<p>My son got acceptenace from Univ of Michigan - Ann Arbor / Univ of Illinois - Urbana Chaimpaign / Univ of Maryland - CP (Honors Program) / Penn State - UP (Honors Program) / Rutgers - New Brunswick (Hons Program) / Drexel (Hons Program).</p>
<p>He is interested in Computer Scince. He is leaning towards Univ of Michigan - Ann Arbor / UI-UC.</p>
<p>Please suggest which one he should go for and why?</p>
<p>UIUC is pretty well known for its computer engineering program, so I would think that their CS program has to be about as good. A quick look at the rankings shows that as well.</p>
<p>[Rankings</a> - Computer Science - Graduate Schools - Education - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-computer-science-schools/rankings]Rankings”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-computer-science-schools/rankings)</p>
<p>Illinois has a slight edge because their CS grad program is stronger, so there might be better offerings at career fairs… however at the ugrad level the education will be basically the same… he should go where he feels he would be happier.</p>
<p>If it were me I would go with Michigan. Both schools are great, and I don’t think you could go wrong with either one, but I think Michigan is stronger across the board and has better recruitment. I may be wrong, but that is my impression.</p>
<p>Michigan is better across the board, eh? Care to back that up with facts? I have this strange feeling that you don’t really have anything to back it up with.</p>
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<p>I have a strange feeling you don’t understand what I was saying. I said it was my impression, I even said at the end that my impression may be wrong. That just happens to be my personal opinion. What would be the point of stating facts? The definition of “better” varies from person to person when you talk about different schools. I’m not saying Illinois is a bad school, it’s actually a really good school, but I just happen to think Michigan is better.</p>
<p>You are entitled to you opinion, but on a forum where you are supposed to be helping kids out, especially impressionable, oftentimes immature high school kids, it is a good idea to back up your opinions with reasoning. You wouldn’t want some kid to read that, believe it, then make a snap decision based on a speculative opinion and end up hating his decision, would you? Believe it or not, I would be willing to be that happens more often than you might imagine. It is amazing how many people I run across that will take something you say as an opinion and just assume it is fact.</p>
<p>Basically, don’t say things like “Michigan is stronger across the board and has better recruitment” without giving reasons why. This is especially true because both in Computer Science and in overall engineering, the schools are essentially equivalent with a slight edge going to UIUC if anything based on quite a few factors. Recruitment-wise, I would imagine that both schools are nearly identical and that UIUC would have an edge in CS and Michigan probably has an edge in other areas to counteract it like Industrial Engineering. Did you know that UIUC sends more Computer Science graduates to work for Microsoft than any other single University, for example?</p>
<p>Just don’t go off making wild claims without supporting evidence. It doesn’t help anyone out and just makes you look foolish when you are wrong.</p>
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<p>If I was an undergrad applying to college again I would go to UMich if I had to choose, and you would go to UIUC. Can we agree to disagree? Can we also agree that Ohio State sucks?</p>
<p>It has nothing to do with personal choice. That isn’t the issue I am touching on here. What I am saying is that you need to support your opinion with some sort of facts or reasoning. For instance, the OP said “Please suggest which one he should go for and why?” All you said is which one you would go to without offering any real concrete supporting evidence to the OP. If you had actual statistics about the recruitment being better (it is not) or the school being better across the board (also untrue) then sure, go ahead and say that, but if you don’t have any hard proof, then at least explain why you think that way so that it is more helpful.</p>
<p>And we can certainly disagree on which school is best to go to, though I don’t remember telling the person to go to one or the other. In fact, they are both excellent schools with excellent atmospheres and excellent recruiting, so other factor should come into play, such as cost and location.</p>
<p>I guess to address the OP’s question, I am assuming that your son is out of state for his two top choices. Given the other schools applied to, I would guess you guys live somewhere in the northeast, perhaps in the Eastern Pennsylvania sort of area? At any rate, UIUC and UMich are both super expensive for OoS, so that is pretty even, so my best suggestion is to make sure you guys visit them both if at all possible and make the choice based on how your son feels about the campus itself. UIUC has a slightly better CS program but UMich is still top notch and it doesn’t matter so much for undergraduate. Visit them, see which school he likes more, and pick that one. It can be as subjective as he wants. If he likes the color of the grass more at UMich, go there. If he thinks the squirrels are friendlier at UIUC, then go there. Honestly, he will come out with a ton of opportunities either way, just make sure he is happy where he is.</p>
<p>I did my undergrad at UIUC (though I was in Mechanical Engineering, not CS) and I loved it, but I know a fair amount of people at UMich who also love it there. I also know at least several people at both schools who don’t like it, so they both have quite a bit of satisfaction and a little bit of discontent amongst the students.</p>
<p>could swear he also added
particularly the word “impression” which implies thats its more of a gut feeling rather than a logical answer.</p>
<p>ontopic: i’d agree with trout in going where the OP is happier. both are probably great schools.
across these boards, the general rules tend to be “go where happy” regarding undergrad. but most of the “impressionable, oftentimes immature high school kids” seemed more concerned with going to the highest ranked school (even though such rankings dont really exist and even if they did, they wouldnt mean anything for an undergrad…)</p>
<p>@Euler321- Im sure everybody in the big ten hates Ohio state. I know my school does lol.</p>
<p>On topic</p>
<p>I agree with going to where he thinks has a good atmosphere.</p>
<p>flemmyd, saying it is his impression still doesn’t change the fact that the post is not that helpful to the OP without some sort of reasoning to back up his “impression.” That is the point I am trying to make.</p>
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<p>Why are you taking this so personally? I don’t know why my post was so unacceptable, if we were comparing two other schools I doubt we would be having this argument.</p>
<p>Where did I come off as taking it personally? I don’t consider it a personal attack at all, and I don’t feel offended. I am trying to help out everyone who comes here to ask questions. You aren’t the only person who sometimes doesn’t back up their claims and opinions, it happens a lot.</p>
<p>And it has nothing to do with the schools of interest. Just because I went to UIUC doesn’t mean I am going to be a homer about it. You can search my post history and see that I have often steered people away from UIUC is the situation calls for it. I try to be as objective as I humanly can when giving out advice.</p>
<p>And let me try this one more time. It isn’t that you post is unacceptable, it is that it really didn’t add anything to the discussion at hand. I assume that MOST of us on here post in order to help the people out who come here seeking advice. I am trying to point out to you that your post didn’t do much to help out without having any sort of supporting argument or reasoning. Why are YOU taking this so personally? There is a pretty good chance that you have some good information to share with people if you are a current/former engineering student. Share it! What are your reasons for liking Michigan more? To you, what makes it a better school? Why do you feel it has better recruiting? Just answer those sorts of questions in your original post if you are going to make the claims that lead to them. It makes it more helpful to the OP and it make you a better poster.</p>
<p>Michigan and UIUC are pretty even in engineering overall with a slight advantage to Illinois. However if the OP decides not to go into engineering, for which there is always a good possibility, then Michigan is the better option. For the most part it is academically superior to UIUC, has more prestige, and is located in a better city to spend four years. Ann Arbor>>UC. That is my opinion.</p>
<p>“Michigan is better across the board, eh? Care to back that up with facts? I have this strange feeling that you don’t really have anything to back it up with.”</p>
<p>I believe that the poster was indicating that Michigan was better academically across the board in most disciplines where the schools share common disciplines. If you need to see numbers, just look all over the CC website. They have been listed many, many times. You can also check USNWR rankings and others. Michigan overall is stronger than UIUC. If you feel differently, I suggest you start a thread in the college search section of CC. I’m sure you’ll get plenty of “facts” thrown at you there.</p>
<p>Defensive much?</p>
<p>Definition of across the board (from thefreedictionary.com):
Including or applying to all categories or members</p>
<p>1) USNWR is not a valid indicator of exactly how good a school is. It is more of an indicator of roughly where the school is in the status quo. Just because US News ranks one school slightly ahead of another does not necessarily mean that it is a better school. Both schools in question are great schools, and I am not about to start saying that UIUC is overall a better school, because quite frankly, by most measures, it isn’t. This leads me into my next point:</p>
<p>2) Saying something is better “across the board” means it is better in, quite literally, every area. Michigan is a good school and by many accounts better overall than UIUC, but it is not better in every area. Your own beloved USNWR has them ranked BEHIND UIUC in engineering. Personally, I consider them essentially equals in engineering, but that is beside the point. The real point is that UMich is not better across the board. It is better in some areas and worse in others. The OP wanted computer science, so:</p>
<p>3) UIUC ranked better in computer science, and if you ask almost anyone in industry, UIUC is the better of the two in computer science. It doesn’t really matter to the OP if Michigan’s art histroy program is better or if they are stronger in finance, he is looking for computer science. So not only is UMich not better “across the board” compared to UIUC, it isn’t even stronger in the program of interest to the OP.</p>
<p>Now, to wrap up this post, I am going to reiterate that despite the rankings and the slightly better program that UIUC has in computer science, the OP will get a wonderful education at either place and should really make his choice based on other factors than just rankings. That is why I suggested visiting both places and seeing which program he (and only he) likes better. It is far more important to be happy with your program than it is to attend the #4 CS program instead of the #13 CS program or the #27 overall university instead of the #39 overall university.</p>
<p>^^^^According to MY definition, Michigan is “Better across the board” than UIUC. It is ridiculous to say it’s better in every single discipline compared to Illinois. Illinois is a lot better than Harvard in engineering but no one, except perhaps you, would say UIUC is a better overall school than Harvard. That was my original point.</p>
<p>“The real point is that UMich is not better across the board. It is better in some areas and worse in others.”</p>
<p>Complete nonsense. Michigan is indeed better in many more areas.</p>
<p>UIUC is slightly stronger for Computer Science, but if your son is also looking for a better collegiate experience alongside strong academics he should choose Michigan.</p>