<p>Hi,
I am considering Iowa State and Miami University - Ohio for engineering (most likely mechanical, industrial, or computer science). Which do you think is better and why?</p>
<p>I don’t know which is better…because they’re probably about that same. Big state schools with eng’g are likely going to be pretty good because their intent is to produce quality engineers for their region. That’s their purpose, so that’s what they do.</p>
<p>Anyway…which is more affordable for you? Will your parents pay all costs at either school? If not, then you’ll need to consider cost. How much will your parents pay? </p>
<p>I wouldn’t pay more to attend one school over the other. </p>
<p>What state are you in?</p>
<p>I live in Illinois. Distance does not matter to me but Miami is only a little further. If I go to Miami I will have about 30,000 that my parents will not have covered, while if I go to Iowa State, it will be completely covered. Even though Iowa State is still very nice, I like most things better about Miami such as the campus, sports because they have a great hockey team, and also little things such as being #3 for undergraduate teaching. I just have to decide if these little things are worth the debt.</p>
<p>My son is a frosh at ISU now and currently in the College of Design but still considering a change to Industrial Engineering. The engineering programs at ISU are strong across the board. </p>
<p>Iowa State has 3 distinct career fairs every year…Ag, Engineering, and Business. The Ag fair is the largest in the country and features lots of companies that hire engineering and CS majors.</p>
<p>Iowa State’s Engineering career fair is among the largest in the midwest. So big that lots of engineering students from U Iowa make the trip to Ames just for that.</p>
<p>[Career</a> Fair](<a href=“http://www.engineering.iastate.edu/ecs/career-fair/]Career”>Career Fair: Employers – Engineering Career Services)
[Ag</a> Career Day - Fall 2013 | College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Career Services](<a href=“http://www.career.cals.iastate.edu/ag-career-day]Ag”>http://www.career.cals.iastate.edu/ag-career-day)</p>
<p>Iowa State also makes the WSJ’s list of top schools that corporate recruiters target…Miami is not on the list…
[Job</a> Recruiter Comments on Top Colleges for Hiring - WSJ.com](<a href=“Job Recruiter Comments on Top Colleges for Hiring - WSJ”>Job Recruiter Comments on Top Colleges for Hiring - WSJ)
[College</a> Rankings - Wsj.com](<a href=“http://online.wsj.com/public/page/rankings-career-college-majors.html?mod=WSJ_article_moreinsecfooter]College”>http://online.wsj.com/public/page/rankings-career-college-majors.html?mod=WSJ_article_moreinsecfooter)</p>
<p>If you decide to be a CS major, Ames has a company called Kingland Systems right next to campus. Pretty much every CS or MIS major at Iowa State that wants to can get an internship there during the school year…
[Internships</a> | Careers](<a href=“http://careers.kingland.com/internships/]Internships”>http://careers.kingland.com/internships/)</p>
<p>The research opportunities at Iowa State will be better than at Miami. ISU is a member of the AAU…the 61 biggest and best research universities in the country. For example, Buffalo is the only MAC school in the AAU; every school in the Big 10 but Nebraska is a member; members from the SEC are Missouri, A & M, Florida, and Vanderbilt; members from the Big 12 are ISU, Kansas, and Texas.
[Association</a> of American Universities](<a href=“http://www.aau.edu/about/article.aspx?id=5476]Association”>http://www.aau.edu/about/article.aspx?id=5476)</p>
<p>Mechanical Engineering is a large major at Iowa State, I believe the largest single major on campus.</p>
<p>Based on academics only I would discount Miami University for engineering. Miami is known for their business program, not so much engineering. Beautiful campus, great hockey, but so-so engineering.</p>
<p>Do you think I would still receive a good education from Maimi for engineering? Because I still like the school much better as a whole in everything but the quality of their program.</p>
<p>What do you like better about Miami besides the hockey? preppiness? homogeneity of the student body? Greek dominance? party culture?</p>
<p>I have been to Miami U quite a few times through the years for work. I think the campus and the town of Oxford are beautiful. But, I have never seen a campus as large as Miami U with such a homogeneous student body. Because of that, I’m not a big fan. YMMV.</p>
<p>You will get a fine education at either although I think ISU will have more opportunities for research and involvement with student clubs and organizations related to your fields of interest.</p>
<p>Sounds like you are looking for people to validate a decision you have already made in your own mind. Good decision or bad, you really don’t want to hear that the other school is better, do you? Because so far, that’s what everyone is telling you. </p>
<p>The question is, and it’s really the only question, which is the better school for you? Only you can answer that.</p>
<p>There is no reason to take out loans to go to U.Miami. The nicer campus and better hockey team are not worth 30K in loans (is that per year???). Their engineering program isn’t better. It’s not like you are talking about spending extra $$$ to go to MIT.</p>
<p>Nobody looks to Miami of Ohio for engineering. There are literally twenty or more universities in the Great Lakes region that are far more respected for engineering than Miami of Ohio. Miami might be a good fit for you for all the other aspects of the school, but you’ll need to understand that you’ll be going to a decidedly second (third?) rate engineering college.</p>
<p>As an Illinois resident, you should seriously consider UIUC. While it will definitely be harder to get into than Miaimi of Ohio, it’s a top 10 engineering school and even with no merit aid will still be cheaper than paying out of state for Miami. UIUC isn’t as homogenous a student body as Miami, but it is a typically large, diverse Big Ten university in that you’ll find anything socially, politically or culturally that you’re looking for. Miami of Ohio always seems like the place people go because they specifically don’t want to be around anyone who looks, dresses or thinks differently than they do.</p>
<p>I agree with Lenny about the homogeneous aspect of Miami U; although I suspect the reason the student is looking at ISU and Miami is because they don’t have the grades/test scores for UIUC.</p>
<p>You are correct, Haystack. And even if I did have the grades for UIUC, I wouldn’t go there only because I wouldn’t feel happy there. I do not like the campus and I have heard the people can sometimes be a bit self-centered. Not sure what’s true about that, but I know for sure that In my mind, if I truly enjoy my experience much better at Miami, then it is worth the extra 30,000 (over 4 years). To me, college is not only about your education, but the experience of it. I don’t want to come out of college just being a more knowledgable person, but a person who has changed and found new ideas of life. I know that sounded super cheesy, but the point is that I want to get a fun experience out of college.</p>
<p>First, Miami is ABET accredited just as Iowa State is. Both colleges will cover the same span of studies in the engineering disciplines.</p>
<p>Second, Iowa State is 82% white, Miami is 79%. MU has a greater %age of internationals and hispanics.</p>
<p>So you would recommend going to Iowa for more diversity?</p>
<p>Haystack, I appreciate your initial response that contained all of the statistical information about ISU. Do you happen to know any of this information about Miami such as the career fairs and such? I would greatly appreciate this information so I could get a solid comparison of the resources that would be available to me at each of the schools. Also, I was looking at the “US News and World Report” magazine for engineering school rankings and found some interesting information. ISU was ranked as #39 school for engineering where the highest degree is a doctorates, and Miami was in a separate ranking of schools where their highest engineering degree is a bachelors or masters coming in at #35. I assume the rankings of programs with doctorates available carries more weight, but then I realized Miami focuses a lot on undergraduate studies, making it reasonable for them to not have a doctorates engineering program. What do you all think of this? By the way, thanks for all the replies so far! This information is very helpful.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>[Miami</a> University Students - CollegeData College Profile](<a href=“http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg06_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=989]Miami”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg06_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=989) says that Miami is 86.5% white, 4.3% black, 3.1% Latino, and 5.6% international.</p>
<p>[Iowa</a> State University Students - CollegeData College Profile](<a href=“http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg06_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1784]Iowa”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg06_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1784) says that Iowa State is 84.5% white, 2.8% black, 4.2% Latino, and 7.8% international.</p>
<p>Not exactly a big difference in racial and ethnic diversity.</p>
<p>Those percentages are incorrect. Look on the schools websites.</p>
<p>It is not in the skin color that ISU is more diverse than Miami U but in the socio-economic and urban/suburban vs rural backgrounds where ISU is more diverse. </p>
<p>ISU has a higher % of students qualifying for financial aid (55% vs 43%) yet they charge substantially less per year for tuition/fees/room/board. ISU is $15,500 while Miami U is $24,600 for instate. I imagine that if ISU charged $24.600 per year the % of students qualifying for financial aid would be well over 60%.</p>
<p>ISU also has a wider diversity of majors from a strong fashion design program to outstanding BFA programs in the arts. This is in large part because ISU is a Land Grant school. How many universities in the country have one of the largest student run fashion shows (2,400 people attend) and also a Bacon Fest. What is even more remarkable, is that they were able to tie the two together…</p>
<p>“The Fashion Show is doing just that by challenging teams of 2-3 people to a “How Do You Wear Your Bacon?” design competition during the first annual Iowa State Bacon Expo on October 19th. Teams will have about an hour to create a garment made entirely out of BACON which will then be judged and shown on a runway immediately following the competition.”</p>
<p><a href=“The Fashion Show”>The Fashion Show;
<p>I do not like the [UIUC} campus and I have heard the people can sometimes be a bit self-centered.</p>
<p>That’s ridiculous. The students at UIUC aren’t going to be more self-centered than the students at any other state school. </p>
<p>If you don’t like the campus, then fine. But that is just nutty rumors about the students. Sounds like the source was a student who couldn’t get into the school.</p>
<p>Okay. Do you possibly know any of the information I asked Haystack for earlier? I would greatly appreciate it.</p>
<p>Dom,</p>
<p>Go to the Miami U website and find their Career Services office. They should have info about their career fairs, employment outcomes, etc just like ISU does.</p>
<p>Here is the link for Miami U…
<a href=“Center for Career Exploration and Success | Enrollment Management and Student Success - Miami University”>Center for Career Exploration and Success | Enrollment Management and Student Success - Miami University;
<p>Here are the links for ISU
<a href=“http://www.engineering.iastate.edu/ecs/[/url]”>http://www.engineering.iastate.edu/ecs/</a>
<a href=“http://www.career.cals.iastate.edu/[/url]”>http://www.career.cals.iastate.edu/</a></p>
<p>Neither school is a bad choice but as a parent, I would have a hard-time justifying paying more for Miami U over Iowa State. My son chose Iowa State (we are instate) and will be loan free at graduation. Had he chosen another school ( U MN or Tulane) he would have about $25,000 in loans all for a product that is not really any better than ISU.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about what we say. Make the choice that is best for you making sure it is truly affordable. Good luck!</p>