Alan Kay has agreed to do an AMA today

Hi Alan, I'm a CS student thinking about graduate school.

1. Would you suggest going into a popular field that excites me but already has lot of brilliant students? (for example AI and ML)

Or rather into a not-so-popular field where maybe I can be of more help? (for example computational biology)

2. If I had to choose between studying my current favorite field at an average research group, or another still interesting field with a top group, would you suggest going with the latter for the overall learning experience?

Please try to avoid too much planning for your future at this point and just try to get to a place where things are going on. Any good educational experience will take someone who is trying to get from A to B and instead get them to C (note that an under-educated person is not in a good position to make big choices -- so learn more!)