Engineering Schools (Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin) - Retention rate, culture

Parents Forum
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<p>My son (Indiana resident) has been accepted to UT Austin, Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) and Wisconsin (Madison) as well as Purdue (with scholarship $).</p>

<p>I would love opinions regarding the pluses and minuses of each. Although Purdue is clearly the cheapest, it is at the bottom of the list. (Would like to see him get out of Indiana, plus Purdue does not seem to be as well-rounded of a university if he decides to switch majors.)</p>

<p>My concerns with each - UT Austin: size (enormous), distractions (son loves live music of all kinds) and distance from home (not even a direct flight) Illinois: intensity (engineering school super impressive but on a tour they seemed super stressed and appeared not to have seen natural sunshine in quite a long time) and popularity of Greek system (would rather not have to be a part of that), Wisconsin - weather (freezing, obviously) and reputation/placement for engineering students (not as strong as Illinois but still a top-notch school).</p>

<p>People unanimously praise Austin, Texas, but perhaps that is the city more than the University itself? My vote currently is for Wisconsin, where the students looked happy to be there, I can get to in about 6 hours, and has the perhaps the most loyal alumni ever.</p>

<p>One last thing: at Wisconsin son would have to apply to the Department of Mechanical Engineering - is not already in. While he is a National Merit Finalist, 2200 SAT, 33 ACT, top 6% of his graduating class, has juggled sport, music and volunteering at a giant competitive public high school I am a bit concerned about the workload for a first year engineering student at any of these schools, for a type "B" personality kid - NOT a super competitive kid, so far. I do have concerns about these schools' retention rates for engineering students, even after the first year.</p>

<p>So sorry to be long-winded - we plan to re-visit Wisconsin and Illinois, (and are waiting to hear back from several other schools) but would appreciate any input on quality of life at these schools in addition to thoughts on quality of undergrad instruction in engineering.</p>

<p>I realize that all first engineering programs are going to be extremely challenging, and all campuses will have numerous distractions, but am hoping to find a place where students can get help when needed and hopefully instructors who can and will actually teach and are somewhat accessible. (I still remember my college professors who did not speak English.)</p>

<p>Thoughts?</p>

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<p>One D of a family friend graduated from Purdue and another currently attends, paying OOS rates from OH. It’s worked out well for them. The graduate has a good job in Chem E in San Francisco making >$70K. The Coop program helped a great deal.</p>

<p>Years ago my brother started at UT (not in engineering) and it definitely was a distraction. Too much to do in town.</p>

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<p>No, it’s not just the city. UT is one of the highest ranked universities, and has one of the highest ranked engineering schools in the nation. But yes, there are lots of distractions there, ESPECIALLY for music lovers.</p>

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<p>I’m a UT grad, and DH is a UW grad. I was an engineering major. I loved UT so much that I stayed six years, for my BS and MS. Even then, there were 48,000 students (there are just over 50,000 now).</p>

<p>It never felt that huge to me. It’s not like you see all 50,000 at once, except on football game days, which are beyond awesome. I tell people that it’s like a big city with many small neighborhoods. Most of my time was spent in the civil engineering building, with the same group of students and profs. My FAVORITE class at UT was US History, with over 300 students. The prof was an amazing storyteller. He assigned lots of interesting, challenging books, such as “The Path Between the Seas,” by David McCullough, about the building of the Panama Canal. (DH and I got to travel through most of the canal last month, on Valentine’s Day!) The prof was always available during office hours, so I would meet with him to talk about history (he tried to convince me to change majors, lol).</p>

<p>I loved music, too, but I studied hard and then played hard on the weekends. There will be distractions and parties at ANY school. My son found the smaller schools he visited (overnight, as an athletic recruit) to have a huge issue with kids, even athletes, drinking to oblivion.</p>

<p>The other thing that I tell students is that UT has MANY incredible opportunities and resources, but you have to look for them. Nobody is going to knock on your door and serve them to you on a platter. My son was able to do research in a biomedical engineering lab as a first-semester freshman! But he was the one who asked if the opportunity was available.</p>

<p>Good luck to your son! He has several excellent options. To be honest, I think he will do fine at any of the schools.</p>

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<p>Not sure why you want him out of Indiana. But if that’s an issue, remember that UIUC is in the east-central part of Illinois and pretty darn close to Indiana (both geographically and culturally).</p>

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<p>I agree with ML. All good schools with their own pros and cons. Regarding applying for your specific major within engineering, this is not terribly uncommon. Your son wants to find out more information before deciding this is a negative factor; such as when do the students apply, what the most competitive majors are, what percentage of students are placed in their top choice (second choice, etc), what the criteria is for selection, what percentage of students applying to each major are selected, what the caps are for each major and how many students are currently in each program? The more information he has the better. At my son’s school BME is by far the most competitive major to get into. The major he was interested in was capped but once he had other information he felt confident that he would be accepted. He was. There are a couple of majors that have caps, but once you have additional information you might see the current enrollment is below that cap so as a prospective student I would then be less concerned about needing to apply.</p>

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<p>Check out the time it takes for Engineering students to finish their degree at each of the schools. Adding a fifth year should be taken into consideration for the final cost.</p>

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<p>I would personally have my child take a flight to a school vs having to drive round trip 6 hours each way :D. There aren’t a lot of direct flights anywhere these days. You can’t go wrong with any of the schools on the list. Maybe when you get the final packages from each school one will stand out more than another.</p>

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<p>I’m a loyal Badger, and most of my guy friends were engineering majors (mech, chem, soil/water) as well as my genius girl roomie (chem). They worked hard and had fun. This was long ago, but I still think it’s true. It’s cold in Madison but survivable. And the springs, summers and autumns are glorious. There’s a Greek culture but it’s barely discernable unless you’re in it. The football! The lake! The Union! “Jump Around”!</p>

<p>But I have to say something about the “distraction” of music in Austin-- the amazing music scene may at times distract your son-- but if it’s a strong interest of his, it could also stoke a lifelong passion, that could end up being as or even more important than his engineering career. I don’t see the vibrant music offerings of Austin as a negative at all. What an amazing place.</p>

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<p>Speaking just to the campus environment issue, Madison Wisconsin is a truly pleasant state capital and vibrant city, and not just a college-town. Its residents have a high-quality of living, and many amenities. Money Magazine/Forbes-type “livability” ratings always like the greater Madison area. In contrast, Champaign-Urban is an overgrown college-town with relatively few amenities. It has a high low-income (non-student) population and state’s greatest density of public housing outside of Chicago. Campus dominates town. Crime is an issue. Plus, “4-year graduation” prospects aren’t assured and lots of kids find themselves on “5-year plan”, due to unforeseen problems getting into classes and/or intended majors.</p>

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<p>Because today is Texas Independence Day, I’m going with UT. Hook 'em! \m/</p>

<p>Also, I think the Chamber of Commerce’s collective hair would catch fire hearing that the live music scene is a negative :eek: Your ds’s popularity will increase because lots of people will want to visit him during ACL and SXSW.</p>

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<p>Congratulations!</p>

<p>My son is at UT Cockrell Engineering School. I agree with you about the travel and definitely take it into consideration. Distractions? I hear people telling me things like “UT is a party school.”, “The 6th street is going to make him wild.” etc, etc. LOL. What I do see among son, his roommates (all engineering major) and friends is that they STUDY. They have to work hard and they have fun going out to eat, playing sports and joining organizations but they don’t do things like drinking and partying. My son loves music too. I would not mind him going to music venues and so far, he has not. When we visit Austin, we look for live music events that are in performance. </p>

<p>Each year there are two engineering expos (career fairs) at UT. More than 200 companies present to recruit students. My sophomore son has a paid internship offered for the summer. There are also many employment/career workshops sponsored by UT as well as outside companies throughout the year. Some of them even bring food. :)</p>

<p>UT is massive. Thank goodness for the good weather! It takes at least 15-20 minutes to walk (hike?) from one side of campus to the other. Freshman classes are usually huge-400 students more or less and upper classman levels are smaller.</p>

<p>Best of luck to your son!</p>

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<p>Not sure what your finances are, but I would not pay extra for another out-of-state public for engineering if I were in-state for Purdue. These are all big public universities with plenty of sports, activities and other majors. It will be colder in WI and warmer in TX. IMO that difference isn’t worth paying extra for. (OK, I’d pay a bit more for WARMER weather ;)) If you care about/believe in rankings, these engineering schools are all very close in rank (IL -8, TX - 5, Purdue-10 and WI -17).<br>
My brother paid to go to Purdue from OOS. Co-op program and degree has served him very well. An engineering degree from Purdue will be respected.</p>

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<p>As I stated on your UW thread- go for the school with the best overall fit. There are many reasons to choose UW over Purdue and UIUC (see jaylynn’s post). Also consider culture- upper Midwest versus Texas- although I suspect engineering students have more in common with each other because of their interests. Some good choices- the kind of problem you want to have and no matter where he goes he will have a good experience. I am a biased Badger.</p>

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<p>OP, I second atomom’s suggestion to stay have your son stay instate and go to Purdue. Purdue has an excellent engineering reputation and summer internships and other job opportunities that will be available near your home. I believe it also has a good 4 year graduation rate. Many engineering students I know who go to Urbana and Madison are on the 5 year plan which means one year more of tuition. Also at these two schools you are not guaranteed to be accepted in the engineering department, although with your son’s stats he should have no problems. Finally unless you have lots and lots of it, money does make a difference. If Purdue, your in-state school, is substantially less than the other 3, I would make sure your son loves UT, Illinois and Madison 2x more or whatever it is. (My son had to choose between 2 schools that he liked equally as well. He decided he did not like school no. 2 $15,000 per year/$60,000 in total more.) Finally always figure travel costs into your decision. One son is 7 hours away but his travel costs to get him back and forth are minimal as he takes the Megabus. (Although far enough away that when we drive him we need a hotel for a night.) Second son is 11 hours away, but airline costs have run us around $1600 for his visits home, not counting our drive/hotel costs to take him there in Sept/bring him back in May. Even though it is only a 2 hour flight, it takes him about 6-7 hours all together in flying/transportation time. Of course the most important thing in choosing is asking your son where he wants to go as if everything is even (and you can afford this choice) it is where he feels most at home.</p>

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<p>My oldest son is a Honors EE student at UT. While we live in Austin, he is definitely “away” at college (lived on-campus the first two years and now lives in an apartment). If your son is seriously considering UT, I would recommend visiting the campus (if he has not already). While UT certainly is a large campus, my son felt immediately connected through his FIG (Freshman Interest Group) and his dorm. I would recommend reading more about FIGs on UT’s website. The curriculum, as you mentioned, is very rigorous for all types of engineering. That said, my son has found the vast majority of his professors to be very accessible. My second son and I actually visited UT today (Explore UT today) as he is high school Jr and is looking at several different schools. We attended the engineering information session (reason why I logged onto to this forum to gain some info on other schools). I actually asked what the retention rate is for undergrads at Cockrell - was told 30% graduate in 4 years, 60% in 5 years and 75% of students (admitted in engineering) will graduate from some college (maybe not engineering) in 4 - 5 years. Having lived in Austin for more than 20 years, I can tell you that Austin has amazing opportunities for both co-op and internships with a wide variety of companies. Good luck!</p>

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<p>The five year engineering plan at UW and UI and most eng schools usually includes a LT (6-12 mos) co-op job at a high salary and virtually no tuition for that term(s). Mech Eng admission is usually wide open.</p>

<p><a href=“Engineering Career Services – College of Engineering – UW–Madison”>Engineering Career Services – College of Engineering – UW–Madison;

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<p>Each of those universities’ engineering departments have a great reputation. I don’t believe anyone would say that Purdue engineerig is second rate, therefore I’d have to agree that if money is an important consideration, if I were an Indiana resident I would choose Purdue.</p>