<p>University of Alabama is offering me a full ride. Alternatively, I could go to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for $15,000 a year. UIUC is better known, but Alabama is free. My parents can pay either way, but it would be harder for them at UIUC, so what I really need to know is: Is there any significant advantage to going to UIUC over Alabama? Will graduate schools/employers look significantly at that? Will one school open more doors than the other? Thanks.</p>
<p>UIUC is not worth the extra 15k/yr IMO.</p>
<p>It may hurt you for grad school, but not significantly. College really is what you make of it. You can get the same education from both schools, but when applying for jobs/grad school, they may not see that. So I guess my answer is no, it will not be looked at significantly but it will be looked at</p>
<p>Debt free for you and your parents at Alabama…marvelous choice! Perhaps they can use the $ towards your grad school or future plans…</p>
<p>Alabama is not so bad and they have great food and cute girls.</p>
<p>I mean I know that the actually education/experience will not be determined so much by the college I go to, but I’m wondering if employers would rather hire a UIUC graduate than a Bama graduate.</p>
<p>Employers would rather hire the most qualified, intellectual, responsible, articulate, organized, team player, critical thinker, etc. person that they can find. Only you can mold yourself into a desirable candidate - either school can offer you the opportunities for a good education - what you make of it is completely up to you.</p>
<p>the University of Alabama and their students don’t have any kind of reputation for academics… if you want to improve your NFL draft stock, go to Bama. if you want to be taken more seriously in the professional world, go to UIUC.</p>
<p>With a full ride I assume you are in one of U of Alabama’s Honors Program. Take a look at the U of Alabama segment under Colleges catagory here at CC. It is a very good program and many are impressed with it. I will take U of Alabama full ride over UIUC.</p>
<p>E.O. Wilson is an Alabama grad, and one of the brightest stars on Harvard’s faculty. Thrive where you’re planted.</p>
<p>there are bright students everywhere, especially at big state schools where many high achieving students go. As long as you do well, you will be fine.</p>
<p>If I’m interviewing someone. If I’m curious as to why they went to a school, getting a free ride would be music to my ears.</p>
<p>I’ve known several Alabama alums in our small town in Upstate NY. All very successful people who parlayed their time at Alabama into acceptances at prestigious NE law and business schools. I really don’t think if you are a top student that it will make a huge difference to employers and grad schools whether you receive your undergrad degree from either Illinois or Alabama. Although the UA degree would probably hold more sway in Mobile and the UICU degree would play better in Peoria.</p>
<p>I don’t think you’ll get any better associations out of UIUC than Alabama. Many people settle down in the areas where they attended college. If that were the case, being an Bama grad would help you much more than being a UIUC grad.</p>
<p>I think people are being a little naive. There probably is an advantage in graduate school admissions coming from UIUC. It depends on the discipline, of course. But $15K/year is a lot of money, and if that is a burden to you and your family, that advantage may not be worth it in the long run. As far as employers go, it’s going to depend if you are looking to work in the Midwest or in the South.</p>
<p>If you are in Engineering at UIUC then it might be worth the 15K, otherwise just kick butt at Bama and it can take you to your grad school/prof school destination just fine.</p>
<p>What’s your potential major? As another poster already said, if it’s engineering, then U Illinois Urbana would be worth that extra money. It’s one of the top engineering schools in the world, and U Alabama simply is not comparable. But for other majors? It depends.</p>
<p>Taking on unnecessary debt is really not a good idea due to the fact that there is no telling how long the current economic crisis will last (even if it gets better next year, it still could linger for a few extra years after). The opportunity to attend a very good school (like U Alabama) for free is probably a wise choice. There are a lot better ways to use the money when you graduate. Ask people who are in or done with grad school if they wish they had no undergrad student loans plus and extra 60k in the bank, and see what they say…</p>
<p>It occurs to me that our expectations about college have change A LOT over the past 30-40 years.</p>
<p>It used to be: </p>
<ul>
<li>Go to a state college for free and not work</li>
<li>Go to a state college for free and <em>also</em> work half or full time</li>
</ul>
<p>The debate has shifted now so that it is : </p>
<p>Go to an affordable state college
Go to an unaffordable private college by borrowing a lot of money</p>
<p>just find it interesting how prevailing options have changed so that now college is no longer an option, but a requirement.</p>
<p>UA’s academic rep is improving rapidly according to everything I read. Its Law School was just ranked 11th in the country for Public Law Schools by US News. School of Libary and Information Sciences was ranked even higher. It is the top rated university in the State of Alabama, for three years in a row, and it has a major building program underway to increase the prestige of its Science and Engineering programs.</p>