<p>I was just wondering if anyone could help/ convince me which school is better. For now, I am going into Electrical Engineering (not 100% sure if ill switch majors or not). Some factors that i am looking at are school prestige, best value, atmosphere, surrounding city, extracurriculars, sport teams, etc.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Well I know UMich is the most pretentious out of those 5 schools. Other than that I don’t know what to tell you. They are all great schools with nearly an equal education level and program prestige (other than Rose, which is just difficult to compare to the others given how different they are; that isn’t supposed to be a knock on Rose either, as it is a fine school). You really need to visit them.</p>
<p>Welll University of Illinois Urbana Champaign is known to be one of the best schools in the world to study the engineering field. Though University of Michigan, Purdue both have very good engineering schools. Which will be more affordable should help you decide on a school.</p>
<p>GTech
UIUC
UMich
Purdure
Rose-Hulman</p>
<p>They are all pretty close so I would got to which ever one would be the cheapest out of the top four becuase I have never heard of Rose-Hulman.</p>
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<p>Wow, what solid reasoning you have.</p>
<p>^ that made me laugh. Honestly though, before I heard of Rose-Hulman I probably would have said the same thing haha.</p>
<p>I was just giving my opinion so I wasn’t going to comment on a school I know nothing about, I probably couldn’t even get into it.</p>
<p>If you want I will rephrase what I said; Out of the four schools I know about they are all very close academically so I would choose the one that will be the cheapest.</p>
<p>Thanks guys, besides academics, is there anything about any of these schools that should stick out as a good or a bad thing? regarding distance from home, theyre all pretty far, so that is not an issue. </p>
<p>and haha yeah, I am still a bit shaky about Rose-Hulman because barely anyone has heard of it. I applied because they were #1 for non-doctorate engineering programs in USNEWS.</p>
<p>I gave you a post on the thread you posted in the GT section but I’d like to reiterate it for people who may have the same question on this board: When schools are so closely ranked in prestige for the major (in this case engineering), it’s best to forget the rankings and visit the school, weigh the other factors, and choose the one you would be happiest at.</p>
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<p>Do you want to live in a major US city or in a small college town? That’s a pretty easy first cut.</p>
<p>You do not have a wrong choice in your group. You do have a number of variances:</p>
<p>GTech: not much winter, 3 or 4 to 1 male to female ratio, in Atlanta, an excellent city for night life and other entertainment. Very good coop programs available. Known to admit many and then lose a good many. Highly regarded. Division I sports program and football is the major sport for national recognition with basketball also key. Tuition for OOS is generally much better than others listed. Offers merit aid to many although generally most do not get that much. Two layers of dorms–old ones with fairly small rooms and real nice ones that went up for the Olympics when it was there in 1996 but those usually go only to upper classmen.</p>
<p>All the others have brutal winters and are not in or near a big city.</p>
<p>Rose-Hulman: fairly small, top notch, despite many high school students knowing little about it, it is considered one of the best undergraduate engineering schools in the nation among those who are and hire engineers. Sends many grads onto grad schools including to places like UIUC, MIT, Stanford, Cornell, Mich and others. Has an excellent entrepeneur program that students can get into and get funding for creative and business ideas. Professors are awarded and tenured based on teaching ability not publications. There are a number of text books used by many engineering colleges which were written by Rose professors. Rich looking but small campus with nice dorms, buildings, labs etc. Another with a 4 to 1 male to female ratio. Some decent merit aid offered to almost half the entering class ranging anywhere from 20% to 50% of the tuition. Major disadvantage: location, Terra Haute Ind, a small city/town with little going on and nothing else close by although Indiana State University is also there. Not much on sports, Division III and not much importance given to it.</p>
<p>Purdue; Large university in fairly small city, Lafayette, and basically a college town atmosphere. Fairly small dorm rooms, typical of public universities, old buildings and some new ones, big on fraternities and sororities, higher male to female ratio but not bad since it also has a full contingent of LAS majors. For Indiana residents, it is where you go for engineering since IU does not really have any. Highly regarded enginering programs. Freshman in engineering are all admitted without major and then choose after freshman year. Offers lots of merit aid to OOS with good stats often close to the OOS increment of tuition. Division I (Big Ten) sports program with both football and basketball key.</p>
<p>UMich: in Ann Arbor, and basically a big college town atmosphere. Expensive for OOS and though it gives some merit aid to many OOS in engioneering with good stats it is not usually generous amounts. Highly regarded generally nationwide for entire university and particularly for engineering. Big Ten sports, football and basketball big, in past traditonallly had one of the top teams in the nation in both but last few years have been disappointments (many in Mich say disasters). Fairly equal male to female ratio since engineering is only one of many programs. Nice campus, typical large public university with old buildings and some new but impressive to look at. Frats and sororities also big here.</p>
<p>UIUC: in Champaign/Urbana, two fairly small cities, college town atmosphere. Once outside the the small cities you have farms, forest, and very small towns 50 miles in any direction. Flat: it is difficult to even find anything you would call a hill. Frats and soroities big here too (although as with all of the above publics you don’t need to be in a frat or sorority to have a life). Those 19 and 20 can get into bars that cater to students, but not drink (tagged to prevent sale to them). Expensive for OOS and though you can find merit aid awards given to many particularly in engineering it can often be small amount with max equalling OOS portion of tuition not given to many. Male to female ratio close to equal. Highly regarded for engineering and business. Good coop programs available. Impressive campus but like other publics mostly small dorm rooms in older buidlings. Also Big Ten sports with basketball considered somewhat more important than football, sometimes has very good teams, too many years does not.</p>
<p>All the publics mentioned above currently have difficult financing issues as the states are having those issues but UIUC right now is facing the worse – promised $750 million in funding by the state for 2010 fiscal year, July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010; budgets for year were based on receipt of those funds; state has essentially reneged and thus far for the fiscal year has provided only $130 million and result may be a large tution increase (possibly 15% or higher) for next fall’s freshman because UIUC can no longer rely on the state providing any reasonable funding while the economic crisis continues.</p>
<p>As always, Drusba is so much help and it’s great to have him on this board. I want to add another couple of things. First off, I do not agree that Purdue is very generous with OOS aid. My son only got the amount for National merit Finalist, although I was expecting the trustee scholarship. He actually received a whole lot more merit aid from In state Illinois(which is not known for giving merit aid for In state students.). Purdue has a funky way of calculating their trustee scholarship. That being said, it is not that expensive for oos comparatively.</p>
<p>Drusba didn’t mention that the larger publics on the list are big research institutions which may (or may not) take away from teaching undergrads, but there are big plusses to going to a school which is a research institution. Son is doing impressive research as a freshman: working with a professor and PHD candidates on tissue engineering. He has learned more from this experience than he ever could in a classroom.</p>
<p>And although it is true that tuition may hike this year at UIUC, it is then guaranteed to stay at that rate for the next 4 years, which will definitely not be the case for other 4 schools on OP’s list.</p>
<p>Correction to the above concerning Michigan. U-Mich is not having financial difficulties right now. It has a huge endowment and can weather this recession far better than most other large universities. Ann Arbor is near a large city with a major international airport. A definite plus for an international student.</p>
<p>Just correct what drusba’s post.</p>
<p>Ga Tech has 2:1 male and female ratio now (4:1 and 3:1 are old information from the 80s and 90s). So far for this year, more 39% of incoming freshmen who paid deposit are female students. It also since then moved to admission policy where essays and community involvement are emphasized. I won’t be surprising in the near future, GaTech will has more than 40% students are female (similar to MIT).</p>