<p>I'll be making my decision soon, and I just want to hear some input from you guys (saying just "Go to UIUC" does not have any effect on me).</p>
<p>Cost is pretty much the same, GT is in a city, UIUC is more urban, UIUC is a slightly better CpE school than GT.</p>
<p>Would UIUC open more opportunities (engineering, consulting, finance?) than GT? I have seen companies such as Citadel Group that recruit at both. I just want to have options open for Engineering, Consulting, or Finance careers when I get out.</p>
<p>How about the coop programs at UIUC? I have visited GT so far and their coop program is amazing, but I want to hear about UIUC as well. </p>
<p>I'll be going out to visit UIUC soon, but looking for some input on the differences now <a href="especially%20in%20possible%20careers,%20recruiters,%20and%20coop">b</a>**. Thanks!</p>
<p>For all intents and purposes, the two schools might as well be the same school. They are that close in terms of reputation, education and recruiting. Honestly, there is no reason to worry about one having a career advantage over the other. If those are your choices, then you ought to choose based on the fun things, like urban vs. urban island, Illinois vs. Georgia, Big Ten vs. ACC, general state university vs. tech school and all that jazz.</p>
<p>Figure out where you think you will be happier, because the programs at both places are pretty much interchangeable… in a good way.</p>
<p>As a UIUC guy, I co-oped/interned with a bunch of guys from GT and have run into plenty of them ever since. After talking with all of them, these were my conclusions.</p>
<p>Thanks for your input boneh3ad. I vaguely remember hearing UIUC has some amazing labs for CpE, donated by Intel and the likes. Can you verify that?</p>
<p>GT has some really nice labs as well and is in the process of building a new ECE building that will be ready for the 2012-2013 school year.</p>
<p>As far as the schools, boneh3ad is right that they’re as close as you can get in terms of prestige and quality. They might as well be sister schools.</p>
<p>The first question I would ask yourself is if you’d rather work in the Southeast or in Chicago. Both schools place students nationally and internationally, but UIUC has a high percentage of students move to Chicago, while GT has a high percentage in Georgia/North Carolina/Florida areas. </p>
<p>It’s also a little bit of a different situation. While the midwest has more engineering jobs than the Southeast, in Chicago you have many top engineering programs placing people in the area: UIUC, Michigan, Northwestern, Wisconsin (as well as Ohio State, Michigan State, and Minnesota), while GT is the unquestionable leader in the Southeast (though there are fewer jobs). So you do run into a bit of a big fish in a small pond vs. small fish in a big pond issue.</p>
<p>The whole Atlanta vs. Chicago thing - Atlanta would be really nice for the weather and such, but I’d be the first one to admit that I didn’t really like the city at all when I visited. This is as opposed to Chicago, which I visited on vacation about 6 years ago, and I loved it.</p>
<p>With that said, both schools are recruited for consulting and finance as well, right?</p>
<p>That lab is a little clean room reserved for use for an undergraduate microfabrication course. That’s more of an EE type of course. </p>
<p>It looks like GTech has a similar course. I don’t know how the qualities of the two labs compare, but I don’t think that it matters that much because really the course is a learning experience. At the end of the day if the transistors on your UIUC wafer are smaller and faster than your hypothetical GT wafer, it doesn’t matter because they won’t be used for anything anyway.</p>
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<p>Uhh you realize UIUC isn’t in Chicago, right? It’s in a moderately-sized college town about 2 hours away from Chicago.</p>
<p>I think he mentioned Chicago because I mentioned the long-term prospects of living in Atlanta vs. Chicago after graduation.</p>
<p>edit: One other thing you might want to consider when comparing GT and UIUC is size. GT is about half the size of UIUC. On the other hand, UIUC has the fine arts and BA courses that GT doesn’t have, leading to a more diverse student body.</p>
<p>Yeah I was talking about Chicago in reference to the whole Atlanta vs. Chicago. And size is definitely something to consider - 30k vs. 13k. The thing that’s attractive about Illinois is they have Actuarial Science as a major (but at the same time that almost seems to zoned in - I probably would be better off as a math major taking Actuarial Science courses as electives) and that is my backup if CpE doesn’t work out. I am not sure if Georgia Tech has P/1 or FM/2 courses (would have to look into that in the Mathematics department) so I’d have to study those on my own.</p>
<p>EDIT for post below mine: Yeah, I know that. Not only are the numbers better at UIUC, but the girls there are ridiculously hotter than those at GT. It’s a very small factor but I guess I should also include it in my thinking.</p>
<p>For what its worth, only about a third of GT’s students are female, compared to almost half of UIUC’s. This may or may not be important to you - it would seem that for some people on these boards this would trump all other considerations. I would otherwise agree that quality and recruiting is not going to be a deciding issue between the two schools - consider other factors.</p>
<p>Of course, GT is in Atlanta and has other colleges which are majority female within walking distance. On weekends, UGA, Georgia State, and Agnes Scott (all girls school) girls come to campus. You can get to the last two schools without a car using MARTA.</p>
<p>Even though they won’t be in your class, the girls at UIUC won’t be in your classes, either. The engineering classes at UIUC will have the same ratio as the engineering classes at GT.</p>
<p>Banjo has a good point there - GT is in Atlanta (plus or negative?) which is a much larger and more diverse community than the relatively small town and single school environment of UIUC. And the demographics of engineering remain the same regardless. I was mostly just poking fun at the dating-impaired on the boards.</p>
<p>Banjo has a good point, but even if they are within “walking distance”, I would hardly be willing to walk there through midtown Atlanta, especially at night when you usually tend to get together with the fairer sex. Ha!</p>
<p>You should realize what living in a city means. Of course, it’s terribly convenient sometimes and MARTA (the transport system) is pretty good and will get you anywhere you need. Atlanta is really nice (though I’m biased since I live here), but it is a city which means it attracts a lot of psychopaths willing to shoot someone for their wallet. Of course shootings and crime can happen anywhere, but it is a city and crime rates are higher in the city. If it makes a difference, though, I’d still rather live in Atlanta than a college town (having never visited UIUC, I can’t criticize specifically). Though depending on your personality, living in a city could hamper your chances of getting laid.</p>
<p>You really should visit both places though. Liking your life for the next four years is nice, and liking where you’re at always helps.</p>