<p>How known is IIT? I want to go there for undergrad and grad school, but is it a good school? Is it a competitive school too? I know it's not a Stanford or MIT, but doesn't it still give just as good of an education in engineering?</p>
<p>IIT is reasonably well known regionally. Wherever you go, though, be prepared for people to think ITT. As for the school, you’d get a fine engineering education there, and you’d have some pretty talented peers at the top of the class (same level as Stanford/MIT), but not as much depth. The administration, though, doesn’t tend to get high marks from students (who happen to trend geeky, but not as much as you might think).</p>
<p>As for grad school, I think you’re way ahead of the game here. Probably should see how much you like the school first, and even then, it may be beneficial to be exposed to a different faculty to get a new perspective (or if you do really well, go to Stanford/MIT!).</p>
<p>Knowitsome, thank you! If I do really well at iit, would it not be incredibly hard to get into a graduate program at a school such as Standord?</p>
<p>it will always be hard…</p>
<p>engineering will be rigorous wherever you go, at most schools the curriculum and work is mostly the same in the engineering fields, the only difference between engineering schools are the quality of faculty and the type of research that they do</p>
<p>Thanks pierre0913, that’s what I thought the difference would be.</p>
<p>could you please thank me too?
I contributed to this thread as well and I think the fact that you singled him out in your “thank you” is very rude, especially you had to enter MORE characters in to your post to do it, as opposed to typing less and thanking more people.</p>
<p>^Please tell me you are not being serious. You wrote 5 words that were not a fraction as helpful as the other posters were.</p>
<p>I’m sorry fatpig554, you are the one being rude expecting and demanding a thank you at the same time. Your answer was not helpful to me and therefore I did not thank you. So hopefully you are kidding like Senior0991 said.</p>
<p>Don’t know if you’ve visited IIT yet, but we were in Chicago last summer doing college visits and took in a White Sox game while we were there. </p>
<p>Before the Cubs fans decry me, the Cubs were not in town, and the White Sox were playing the Royals, where a former player of ours now plays, so we went to see him more than the White Sox, although it was thrilling to see the White Sox. But I digress!</p>
<p>Anyway, the IIT campus is right by Cellular Field, home to the White Sox. Looks like it was right on the El line (?). </p>
<p>Reminded me of our local college, Univ of New Orleans, in that it was just a lot of buildings, not a lot of green space, so maybe more of a commuter campus (?), but had some neat sculpture type stuff, so looked really techie. </p>
<p>That’s all I can say about it, since we didn’t visit it, just saw it in passing, but thought you might be interested in its locale. I did comment to my husband that it must be really neat to go to college right next to a major league baseball stadium.</p>
<p>Ya, my brother goes to IIT and just graduated. So I have seen the campus, but I wanted to get some non-biased views of the university. He will just tell me that it is a really good school (which it is).</p>
<p>^^^^^</p>
<p>Not sure exactly what “just a lot of buildings” is supposed to mean, but Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, one of the 20th century’s greatest architects, was instrumental in the campus design and is a reason IIT is well regarded for their architecture department. Crown Hall is a marvel of light, and other architects from his “school” have contributed other buildings to the campus.</p>
<p>As for the neighborhood, it’s not the greatest (I wouldn’t advise traveling north of campus on foot), but the campus itself is safe (check out their Clery report). And yes, there’s a stop for the El on campus - the line passes through one of the buildings (with soundproofing to abate the noise). In fact, use of the El is free to IIT students!</p>
<p>Sometimes its harder to summarize your thoughts in five words, rather than rambling on for several pages. I put a lot of thought in my response and I am insulted, absolutely insulted.
Please send me a private message with a full apology for your erroneous public slandering of my posts here, if you have too much pride to do it in public.</p>
<p>And what do you mean my post was not a fraction as helpful as other people’s? May I remind you that not all fractions are less than 1? Some fractions are BIGGER than one, buster, so you committed a mathematical fallacy!!! WHO IS LAUGHING NOW!!! HAHAHAHA!! ME!!! HAHAHAHA!!</p>
<p>you’re really something, I’ll give you that.</p>
<p>Uh… fatpig554, you picked the simplest and least helpful five words you could find. You are the epitome of imbecile. Go be insulted somewhere else because you receive no sympathy from me. Wow… that’s all I have to say about you.</p>
<p>I’m just trying to understand why you guys are so full of hate when I went out of my way to show you such love with my respectful and well-informed advice? Do you think you can find a man of my insights just standing around on any old street corner, like some common prostitute? Forget it!</p>
<p>Salve, because of your wise-guy comments, now I want two apologies, and PM won’t work this time. Right here in this thread. If. You’re man enough.</p>
<p>ok fatpig, I’m sorry you’re a prostitute as you so practically indicated. It must be very hard for you.</p>
<p>Lol… 
:)</p>
<p>As for IIT, I have heard it is good. I will be going there for my grad schooling. I might have got in somewhere a bit better, but i was too late in applying. LOL…</p>
<p>Anyway, a few advices before you get into grad school:
- If you want to get into MIT/Stanford/Harvard, etc., have as many research papers as you can. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>In addition to general academics, concentrate on publishing articles in national/international journal - even of a couple may not be directly related to your field of study. People want all-rounders! a person with 6 research papers + 5 publications in his field Vs. a person with 6 research papers + 5 publications in his field + 2 publications in another field. well, you can be 90% sure that the second person will be selected (assuming that they have same scores and similar SOP and LOR).</p></li>
<li><p>Take up projects. Start with small ones when you enter the college and as your concepts get clearer, take on bigger projects. Don’t be a moron like me and wait for others to join in. If no one wants to join you, try to go ahead and do as much as you can yourself. :)</p></li>
<li><p>MIT doesn’t require GRE for Electrical Engineering anymore. Please check with other departments too. They give MOST importance to your research work, SOP and LOR. Even if you lower academic grades but give a reason like “I was involved in so-and-so project.”, you will have a good chance of getting in. Have your LORs reflect the same. If your prof writes “he got a B grade in Logic Design as he was working on a robotics project.”, that would carry more weight than an A grade in logic design (as it shows that you went beyond the curriculum to do something and take initiative).</p></li>
<li><p>Be sure you want to get into a grad school!! If you change your aim and plan to do an MBA sometime during college, then it is better to work for 2 years as that helps a lot in getting into a program.</p></li>
<li><p>Attend conferences. Subscribe to magazines related to your field. I had subscribed to IEEE. However, in US, i guess you guys can also go for Science and others. Make sure you read them too. You many not understand much during the first 2-3 semesters of college. But slowly, you will be able to grasp bits here-and-there and relate them to your courses.</p></li>
<li><p>Communicate with a couple of profs in other universities. Especially with the ones who are in the universities you are aiming to get into. Go through their research papers. Ask doubts, etc. Start this at least 6-12 months before you apply to those universities. These profs can tell you more about the “unofficial” admission criteria and guide you too. And who knows, one of them may even be the one going through your application of grad school… :)</p></li>
<li><p>As said earlier in a post, changing schools might be a good thing. Do your undergrad in IIT and then move to one of the Ivy League universities. Be sure to research the universities thoroughly. Check for the courses and research they specialize in. Communicate with profs and ask them about funding too (not in the first 1-2 mails).</p></li>
</ol>
<p>These are just some thoughts and may seem like a rant. LOL. If anyone wants to correct me, please go ahead!! :)</p>
<p>There will be others with better suggestions.:)</p>
<p>Good luck in whatever you choose!! As long as you are focused, you will succeed… :D</p>
<p>Oh, and apply as soon as the deadlines open. Trust me, your chances will increase tremendously!! :)</p>
<p>(speaking from experience. I got a few rejects coz even tho my profile was good, they already had selected required students.)</p>
<p>Also, if you r planning on writing GRE, try to get a 800/800 in the math section. It is easy!!
And a 600+ in verbal will get your score to 1400. With that, a good SOP and strong LORs you will most probably get in anywhere you wish.</p>
<p>And research papers for the top 10-20 universities.</p>