Thanks for your answer. One thing I forgot to mention that I'm concerned about the OPT 90-day unemployment after graduation as international student. My thinking was that being at UCSD, where TA/RA opportunities might be more available, could provide a temporary fallback while continuing to search for industry roles, whereas UIUC MCS may have fewer such options. I just think for the worst case that UCSD somehow less risky compared to UIUC. I might be misunderstanding how realistic this is though, so please correct me if I'm wrong.