Hello. I have been accepted to both and am wondering if anyone has personal experience or any insight about the chemical engineering program at either of these schools. They are similar academically, I believe. From some info I’ve seen on CC, it seems that attending U MN will provide me with better job prospects after graduation, being that the school is in a large city. Any thoughts on academics, job prospects, the atmosphere of the school, research opportunities, anything else? Thank you!
My daughter attends UMN, and there are tons of opportunities to get involved with research. She has had paid research work in a lab since her first week as a freshman, and has done a research project in another lab as well. You just have to look for the opportunities. The urban location offers more than just job prospects. It offers social activities. She has been able to attend concerts, professional plays, huge festivals and other events, plus go to museums, etc. A light rail stops on campus and you can take that to downtown Minneapolis and downtown St. Paul (plus the airport, Mall of America, a park with a waterfall, and many other places). The campus itself is beautiful with lots of trees, and is separate from the city, although you can see the Minneapolis skyline across the river. The chemistry building is on the main quad of the main East Bank campus, so your classes would be in the heart of campus. There are tunnels all across campus and skywalks through downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul where people can avoid the cold if they want to when walking from building to building in the winter, but my daughter has rarely used them. Many students ride bicycles all year, even in winter, and it’s possible to ride a bike throughout the city as there are bike lanes everywhere. I highly recommend U Minnesota, although U Wisconsin is also a fantastic university – you can’t really go wrong. Would be ideal for you to visit them if you can.
About half my graduating class went to UW and the other half went to UMN, and I’ve been on both campuses.
Academics: The two are effectively equal. UMN usually comes in a couple ticks lower than UW, so if you go to a school like mine where almost everyone goes to one of the two and you choose UMN you might get some fun poked at you for going to the “less rigorous” one, but from an employer’s perspective it’s pretty much the same. Can’t speak for chemical engineering because I don’t have any friends doing that.
Job prospects: UW used to be good at ensuring a career anywhere, but in recent years most grads don’t leave Wisconsin or even the Madison area; this is due to a new company called Epic coming in and offering lots of jobs to recent grads. If you plan on going to grad school, your selection there would matter more than undergrad, and the same performance at UW/UMN will give you the same grad school prospects.
School atmosphere: UMN has a real campus, whereas UW is more spread out across the city. Twin Cities are large cities with all the benefits that come with that – professional sports, concerts, other large events that would only come to a metropolitan area of that size. Madison is a smaller city with a very artsy vibe – lots of community theater and outdoor art fairs. Sports are big at both, with football and basketball big at UW and hockey at UMN. Badger game day is an all-day event.
Research opportunities: Depends on high school and how aggressive you are at pursuing opportunities. I interned at a zoology lab at UW and was given pretty much free rein on my project, and I know they offer you a chance to do research for credit, though as it’s only for a semester you tend to work on smaller-scale experiments. UMN gave me a $2500 research grant as part of my financial aid package but I never got any further information on what to do with it (probably in part because I had to withdraw my acceptance).
Other observations: UMN has a lot more funding at the moment and seems to be on the up & up, whereas UW’s budget is being gutted by the state.
Secondary admission to major differs:
Minnesota requires students in the College of Science and Engineering to earn a 3.2 technical GPA to assure admission to their desired majors. Those with lower GPAs must compete by GPA; some are more competitive than others. Chemical engineering is one of the more competitive ones, but some students with under 3.2 technical GPA are admitted:
http://www.advising.cse.umn.edu/cgi-bin/courses/noauth/apply-major-statistics
Wisconsin requires a 3.5 technical and 3.0 overall GPA to enter or stay in the chemical engineering major:
https://www.engr.wisc.edu/academics/student-services/academic-advising/first-year-undergraduate-students/progression-requirements/
Note: earning a 3.2 or 3.5 college GPA is usually significantly more difficult than earning a 3.2 or 3.5 high school GPA.
A couple of comments. UW’s funding levels have recovered in the last legislative cycle. UW managed through the downturn and received over $150 million in private donations targeted at retaining and attracting top faculty. The bigger question at this point may be the impact on tenure protection from the Board of Regents vote on its ability to close programs.
Epic is a major tech company, sometimes called a midwest Google in terms of creating an innovative and fun work environment. Hiring is very competitive and pay is excellent for the region, with great quality of life. Epic makes it worthwhile for UW grads to stay in the area, it’s not as if they can’t get jobs elsewhere. Anecdotally, my UW grad has friends working in tech on both coasts.
Broadly, the academic opportunities at Minnesota and Wisconsin will be comparable, in terms of quality of faculty and opportunities for research. If it were my kid, I’d encourage them to consider whether they prefer the urban environment in Minneapolis or the smaller city environment of Madison. Another consideration is that Chem E is one of the most competitive Engineering departments at UW, so if the gpa threshold at Minnesota might be slightly more manageable, that might be the tipping point.
Both excellent choices, it comes down to personal preferences and cost. FYI: Epic is the software vendor for many of the health care information systems that run hospitals. Sports are currently better at UWM, but UMN is rising. UWM has the lake, UMN has the river. UMN’s location is HQ for many large firms and a lot of R&D, so local internships may be easier. And there are the school colors.
“School atmosphere: UMN has a real campus, whereas UW is more spread out across the city”
I dont find that accurate at all. UW has a very well developed campus and virtually all the building south of University Ave is adjacent to the original lakeside campus. Over time it is being more integrated into the older main campus. All is in walking distance. http://map.wisc.edu/
UW Chem E has 100% placement https://ecs.wiscweb.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/86/2017/02/2015-2016-Annual-Report.2017.03.28.pdf
Agreed @barrons --Bascom Hill s beautiful university quad (with the added benefit of a workout when heading up to class. . . . ) and it’s hard to beat the Terrace. I always thought UW has the “best of both worlds” campus experience, from College Library overlooking the Lake to the busier, city feel of the B school and Union South, plus residential choices to suit all types, from 10 story southeast dorms to lakeshore tucked away.
As someone who lived in Madison for seven years and interned on campus for two of them, UW does feel spread out. It’s not the traditional image of the gated-in community, and you’re more likely to be running into people not affiliated with the university when walking around what you consider “campus”. In my UMN tour it seemed pretty clear that the campus was, though in the city, a separate entity.
@barrons wow! that’s pretty impressive actually.