<p>"The drawback of the “large top tier university” is: You will never have the opportunity to get your hands dirty. You will not have the opportunity to actually contribute to a real life project (that’s for the grad students). Unless you were to go to a University where you could be assigned, as an undergrad, to a research project or be part of the design/build team specific competition (the battery powered car competition that’s going on now comes to mind) or find that particular prof who is not only famous but will write you one hell of a recommendation for grad school (which you are going to need eventually if you don’t want to live as a faceless drone) you should save your money. "</p>
<p>Absolute nonsense. Not only do most large top tier schools have large co-op programs where you spend 9-12 months with a real engineering firm, they also have numerous teams that compete in the many engineering competitions. And lots of research work.</p>
<p>[Engineering</a> Team Projects](<a href=“http://studentservices.engr.wisc.edu/research/teamprojects.html]Engineering”>http://studentservices.engr.wisc.edu/research/teamprojects.html)</p>
<p>[Undergraduate</a> Engineering Research Opportunities](<a href=“http://studentservices.engr.wisc.edu/research/research.html]Undergraduate”>http://studentservices.engr.wisc.edu/research/research.html)</p>