I've got the admission into UIUC, UMich Ann Arbor, UMD 2018 Fall Physics Ph.D. program and would like to make decision among these 3 schools. (still waiting for some other schools' result, though)
I am still considering what research field I would like to do, but I would probably do theoretical condensed matter physics, AMO theory or application of statistical mechanics to complex systems. The preference is CMT > AMO theory ~ complex system theory. Especially, I want to use QFT into the research though I have not learned it (but interested in it). I have already browsed the website and I briefly summarized as follow :
UIUC : strong condensed matter program, relatively small AMO or complex system program.
UMich : It seems that the sizes of the research program in different fields are almost the same.
UMD : strong AMO program, but CMT is relatively small.
If anyone can give insights regarding these three schools that will be helpful. Any suggestion is welcome!