<p>Hey guys,</p>
<p>I'm having a hard time deciding between UCLA and UMich Ann Arbor for M.S. in Engineering for Aerospace Engineering. I would GREATLY appreciate it if anyone in either programs or anyone with a good idea of what to expect can give their opinion! Thank you for your time, I need to make a decision by April 15!</p>
<p>bump bump bump</p>
<p>In my experience with friends who are in Aerospace Eng, Michigan is only slightly below schools like MIT, Stanford, Caltech, etc, and often on the list of top schools applied. (I go to MIT and almost all my friends in Aerospace here applied to Michigan for grad school). </p>
<p>This is if you only consider reputation, however. Michigan and UCLA must each have their own strengths and weaknesses in terms of research topics. Michigan I’ve heard has a very strong computational fluid dynamics side, while MIT has the top research in turbomachinery, and UCLA undoubtedly has its own strengths. It comes down to what you want to study, really, since you’ll be the one doing the work.</p>
<p>I agree that UMich is a better school when compared to UCLA when it comes down to Aerospace Engineering, however, it’s just that I would have to pay out-of-state tuition for UMich while for UCLA it’s considerably cheaper ($33k vs $10k per year). I’m just wondering if anyone has had any past experiences if tuition should really be a huge factor. And if in industry, what difference would there be between a UMich degree and a UCLA degree. Ultimately, my goals for graduate school is to open up more opportunities for myself. Arghh, this is so stressful.</p>
<p>Your advisor, the group, how much funding, opportunities to publish.</p>
<p>Take this for what it’s worth, but a few of my Aero friends at MIT are turning down schools like Stanford and Caltech to go to Michigan. One guy I know got into Caltech with full funding (without TAship requirements) for Masters, and has already turned it down to go to Michigan, where he doesn’t even know about funding yet-- so that he could work with the likes of Wei Shyy and Bram van Leer, who are apparently giants in their field. He is interested in Gas Dynamics, and somehow didn’t get into MIT, so the next best school for what he wanted to do was Michigan. </p>
<p>Most of the people I’m talking about are also aiming to go into industry. As far as I’ve heard for them, UCLA was a safety school if they even bothered applying. This is just looking at the level of the school, however. These are exceptional financial times and it would certainly be unwise to ignore all the money aspects. It may well be that UCLA is very good at something that you’re interested in, and conveniently you can save tens of thousands on fees. My advice is: ask your professors for advice, but take everyone with a grain of salt- you have to ultimately look at the actual research being done at those schools. Take into account all the things that are important to you, whether it’s prestige, reputation, research areas, specific faculty, tuition, location, etc, and make a decision you won’t regret. I think we’ve all had to make tough decisions this round, so you’re definitely not alone. Good luck!</p>
<p>P.S. I can put you in touch with some of the friends I keep talking about via email if you want to ask them directly. Just PM me with your email. :)</p>
<p>UMICH OF COURSE!!</p>
<p>For god sake…</p>
<p>y1justin: why do you say that?</p>
<p>Sounds like you’ve been living in California your whole life. You should go to Umich…</p>
<p>as much as I hate UMich, but I think you should go for UMich no doubt</p>
<p>Too many reasons, one of that is… courses there are better</p>