<p>for arguments sake, which would you say offers a better engineering education? Purdue or Michigan State?</p>
<p>Purdue, by far.</p>
<p>^ Not necessarily. I'd say they both will offer comparable engineering educations...Purdue may have the higher ranking, but I don't think the difference is that far from MSU. </p>
<p>If one school is a lot cheaper for you, I'd choose the cheaper option.</p>
<p>I am not asking which to attend</p>
<p>All I am asking is which offers a better engineering education</p>
<p>I think Purdue has a better reputation for engineering education, but I haven't ever taken a class at either one. I have heard both are very good for engineering.</p>
<p>The only way someone could tell you which gives the better education is if they attended both schools for the exact same thing. Because this is highly unlikely, you're better off just asking which is better to go to. And the answer to that is definitely Purdue.</p>
<p>UCBChemEGrad is right, Purdue has a somewhat better engineering reputation, but its quality isn't that much, if at all, better than MSU. In fact, in a some engineering disciplines, MSU exceeds Purdue. Plus, the fact MSU is a considerably stronger liberal arts/social sciences school than Purdue -- MSU is much more "rounded" -- the supplementary education an engineers can receive at Michigan State, in the long run, can actually serve MSU grads even more. One example, the potential greater ability to communicate or think creatively.</p>
<p>Purdue’s program has co op education program and many other factors that do not seem front and center at MSU. Purdue in general feels more focused on engineering as a school. I suppose at the end of the day it is up to the person of where they feel more comfortable, but if you look at the rankings and ask around, Purdue will be viewed as the better program overall.</p>
<p>Hoping this is a joke. If not, here’s my opinion:</p>
<p>Purdue is a top engineering school which provides World Class Engineering education.It has a national and international reputation. Most of the top students in Indiana that want to study engineering go with Purdue. Intel, Qualcomm, Nvidia etc. heavily recruit from Purdue University. Don’t take my word for it, check qualcomm’s and Nvidia’s career fair page. </p>
<p>MSU is just an average school which is only known for basketball. All the top students in Michigan go to University of Michigan. The remaining ones with 3.0 GPA and 1600 SAT that couldn’t get into UMich, choose MSU. It has virtually no academic reputation out of mid-west.</p>
<p>Its one thing to say MSU is a great school but saying its on the same level as Purdue for engineering is like saying 1998 Corolla is one the same level as Bugatti Veryron. Corolla gives good gas mileage and its great for day to day use but its definitely not in the same level as Veyron.</p>
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<p>False, false, and false. MSU is a better-than-average school. US News ranks it #72 among national universities–certainly not at the head of the class but far better than average, roughly on a par with a group that would include Purdue, Minnesota, Clemson, Rutgers, Iowa, VaTech, and well ahead of places like Indiana, SUNY Binghamton, Stony Brook, Florida State, Missouri, NC State, and hundreds more. Purdue is certainly more highly regarded as an engineering school, but Michigan State is again far better than average; US News ranks it #44 for undergrad engineering, just a smidge behind schools like Brown, Iowa State, Lehigh, and WUSTL, on a par with Case Western, Dartmouth, and Notre Dame, and ahead of schools like Rutgers, Pitt, Colorado School of Mines, Northeastern, Tufts, WPI, and RIT–not to mention hundreds more.</p>
<p>Nor is it true that “all the top students in Michigan go to [the] University of Michigan.” Most do, perhaps, but Michigan State picks off a fair number of them, sometimes because of family allegiances to the school, sometimes because they’re lured by attractive merit scholarships to Michigan State’s honors college, sometimes because they’re influenced by a favorite teacher or guidance counselor or friend or older sibling, sometimes out of personal preference. In 2012, 27% of Michigan State’s entering freshman class were in the top 10% of their HS class, and 14% had ACT composite scores of 30 or higher–figures that would have at least made these students (as Michigan residents) competitive for admission to the University of Michigan. I don’t put too much credence in these figures because it’s not real data so much as self-reported anecdotes, but parchment.com reports that 20% of the cross-admits between the schools choose Michigan State. That sounds about right to me, but there are additional top students in Michigan who choose Michigan State as their #1 school and never apply to Michigan.</p>
<p>I have no love lost for Michigan State, mind you. I’m a Michigan man through and through. But make false accusations against my little brother and I’ll stick up for him.</p>
<p>I love Michigan State, in fact my undergrad decision was split between Mich St and Purdue. I chose Purdue and do not regret it one bit. And to add to that I will be attending Mich St for law next year. Just had to put that out there to explain the lack of bias here. </p>
<p>However, let’s go back to the original question. The question was not, which school is better, has more prestige, or how does it compare to others schools. The question is which school is better for engineering. From a pure ranking perspective such as that used by Bclintock, Purdue is better for engineering. Michigan State is ranked #44, and Purdue is #10. Take note that those are the USNEWs rankings for Undergraduate engineering. Take it as you wish.</p>
<p>Why is no one asking about the OPs specific interests in engineering? Michigan State may offer a near comparable quality education in some fields, but in Aeronautical? EE? Purdue, here, sits in another class. </p>
<p>And bclintonk, MSU “well ahead” of places like …NC State"? MSU’s US News undergrad engineering ranking is 44 to NC State’s 30, MSU grad engineering sits at 55, NC State is ranked at 29. MSU has no ranked undergrad engineering divisions to 4 for NC State, at the grad level, MSU has 7 to NC State’s 12.</p>
<p>Getting back to main issue, the OP may want to look more carefully at his specific engineering interests in assessing program quality with the obvious understanding that this may change/evolve over the next 4 years.</p>
<p>This thread is over five years old.</p>