International - Purdue VS UW-Madison VS Cal Poly Slo vs UMN

College Search & Selection
1

Hey,

I’ve been accepted to Purdue, UW-Madison, Cal Poly and UMN-Twin Cities for Bio-engineering. I’ve also been waitlisted by UIUC. I have no idea which college I should choose. Some things which are important to note are:

  1. Cal Poly is $20k cheaper than the other colleges and so is UMN (got a scholarship). So, are the other ones really worth the extra money?
  2. I would probably be changing my major to ChemE
  3. I’m still counting on getting into UIUC through the waitlist.
  4. I consider job prospects and starting salaries to be really important.

Please give any suggestions or opinions because I’m literally stuck. Thank you!

2

UW-Madison - better graduation rate. 85% vs 75%

https://apir.wisc.edu/retention.htm
http://www.purdue.edu/enrollmentmanagement/researchanddata/gradretentionrates.html

3

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-wisconsin-madison/911005-purdue-or-u-of-wisconsin-madison.html

4

If money is a concern, and assuming there is no problem with changing majors within the engineering school (I would check with each school), I would go with UMN - the chemical engineering department is just as strong as UW, UMN is an excellent school in a very nice (albeit cold) city, and there is a large percentage of international students at the school.

5

Is UMN also $20K cheaper than the others? If so, then go with that. UW-M is the top univ. on your list but not worth $20K/year and UMN is very good in engineering.

6

UMN is excellent in Chem-E, that makes it the best value on your list.

7

Thanks guys, but should I choose uiuc over umn, if I get into the waitlist? Money isn’t a concern, but the value of the degree is. Would I still get the same job offers if I graduate from umn as compared to uw?

8

@insanedreamer

9

between UMN, UW and UIUC, your job offers won’t depend so much on which of these three schools you graduate from (as the three schools are fairly similar), but what you do in those schools - your research, co-ops, GPA, etc.

If you’re on the waitlist for UIUC you probably won’t get admitted to engineering, but rather general admission, which means that you can’t be sure you’ll get into your major. Also, they’re not big on aid. So I wouldn’t count on it.

So unless you get admitted to UIUC school of engineering, I would go with UMN, or UW-M if money is not a concern (Madison is a great college town, and UW-M is arguably slightly more prestigious than UMN in Engineering.)