<p>I would recommend Illinois for its engineering programs, whereas PSU is not ‘strong’ in engineering of any jind, except Biomedical which is a fusion of biology, organic chemistry and basic chemical engineering while emphasizing soft engineering with physiology, mostly!</p>
<p>PSU is plenty “strong” in engineering. I run into good people and research coming from PSU all the time. It doesn’t have the same brand power as Illinois, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a quality program.</p>
<p>Most, if not all Big 10 schools have quality programs.
UIUC, Purdue, Michigan, though, have EXCELLENT programs.</p>
<p>It depends on what you want out of your degree. If you want to do cutting edge research, you are hurting yourself going to a lower ranked school. Those rankings are mostly based on research.</p>
<p>If you want a job as an engineer, the “brand power” is an effect that is certainly felt as UIUC sees a ton of recruiters on campus every year, but you will by no means be unemployed because you went to PSU instead of UIUC. </p>
<p>If you want to do engineering because of personal interests, or you want to go to medical or law school, it probably won’t matter where you go.</p>