Mechanical Engineering - UIUC or Purdue?

Yes, I know, this thread again. Hear me out though:

I am a high school senior deciding from out-of-state for both of these schools.

I have a $10,000/year scholarship from Purdue, but my dad tells me UIUC is the better school and will get me better opportunities. My dad is decently well-off and he says he will help me pay, but I’m pretty sure my step-mother will not.

The only reason I chose MechE is because I want to feel out engineering first, before maybe deciding to pursue a more specialized path. I hear UIUC is notorious for making it hard to switch majors, though, so I’m worried.
I also like Purdue’s campus better, if that makes any difference.

Basically:

  • Will UIUC net me more opportunities than at Purdue, and is it worth the potential $20k/yr tuition difference?
  • Is it hard to change majors at UIUC within the engineering department?

So, advice? Opinions? Even info on other things like school culture/rigor/companies that hire there, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

I have a $10,000/year scholarship from Purdue, but my dad tells me UIUC is the better school and will get me better opportunities."

Both schools are excellent for ME (for all engineering frankly). Both will allow you to find excellent opportunities. Neither will get them for you. I don’t feel there is enough of a difference in the quality of the schools to choose based on rankings. They take a different approach to assigning majors. Purdue accepts you into FYE and you decide on what you want to major in spring semester. Some majors require higher GPAs than other to be accepted in to. Part of the FYE program is an introduction into the variety of engineering majors. That might be beneficial to someone who isn’t sure what path is best for them. If you are OOS for both, in my opinion Purdue is the better value.

Purdue. Nice campus, good students, engineering degree that means something.

UIUC is impressive and prestigious too, no doubt. But since you’re OOS for both and have $$ from Purdue - my vote is Purdue.

Yes, pay attention to how you get into your major. UIUC directly admits to engineering majors, so if you are directly admitted, you are in your major – but changing to a different major can be difficult because they are likely to be “full”.
https://engineering.illinois.edu/academics/undergraduate/advising/changing-majors.html

Purdue starts engineering students in first year pre-engineering. Students need to earn high GPAs and compete for admission to their majors later, though some majors are more competitive than others.
https://engineering.purdue.edu/ENE/Academics/FirstYear/T2M

You may want to contact the departments of other majors at UIUC to find out how difficult it would be to change if you do want to change into them, and contact the departments of the various majors at Purdue to see what kind of GPA thresholds they have for admission of first year pre-engineering students into the major.

The state of Illinois is in a budget crisis. I’m not sure how this is impacting the university, but there’s bound to be a trickle down. @boneh3ad might have some insight.

If I remember correctly UIUC locks in tuition at the cost of tuition your freshman year. As the flagship I don’t think the budget crisis will impact them too much. If it does it’s Engineering and CS would be pretty far down the list as research is important to the university. Purdue on the other hand is in good fiscal shape and hasn’t raised it’s COA (this also includes room and board) since 2012. The president is intent on keeping that going.

For engineering I think Purdue would be a strong choice. It offers a most types of engineering and is strong in them all, it is cheaper, you like the campus better (so did my D) and it will give you an opportunity to decide which direction you wish to pursue. The one area that could affect your decision is if you decide to you don’t want to pursue engineering. Since Purdue shares state flagship duties with Indiana University there may be majors they don’t offer or are not as strong as their engineering program.

As for opportunities. What types are you looking for? Purdue has an excellent Professional Practices office if you are interested in co-oping. They offer 3 term and 5 term co-ops. They also help getting internships. If you are interested in research there are opportunities for undergraduate internships. They have plenty of opportunities for study abroad. They have engineering fraternities, living learning communities and one of the largest student run engineering career fairs in the country. They have engineering career fairs in the fall and spring. Since I haven’t really looked into UIUC I can’t tell you what they may offer that Purdue doesn’t. Good luck in your decision.

UIUC has enough of an endowment to weather the budget issues for a while. It’s the smaller state schools that have been feeling the crunch. That said, there are still some effects, but it’s mostly at the non-essential staff level now.

Make you you do your own research, though. I’m only as familiar with the matter as my curiosity allows, as it is my alma mater. I like across the country now.

Sorry for the late reply ! Last week was a busy one.

Thanks to everyone who responded! I will do a little more research on my end, and will be sending emails as per @ucbalumnus, but I think I’ve set my sights on Purdue.

You guys were truly a big help, and again, thank you all very much.

I live in Chicago. My own son got accepted into engineering at Champaign and he is at Michigan for engineering. The financial crisis is real. The president of the school finally admitted that it will affect engineering IE: hiring competent professors. There was a Chicago Tribune and other articles awhile back. Very hard to obnoxious to switch majors. But it is an excellent engineering school. If you have money from Purdue not sure why even question it if cost is the same.

The Purdue first year pre-engineering weed-out process means that a frosh engineering student faces more uncertainty about whether s/he will be able to get into his/her major, even if s/he earns a good GPA.

@ucbalumnus… First sorry about my bad texting… You are so correct but both Purdue and Illinois engineering like pride themselves on like (making up this number people) 40% of their engineering classes fail to go on to the next level. We went to both schools and open houses for admitted kids and they seemed to take joy in kids dropping out of their programs. Both said how hard it is to change majors and both gave the old… Look to the left, right one or both of you won’t be here next year… I mean really??? Evidently these are both stellar schools for engineering and I know many recent graduates but maybe some like this type of culture.

@Knowsstuff, this is not a point of pride, but a point of reality. Both are state schools, and have a mission to educate their state’s children. As a result, some who aren’t ready slip through the cracks and eventually get left behind. The point that @ucbalumnus was making though is that students start in pre-engineering at Purdue and have to compete for their major after first year. If I’m not mistaken, UIUC is direct to major. That’s no guarantee that they’ll make it.

@eyemgh, I agree with what you are saying. Actually Illinois last year has a makeshift pre-engineering program but many really don’t make it past that level. I understand the reality of the students that are good in math thinking they will be good at engineering. People that I know that hire tell me all the time that there is just not enough “qualified” talent out there. It just seems at some schools like Michigan it is not as black and white and they seem willing to help the kids succeed with the ability to change majors more easily etc. As they say… If it was that easy everyone would be doing it.

Michigan, for whatever reason, is able to keep its engineering majors all under-capacity, so that there is plenty of space available to change major or for undeclared engineering student to declare any engineering major they want.

UIUC and Purdue are both capacity-limited in some or all engineering majors; they choose different ways of managing the situation. UIUC direct admits to major up to the capacity of each engineering major, but that means that changing to a different engineering major is difficult (and getting into an engineering major if not directly admitted is difficult). Purdue starts all engineering students in a first-year pre-engineering programs, where they must then go through another competitive admission process (based on college GPA) to get into engineering majors.

What did you pick?