<p>We've been focusing a lot on Marquette because of the Biomedical Engineering program, but want to explore schools that offer a good computer science program, particularly one associated with an engineering school.</p>
<p>We are out of state, from Louisiana, and son is very interested in the Chicago area. Would like to do internships, coops in that area.</p>
<p>Interested in both private and state schools.</p>
<p>Son has an ACT of 31 and SAT of 2100, lots of ECs, very demanding curriculum.</p>
<p>I would definitely suggest looking into Illinios Institute of Technology and University of Illinois-Chicago.<br>
IIT is a very good school to look into. UIC is not in the best neighborhood, but still one to look into.</p>
<p>SAT of 2100 could look at Northwestern. If you don’t need scholarships and the GPA is above 3.8 your son could look at more competitive schools with stronger BME/Bioengineering departments than Marquette.</p>
<p>If you’ll be paying out of state tuition for UIC or the high costs of Northwestern, why not head about 100 miles downstate to the University of Illinois (at Urbana-Champaign)?</p>
<p>No, the area is not very cosmopolitan but it is still fun and it fits the definition of a college-town to a T. I’m not recommending the school just because I go there, but engineering at Illinois is highly ranked in the country (as you might have already known). CS here is ranked 5th and the Siebel Center housing the department is one of the most technologically advanced buildings on any college campus. Bioengineering is a smaller, more exclusive department but your son seems to have the stats to get into either.</p>
<p>The engineering college does have a bi-annual career fair that attracts top-flight companies, and your son should have no problem finding a summer internship in the Chicagoland area (Champaign also has some opportunities for work in engineering research labs). There are a few caveats - recruiters do prefer upper classmen, and if your son wanted wanted to intern during the school year, it might be better to stay in Chicago.</p>
<p>For Chicago and immediate environs, the above mentioned schools are your choices. Going a little further afield, you could also consider Purdue and Rose-Hulman, which are both extremely strong engineering schools (though far from urban campuses).</p>
<p>If looking for coops/internships in Chicago, plus a good engineering program w/BME coupled with a CS department, I’d concentrate on Northwestern (always a reach, but possible for a talented Louisiana kid) and IIT. UIUC would be next only because of lesser proximity, but as stated earlier, Chicago employers do recruit extensively there.</p>
<p>I, too, would have to suggest UIUC. It is about 2 hours from the actual city directly to the south and has VERY good engineering and is recruited heavily by Chicago-area companies. The career fairs are actually 4 times per year (twice per semester), and while there are lots of Chicago companies there, there are also MANY other companies from across the country. About the same distance from Chicago is Purdue, which is very comparable in overall engineering, but isn’t as good at CS. The other place to look, which is again about the same distance (this time to the north) is Wisconsin. It doesn’t have quite the reputation of UIUC or Purdue in engineering, but is still a very solid school.</p>
<p>That is about the best you can get within a 2 hour radius of Chicago. Throw Michigan in there if your son doesn’t mind being a little farther but still wants the heavy Chicago recruiting. Other than that, Marquette and Northwestern are definitely options that are closer (especially Northwestern), though they are both private so who knows about the cost of attendance.</p>
<p>UIC is actually in a decent neighborhood nowadays. You won’t be on the west campus. The east campus area has been completely yuppified. If you go more than about a half mile to a mile west of the west campus, things start to get bad. The school is very expensive for OOS. UIC does have a lower crime rate than UIUC.</p>
<p>In terms of crimes on campus, UIC is lower. It is just something we laugh about. The lower crime rate might have to do with the smaller residential community.</p>