<p>Hey guys, I am an International student. I have been accepted into Purdue and NYU-Poly. I am awaiting results for these 3 universities UIUC, Umich-Ann Arbor and Cornell.</p>
<p>I wanted to know how do these 3 colleges compare to each other in terms of engineering (Computer science/engineering mainly).</p>
<p>Would be great if you could rank these 3 in order of preference. Also some other criteria I am interested in were - Weather, Curriculum, Alumni network, Area(City) and Placements.</p>
<p>I am pretty confused amongst these 3 options and would love to have opinions from you guys. Anyone who is a current student at either of these would be really helpful too. :)</p>
<p>Weather - all the listed schools are in the snow belt. Purdue and Illinois also have more of the various tornados and storms, Michigan and Cornell not as much tornados and storms but still not great)</p>
<p>Alumni networks I would think they’re about equal, the larger schools having tons of graduates. Here in the Midwest any big 10 school has lots of grads, but all those are national schools. </p>
<p>College town wise Ann Arbor hands down in my view (I went to Purdue and it was good but not AA). Never visited Cornell but Urbana champaign was good also but not AA or Madison.</p>
<p>Thanks very much for that information. The extra criteria that I mentioned are just side factors. Would be glad if you could be able to rate them on a more general basis. How was purdue though? And how do you think it compares to these 3?</p>
<p>There is a lot of “it depends” in any rankings. I would say if I had an admit from all 4 schools it would be down to specialty areas you’re interested in and the various fudge non quantifiable factors. Really, you could not go wrong with any of the four academically or from a job prospects or alumni network. </p>
<p>Ultimately it’s your job to make the best out of what you’re given. All four schools have a tough EE curriculum. I have lots of coworkers that went to the 3 publics and at that level of accomplishment I don’t think one is better than the next.</p>
<p>There are factors like labs. Michigan may have an edge there - just my view from many years ago when I visited friends- things like brand name professors (in my field Purdue had the advantage) classes available,opportunities for research and the like.</p>
<p>If you’re international it may be worthwhile to consider fellow people from your country if it is a smaller one. No fun being one of four Elbonians on campus… If you like sports, that is another thing to consider. Travel is yet another. Michigan is easy to get in and out, then Purdue from ORD, etc.</p>
<p>Another data point for comp sci. Cornell is quite theoretical and if you’re interested in grad studies yet another item to consider if you like theory or are more interested in practice… … I remember looking at the Cornell phd cs qualification exam and it was quite theory based. Purdue likewise. By comparison Michigan was more straightforward… Again from 25 years ago…</p>
<p>The only thing I might have any idea about is Michigan, but it seems like it might still be true based on what I’m seeing today. </p>
<p>For CS, there are jobs out there for everyone. Plenty of companies are cool with sponsoring people for software development. I doubt that Cornell or UIUC has significantly better recruiting opportunities than Michigan. I imagine they’re probably all about the same on that front. </p>
<p>If you’re more interested in CE than CS, check out EECS 427 and 470. I don’t know much about them myself, but apparently they are great classes where you learn a ton and are very respected in industry and have no equivalents at other schools.</p>
<p>Oh man now I am even more confused. Initially I thought for either CS or CE UIUC=Cornell>Umich. But now it seems all 3 are on equal footing.</p>
<p>Any more information any of you have please tell me.
Like I said before, anyone who works in this field (works with graduates from these colleges) or who IS attending the college, or has done so in the recent past would be a real help.
Also, does anyone know how the campus and dorms are at these colleges? Whether they are old-styled or modern.</p>
<p>I go to Michigan but never lived in the dorms. Most people only live in the dorms here Freshman year. Some live in dorms Sophomore year but not many. From what I’ve seen they’re pretty old. There’s some apartment style housing options too though. </p>
<p>At Michigan you’ll be on North Campus which is a lot different from Central Campus. North Campus is pretty but a bit isolated. Central is ugly but right in downtown Ann Arbor. It’s about a 10 minute bus ride between the two. The CSE building is very new and modern, but the labs in it are a bit crowded. The EECS building is a bit older but the labs are much more spacious and comfortable. You can use the labs in any building, so you can pick which ever you like more.</p>
<p>In terms of weather, it gets cold here but it’s not too bad. This winter we had a few single digit days (in Fahrenheit) and I think one day we had negative, but last year there weren’t any single digit days. Summers can get very hot though, and it’s very common to get temps 85F+. But you’re probably not going to be here for many summers.</p>
<p>I would say tier one would be UMich and Cornell and tier two UIUC and Purdue. By a hair. Purdue and Mich have incredible name recognition, even by the unwashed masses. I work with graduates of all four schools and except for one intern we had from Cornell (who thought the purpose of interning was dating) they are all pretty awesome schools. I would not lose an hour’s sleep wondering about where to go if I had the option.</p>
<p>Heck, even the dating scene at UMich was better (I was told). A couple of friends’ kids are at U of M now and they seem to be loving it socially wise. Another thing that looked odd at Mich was how many people were wearing college logo wear. Very popular. I thought it strange at first but then realized big flagship state schools with successful athletics do that (I was living in the area during the time where Mich was just incredible in football and basketball). The media pretty much talk about nothing else (but if you produced the Fab Five…). </p>
<p>Anyhow, what I’m saying is that big name sports are important to many people. Mich and Purdue have their built-in rivalries (MSU and IU) and basketball especially is pretty good. Football, depends on the year.</p>
<p>The Ann Arbor area is expensive. Not that West Lafayette is not - my younger kid may go there, double legacy and all that so we have looked at the prices, but AA is expensive… Urbana/Champaign probably like Purdue, and Cornell, no idea.</p>
<p>Another issue - competitiveness. Many people have said that Mich is a bit stingy with grades. I have not verified it. Purdue seemed ‘normal’ with A being 85 in many classes. Lots of homework and projects at Purdue, competitive but not ‘cutthroat’. </p>
<p>The financials of dorming and so on are such that most kids will get apartments off campus after year 1. A lot cheaper. I am guessing the others will be similar. If you plan to get a car, parking is quite pricey in AA and just pricey elsewhere (typical in the US). </p>
<p>Average GPA for engineering majors here is probably around a 3.0. Might even be higher. Average GPA in engineering classes is probably around a 2.9 or so, but can vary by major a bit (much higher in BME for instance). Not so bad. Higher average GPA than Purdue at least. Probably about the same rigor as Purdue overall.</p>
<p>Engineering is not that competitive. People are pretty helpful and cooperative here in Engineering. B-School and Pre-Med are totally different though.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for the detailed answer guys ! It seems like both of you would prefer umich to the others. However, I had been asking around my dad’s colleagues and such. Most people said that uiuc beats the other 3 in engineering, though not by much.</p>
<p>We visited and evaluated Cornell when my son was looking and it was definitely at the top of his list! The facilities were excellent. We were impressed with everyone we met. We didn’t tour the freshman dorms area, but it has its own Wikipedia article -
[Cornell</a> North Campus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornell_North_Campus]Cornell”>Cornell North Campus - Wikipedia)
The campus is beautiful and very big.
My son was not interested in UIUC or Michigan because they were further away than he wanted to go.
From what I know they are all excellent schools and you can’t make a bad choice choosing between them!</p>
<p>Whoever said UIUC beats Purdue and U of M must have watched the 2001 Space Odyssey movie a few too many times :). And while our Midwest location seems to repel Ivy League graduates, we did have a Cornell EE junior show up for an interview wearing a Lady Gaga style outfit (pant suit with I-Dream-Of-Jeannie midriff). My then boss (Milwaukee School of Engineering grad, class of 1900) pretty much freaked out but was polite enough to not say anything. That was late 1980’s for you)</p>
<p>Another suggestion - if you’re coming from a country that has a good number of kids studying in the US, chances are there’s lots of them at any of these schools. You can Google the “Assyrian Student Association - Purdue Chapter” or some such and get some contacts from your own country and see how they like the place. If you’re daring enough and there are Profs from your country at the schools you could try dropping an email and asking for their input too.</p>
<p>And above all, don’t sweat the choice. You may never enjoy the athletic success of Ohio State or Penn State (well, not for a while :)) or the past glory of Michigan, or get to rub elbows with future astronauts at Purdue, but it all works out at the end. When me and my wife applied to Purdue we had no idea it was (at the time) the #2 or #3 ranked Industrial Engineering program in the country. The course load was borderline insane, of course, and it felt unnerving to find so many textbooks and papers written by your current profs at the library, but at the end it all worked out.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about Purdue so I can’t really give an opinion on it.
For CS, UIUC > Cornell > UMich. Not a big gap.
For CE, UIUC > UMich > Cornell. Again, not a big gap.
Overall however, Cornell = UMich > UIUC. UIUC is mainly known for its engineering.</p>
<p>This questions naive. For these kind of schools, people have no authority to rank them. So what do you hope to gain?</p>
<p>Cornell’s probably the most selective of the 3 tho even in engr as its in the ivies. As for locations, I wouldn’t want to live in any of the 3 cities except maybe Ithaca.</p>
