<p>I plan on majoring in material engineering in college. I wonder which of the above schools are best for material engineering. I live in Illinois. I have a 4.03 gpa and I hope to get an ACT above a 30.</p>
<p>I really don’t see a reason not to go to Illinois engineering if you can get in, given that you’re IL in-state. One of the best engineering schools in the country, one of the best material engineering programs in the country, and your cheapest option.</p>
<p>UIUC has a great engineering program, but I don’t think that it’s true about it being the cheapest option. Though OP wasn’t asking about costs, but I’m responding to purpletitan’s post.
COA for Illinois residents in engineering is given at $35,000 on the UIUC website. The engineering dept has some scholarships, but nothing guaranteed.</p>
<p>ISU COA is $29,500 for OOS students. And he might qualify for an $8,000/yr scholarship that is automatic with the necessary courses/scores/GPA to bring cost down to $22,500/yr. The below was sent me by someone in admissions there, not sure if there is a link on ISU website:</p>
<p>Award for Competitive Excellence (ACE)
The Award for Competitive Excellence (ACE) is automatically awarded to all out-of-state residents who have been offered admission to Iowa State University as freshmen entering directly from high school and who have successfully completed one of the two sets of college preparatory curricula outlined below, including cumulative grade point average and test score. Two levels of the ACE are awarded to students, depending on their academic record.</p>
<p>Level I: $32,000
$8,000 per year for 4 years*</p>
<p>Requirements:
Math
Through 1 year of calculus (pre-calculus does not satisfy this requirement)
Science
3 years, from among biology, chemistry, physics
Foreign Language
4 years of a single foreign language (through level 4 in high school, e.g. Spanish 4)
High School GPA
3.30 (4-point scale) or higher
Test Score
ACT of at least 28 or SAT of at least 1240 (Critical Reading plus Math)</p>
<p>After the merit scholarship (with an ACT of 28 or above) Iowa State will likely be the cheapest of the group. UIUC is expensive for instate while Iowa State is cheap for OOS. While most of the engineering students at Iowa State from IL did not have the grades/scores for admission to UIUC, there are some that do. Many of those choose Iowa State because it is cheaper and they like the campus better.</p>
<p>Obviously, Iowa State is the lowest ranked of the group but still a solid option if it is the only one affordable and/or you do not get accepted to another option. You also might just like Iowa State better.</p>
<p>My son was accepted at both U MN and Tulane but much preferred Iowa State.</p>
<p>My son just completed frosh year at Iowa State and loves it. Many of his honors program classmates were from either IL or MN. The frosh class is about 40% OOS.</p>
<p>True, there might be scholarships, but if you just look at tuition, UIUC Engineering for in-state is 17K while for ISU engineering OOS, it’s close to 22K. Cost-of-living in both central IL and central IA will be about the same, and nobody says you have to stay in a dorm if room&board is overpriced (my understanding is that UIUC students who live off-campus can do so for far less than the stated room&board).</p>
<p>For some reason(and unlike most other schools), UIUC likes to overstate their COA.</p>
<p>If there is a cost difference due to scholarships, you’ll have to take that in to consideration, but there will be recruiting opportunities at UIUC that won’t be there at ISU (though I’m less knowledgable about materials engineering).</p>
<p>Have to count tuition and mandatory FEES too. At UIUC That’s $20,600 for resident engineering. Small point, but $3,500 is $3500…</p>
<p>Oh, sorry I forgot to add in the personal expenses at ISU. They present it in a funny format so I didn’t notice first glance. That brings actual COA up to $32,000 and if he qualifies for scholarship, back down to $24,000 total COA. Or $12,300 for just tuition and fees with the scholarship. </p>
<p>Anyway, much cheaper than UIUC, unless he is from Urbana-Champaign and can live with family.</p>
<p>We used to live in Ames. H was prof there. He says ISU was a real draw for many midwest OOS students who find ISU a congenial comfortable place that still offers a good education. And the cost is right too, especially if you are from Illinois.</p>
<p>Not a lot of difference among those three engineering colleges, although U Illinois is at the very top. As was said, U of I is pricey, even for state residents. Iowa State has been trying to cherry pick Illinois applicants for years. A friend of mine came out of a Chicago public high school with strong grades and Iowa State essentially threw money at her to attend. Today she is a proud Cyclone alumna and certainly successful at her Fortune 500 employer.</p>
<p>UIUC can be a baseline for costs as an IL resident, but you can apply to other schools where there is a reasonable chance for being lower cost (e.g. Iowa State, Minnesota, etc.).</p>
<p>Also, if UIUC is not an automatic admission for you, or is still too expensive, you need to find an actual safety school that is affordable to you and is 100% sure to admit you.</p>
<p>Wow. I must’ve been really out of it earlier. Just read my first post over and see and I can’t even manage simple subtraction. Sorry about that.</p>
<p>Just reread OP’s post too and see that I misread GPA as 4.0. But it’s 4.03. That means weighted, right? So it might be he isn’t assured of admission to UIUC. Then it’s a good idea to look at schools like ISU even if cost is not a huge concern.</p>
<p>UIUC, Purdue and UW all have very strong engineering reputations.</p>
<p>But UW has the fun factor in its favor. If that is important to you, UW is worth checking out. Madison is a great college town.</p>
<p>If not, UIUC is the obvious choice (to me) because it’s your flagship.</p>
<p>Thanks! This helps a lot!</p>