Engineering: UW-Madison or Penn State

College Search & Selection
1

Hello Everyone,

I’d really appreciate your thoughts if you’ve got any on this choice:

My son was accepted into mechanical engineering at Wisconsin and into general engineering at Penn State. We live in the NYC metropolitan area. The two schools are quite evenly ranked by USNWR with Wisconsin just a bit ahead for engineering (#14 vs. #18) and overall (#44 vs #50).

Hoping you can give some advice about which would be the best for our situation.

About my son: He’s very hands-on, social (perhaps unusual for an engineer?), curious, althetic (although he doesn’t care about big 10 sports), can get into trouble and requires stimulation. Quietly competative and a team player. Currently he does not want to pursue a higher degree or do research. He just wants to get out there and start working.

Pros of Wisconsin:

  1. Madison!
  2. Short flight
  3. Seems to have a good nationwide reputation (especially among private high schools for some reason)
  4. Higher ranked for physics in case my son switches

The cons for us regarding UW-Madison are:

  1. Culture shock (northeast to midwest). Of course this could also be a “pro”
  2. ASEE reports that the average time it takes to get an engineering degree there is 4.5 years.
  3. We can’t figure out how hands-on the mechanical engineering department is, but we saw a couple of labs and they were quite small.
  4. Bad food in the cafeterias.
  5. Far from home–so he might end up in a job far from home

Pros of Penn State:

  1. Seems to be recruited well by industry
  2. the campus was smaller and prettier than Wisconsin (surprisingly to us)
  3. The kids were more lively
  4. Was more familiar and closer to home, which is nice for getting a job near home
  5. Student Union was amazing–the school just seems to be better maintained/better funded?

The cons for Penn State:

  1. Lower ranked
  2. Out in the middle of nowhere
  3. More of a regional reputation

He has to decide tomorrow! Thanks in advance.

2

This might be bias talking but I don’t think that’s true. Penn State has a massive alumni network and most of them are fanatically proud of their school. You can bet they spread the word wherever they go. And for engineering, there’s this statistic they give at orientation…something like 1 out of every 50 engineers in the US is from Penn State? Not sure, it’s been a while since orientation.

One con of PSU I would mention is the entrance to major system. Mechanical currently requires a 3.2 for a guaranteed spot in the major.

3

Thank you, bodangles, that is good information.