<p>We could use parental perspective/experience. DS must choose between Uof Il, UW Madison, U Mich in CHEM E. U Mich hugely $$. Particular interest in sustainable/renewable energy. He thinks Chem E affords most potential. He's been to U of Il and UW in the past week, likes Madison but can't get a handle on whether either offers more research opps, classes, etc. Is anyone in the field? If he does well, will choice of school matter. We are sheep, looking for a last minute shepherd.</p>
<p>I’m a UW grad, in the dark ages. My best friend and roomie was a Chem E major, as was the guy she eventually married. Great program, hard work of course. Both had great intern opportunities and my roomie got an amazing scholarship after her first year with a Wisconsin company. They both ended up working at 3M and my roomie then went on to do grad work Occupational Engineering (or whatever OSHA-type work is called). They have two daughters, both going into Chem E (I know. Wow.) and though they are MN residents and could go to MN or UW via reciprocity, both are at Notre Dame. I don’t know if that’s a factor of the excellence of ND or a reflection of their feelings about UW, though.</p>
<p>UW eng does over $150 million annually in research and is patent machine. It has enough opportunities for anyone interested and the Chem E dept is higher rated than UM or UI. They have many good reports on what is going on on their site. And the lower cost is substantial.</p>
<p><a href=“http://perspective.engr.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/coe_annual-report-2011.pdf[/url]”>http://perspective.engr.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/coe_annual-report-2011.pdf</a></p>
<p><a href=“Engineering Career Services – College of Engineering – UW–Madison”>Engineering Career Services – College of Engineering – UW–Madison;
<p>Go to the cheapest of the three - I think they are all very similar and all 3 have renewable energy research going on.<br>
I’m a ChemE grad from UMich and all I can say is it’s a very competitive major - the worst part was taking Organic Chem classes with the pre-med students along with the engineering classes - fall of sophomore year still brings back horrible memories!!</p>
<p>I would have said the University of MN but that wasn’t on your list. I agree, go with the least expensive. They are all great schools.</p>
<p>I disagree with automatically choosing the cheapest. </p>
<p>I think money is a factor that depends on your means. </p>
<p>However, the other factors, like the availability of research opportunities are independent of money, and it might be worth more money to get a better situation. </p>
<p>I think that he is wise to look deeper into potential research opportunities, and how undergraduates fare at each school. </p>
<p>I’d look at the departments websites, search under research, look under the different research groups and see how many undergraduates there are. Then maybe I’d email those undergraduates and ask questions about how difficult it is to get research opportunities.</p>
<p>Thank you all, and thanks CRD. That’s what we’re trying to do now, and I wish we had known to start sooner!</p>
<p>You seem to have no problem with finances for UW versus UIUC. If so your son should choose the one of those two that he likes best overall. Many Illinois residents who can afford it choose UW over their flagship for all of the nonacademic factors. Chem E is strong (as is the Chemistry dept) at UW so UW is a good choice for the academics. UW is a fantastic place to go to college so that makes it good for the nonacademic reasons if your son also likes it.</p>
<p>Many or most entering college freshmen will have no major or change it once they get college experiences. Therefore the overall college is as important as the particular major. It is not worth stressing the family finances, or going into a lot of debt just to get any college’s degree. You have three fairly equivalent choices here (despite any who say Michigan is better) so it is a hard choice. Go with the school that fits the budget.</p>
<p>ps- won’t you be glad when May comes and it is past deadlines?!</p>
<p>I agree with ShanghaiMom. All these choices are equally good, so if one is significantly cheaper, I would choose the cheaper college. Engineering employers pay the same, no matter the school at this level.</p>
<p>Shanghai, it’s interesting you took organic chem with pre-med majors. At Berkeley, chemical engineers were required to take a separate organic chemistry sequence designed for chem and ChemE majors.</p>
<p>All great advice here. The only thing I can add is the budget crisis in Illinois concerns me. OP should check how long it takes students to graduate.
Back in the dark ages as a Badger engineer, I also took Organic Chemistry with pre-meds. Physics had three sections: physics for poets, physics for engineering, and physics for math and science majors. It was not uncommon for the pre-meds to take the engineering option, but I think all three classes met the med school requirements.</p>
<p>I still get my Badger Chemist (the Chemistry dept’s annual magazine)- got my BA (yes, had the reqs for both BA and BS) in Chemistry with Honors from UW eons ago. Decided on medicine instead of grad school. All three schools can offer great choices academically so finances and feelings about the campus are most important.</p>
<p>Yes, I will be glad when May 1 arrives. Son is upstairs calmly watching a movie with friends. I am not.</p>
<p>As a Chemical Engineer turned Material Scientist (BS/MS ChemE now MS/PhD MatSci) who works on renewable energy, I just want to congratulate your DS. All three schools have great programs in Chemical Engineering (and Chemical Engineering will be a large workload at all 3 schools, I can assure you!) </p>
<p>Will it matter which school he goes to? No, probably not. No one will look at any of these schools and not think highly of their ChemE departments. I have not personally attended any of these schools (though twice I came close to enrolling in UMich) so I cannot speak about any of them specifically. What I can say is that if he is serious about ChemE and is definitely leaning towards renewables, he might want to see if there are any professors he would like to work with in those departments. Of course this is much more important for graduate students and as he probably only has the vaguest of ideas but it doesn’t hurt to check. Mostly though I would suggest letting him decide based on where he liked most. Undergrad is not grad school and who knows? He might change his mind early on (not an insubstantial number of incoming ChemEs do) and change fields! </p>
<p>Congratulations! As I often like telling people, there are no wrong options-only good ones!</p>