Chemical Engineering: UC Berkeley, UCLA, UIUC or UW-Madison?

College Search & Selection
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<p>International student. I got into UC Berkeley (College of Chemistry), UCLA (College of Engineering), Illinois Urbana-Champaign (College of Engineering) and Wisconsin-Madison (College of Engineering). Don't know which one to accept. Currently leaning to UC Berkeley based on rankings, though all of these schools are in the top 20. </p>

<p>Important factors for me are prestige, research opportunities and the ease of entry into MIT graduate school from these schools. The secondary factor is of course to have an enjoyable college experience.</p>

<p>Anyone got any opinions?</p>

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<p>For me, it would be a choice between UCB and UIUC.</p>

3

<p>Berkeley is best.</p>

4

<p>Berkeley is the best but followed closely by Wisconsin, not UIUC. UCB wil also cost $25,000 more per year.</p>

5

<p>Berkeley is the best according to rankings, but are there any compelling reasons why I might/should want to go to the other schools?</p>

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<p>UW engineering is smaller and less cutthroat. Also a great college life experience…</p>

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<p>bumpz 10char</p>

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<p>Barrons, what is the class size for ChemE at Wisconsin? Berkeley is ~80-90 students per graduating class. </p>

<p>I would choose between Berkeley or Wisconsin. Berkeley if you like warmer weather, the San Francisco Bay Area and more international prestige. Wisconsin if you like a smaller college city, more drastic changes in seasons, and perhaps a friendlier campus environment.</p>

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<p>Berkeley’s 2010 ChemE Career Stats:
<a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/ChemEngr.stm[/url]”>https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/ChemEngr.stm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>ooo nice. Looks like the UCB route is good for getting in to top graduate schools, though I must say that the other schools dont’ have such statistics for comparison.</p>

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<p>NRC CHEMICAL ENGINEERING Rankings</p>

<p>1—Cal Tech
2—MIT
3—Berkeley
4—UC Santa Barbara
5—UT Austin
6—Princeton
7—U. of Minnesota
8—Stanford
9—U. of Michigan
10—U. of Wisconsin
.
13 — Illinois
.
.
34 — UCLA</p>

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<p>If those are the “new” NRC rankings nobody is using them because they were a mess.</p>

<p>US News is probably the best we have right now and it had UCB #2 and UW #6, UI #11, UCLA #23.</p>

<p>UW has about 100 undergrads per class year in combined Chem and Biological engineering.</p>

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<p>from communicating with serious students looking to enter graduate school in engineering and the sciences, the current NRC rankings are, by far, much more meaningful than the USNWR departmental rankings…</p>

<p>that said, lets take a look at the USNWR ChE rankings that you suggested should be used, compared to the NRC rankings</p>

<p>UCB - #2 v. #3
Wisconsin - #6 v. #10
Illinois - #11 v. #13
UCLA - #23 v. #34</p>

<p>so for the purposes of this thread, relative to each school, there isn’t much difference, is there?</p>

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<p>No, they are not/they have been virtually ignored by most in academe as useless and filled with errors and illogical conclusions.</p>

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<p>barrons here is a thought, why don’t you take the time to quote or at least point out what you are responding to - makes it a little easier to understand what you are saying…</p>

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<p>I think you figured that out easy enough. Here’s another ranking source to ponder</p>

<p>[The</a> Chronicle: Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index](<a href=“http://chronicle.com/stats/productivity/page.php?year=2007&primary=5&secondary=47&bycat=Go]The”>http://chronicle.com/stats/productivity/page.php?year=2007&primary=5&secondary=47&bycat=Go)</p>

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<p>yes, the number is about 100, a little bigger than UCB…</p>

<p>UCLA’s is smaller</p>

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<p>ah, well, looks like i should be going to ucb! =D</p>

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<p>^ The right choice. Welcome to Cal!</p>

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<p>“No, they are not/they have been virtually ignored by most in academe as useless and filled with errors and illogical conclusions.”</p>

<p>I have heard similar comments.</p>