ECE Engineering vs. Nuclear Engineering at UIUC

<p>So I've been admitted to UIUC for Engineering Undesignated and so far I have narrowed it down to two choices, Electrical & Computer Engineering and Nuclear Engineering. Making the decision myself has been a fairly arduous process.</p>

<p>Which field has the most prestige from UIUC in terms of its scholarship and respect from future employers? </p>

<p>I'm also considering Computer Science and Materials Engineering. I'm pretty undecided about this kind of stuff and would appreciate some information about these programs at UIUC. </p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>Electrical engineering and computer engineering are actually separate majors though in the same department. All of UIUC is highly regarded. The nuclear engineering group is small, as it has become at any university that still has it. The major’s problem is that no one is building nuclear energy plants anymore although that may change, but it has morphed into other areas, particular medical, which keeps it a viable choice.</p>

<p>Are you sure about your designation? I ask because UIUC does not have an undesignated engineering category for freshmen; you are instead admitted to a particular major. If you were admitted to “general” engineering, that is not an undesignated major; general engineering is an actual major.</p>

<p>I applied for Mechanical and was accepted, but i guess they had already filled up all the spots for Mech. Eng, so they placed me into “Engineering Undesignated”. Don’t ask me, that’s just what it says. Basically, if I still want to attend I’d have to pick a different engineering major and here I am now.</p>

<p>Thanks for the info, though. I’m really leaning towards Electrical or Materials Engineering now.</p>

<p>ECE is probably the most prestigious field at UIUC (a lot of early computational inventions came out of U of I or had something to do with the university: e.g. the transistor and the zener-diode), but you can’t go wrong with any of the engineering majors. </p>

<p>I can’t comment of Nuclear Engineering because its so small I’ve never known anyone majoring in it.</p>

<p>And while General Engineering is technically a major, most students are expected to choose an actual specialty by their junior year.</p>

<p>I am an Electrical Engineering student here at UIUC, I was considering switching to Nuclear for a long time. The reason I didnt was due to the job situation, and that you’d be limited to things only related to Nuclear, whereas with EE, even if you concentrated in Power, you could still work in other industries. I still like NucE a lot, and might go to grad school for it, but I decided for EE for undergrad. Our program is, as stated above, highly regarded. My semicondoctors professor was saying that many of the top engineers at intel are from UIUC, specifically the ones who are pioneering these super small transistors. Also, AMD’s ceo is from uiuc. </p>

<p>Now if you want to do mechanical, you can do “engineering mechanics”, which is very very similar to mechanical engineering, except of course the name difference, but the material is similar. </p>

<p>If you are still interested in nuclear, you can do as i have done, take all of your technical electives as nuclear classes. so as far as i see it, its a win-win situation.</p>