Hello, I have been accepted to The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and The University of Maryland to study in aerospace engineering. I want to focus more in the astronautical engineering aspect over the aeronautical engineering.
I did not yet have the chance to visit the UIUC, so I have some questions:
Does the UIUC have a strong astronautical engineering program or aeronautical engineering Program? Both?
Does the UMD have a strong astronautical engineering program or aeronautical engineering Program? Both?
Also, which college, UMD or UIUC, will give me a better experience in an aerospace engineering major?
Also, which college will give me more internship and job opportunities in my field?
I agree with the above, but would add, you should do anything you can to visit Illinois. You won’t have a solid feel to compare unless you’ve been on campus.
Ha, it has me written all over it? Just so I can tell him the same thing that you guys would, that the two schools are both good and both will have a very similar range of career outcomes?
Well, sort of. I was in the mechanical department when I was at UIUC. I mean, it’s obviously a great school and I really enjoyed my time there, but UMD is also a great school. There isn’t a wrong choice here.
@Krizzykriz, the differences between these schools is much more about the non-academic things than the academics. As far as “school” goes, they’re both good. Congratulations!
They can’t really be separated on athletics either. Both are pretty big time and intermittently very good in round ball and pointy ball.
College Park is close to Goddard and DC. UIUC is sort of in the middle of the Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis triangle. Both will get seasonal weather, cold in the winter and humid in the summer, probably more humid in MD though. I’d base it on where you ultimately want to live as most of the engineering recruiters are regional. Only a few reach out nationally and even then not to every school. That’s not to say you can’t get a West Coast job from either, a Midwest job from MD or a East Coast job from UIUC. You’ll just have to work harder.
This is nearly irrelevant for these school and these programs. Both UIUC and UMD draw a large number of national companies to their career fairs and, in aerospace in particular, the jobs are going to be in the relatively small number of locales with an aerospace presence anyway.
Not really. At the engineering career fairs at UIUC the majority of employers there were from out of the region. Probably more than half of the engineering friends that I had work outside the Midwest as well. At nationally renowned schools like that, the jobs come from all over.
First let me state that you know lots more about UIUC and AE than I do. With that said, please let me respectfully push back a bit and defend my original point.
The self reported numbers for 2015 showed 47% of the engineering graduates employed in Illinois, 62% if you include the touching surrounding states. California and Washington account for 15%, likely Boeing and the several aerospace companies in CA. This data does NOT parse out AE, which get funneled into a relatively few companies in the big scheme of engineering. There are however cottage aerospace companies scattered all over the place. It is also likely swayed by the fact that a significant number of students at UIUC are Illinois residents and want to stay in the region.
This sort of misses my point though. If an engineer wants to work at Boeing, they’re likely going to meet a recruiter at either UMD or UIUC. If they want to work in Washington state however, they’d meet LOTS more recruiters if they were students at UW than they would at either UMD or UIUC. Hence the question, where do you want to live? Not, do you want to be recruited by large multinational companies?
The bottom line here is that both schools offer good Astro and Aero tracks for AE. Furthermore, it doesn’t really matter which school has the better Astro or Aero track since employers will not expect you to be the world’s foremost expert in Astro or Aero coming out of college with just a BS degree.
Now if you decide to pursue grad school later on, then the strength of the program becomes more important. Stronger programs offer more and/or better quality research, as well as more class options.
For now though, either school would make a great choice. Which one do you like better, and can you afford it?
Sorry @Krizzykriz for the late reply. I’m in the depths of my senior year at UMD (astronautical track).
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1&2) UMD has both strong astronautical and aeronautical programs. UIUC has a strong program, but your focus will be a set of electives versus a set curriculum (such as UMD’s). This could simply mean you actually have scheduling flexibility (unlike UMD’s) or that the professors who teach these topics (such as rocket propulsion) aren’t actually leading researchers in that particular topic (or both).
3) Both colleges offer multiple chances for you to have a good experience. They will not “give” them to you however, you must seek them.
4) See #3, replace “a good experience” with “opportunities in industry.”
5) Do you like the midwest? Do you like the east coast (DC area)? I’m biased toward to UMD because I’m more familiar with it than the AE program at UIUC
Sorry if these aren’t the detailed answers you were looking for; perhaps if you asked more specific questions?
Actually I will go out on a limb to say that I have found the key to being a good engineer is knowing which questions to ask and how to find the useful information in the answers.
Job locations depend on your GPA. If you have high GPA (3.5+ - not easy for engineering majors) then you will have the chance to get an internship and a job after graduation at Boeing, SpaceX, Northrop,… in Seattle, and couple cities in California. You can also move to a better location/company after working 3, 5 years.
My son has interviewed with most of the giant aerospace companies without ever meeting their recruiters on campus. He applied on their websites (required for all applicants, even campus recruits), had phone interviews, then face to face in FL, MD, NH, AZ, MO, and AL.
All you need is a high GPA and a strong resume from an accredited program. Sorry, coolweather, the job location does not depend on the gpa. These companies have major facilities all over the country. If you’re good enough for the company, your good enough for any of their locations. Besides, who’s to say what constitutes a “better” location? Everyone has different priorities.
