistics). So if it were in CS I think the choice would be clear (UW has name recognition in computer science no matter what coast you are on), but it isn't. If I were talking to one of my students I would recommend georgetown over UW for this kind of masters (though for various reasons my advice is kind of biased). However, I would also give blanket advice that you should never pay 50k a year for a graduate degree that isn't an MD or JD (and maybe not even then, these days).