University of Michigan or The University of Wisconsin-Madsion. OSS. No monies awarded for either. Love both.
Both will be fine (the same companies will hire from both). Go where your parents can afford and where you might like to live afterward (grads frequently live in the same state they graduated from).
My son is conflicted. Michigan was his number #1-he was deferred so went to UW-Madison to visit and fell in love, then got accepted at Michigan when he returned. Very tough decision for our son. Want a good balance for him.
If cost does not matter, then you may want to compare other things like job placement, % of returned students after freshmen and 4 year graduation rate. I have heard that only around 50% of students at Wisc graduated within 4 years. Also, there is some financial uncertainty at Wisc that the OOS tuition may go up a lot.
I like the campus at Wisc too. Both campuses have a lot of similarity but there are nicer views at Wisc particularly at the water front.
Thank You!
Very tough decision; both great amazing choices. Which will open more doors? The 4 year plus concerns me. Yes, I am aware of the financial issues with Wisconsin. Do you know what the graduation rate is at UMICH in 4 years and job placement?
I would expect 4 year graduation rates to track admission selectivity.
If the 4 year graduation rate is substantially lower than that of similarly selective schools, then some investigation is warranted. Is it due to benign reasons (e.g. students taking time off school for co-op jobs), student-caused reasons (e.g. students who do voluntarily take light course loads for whatever reason) or school-caused reasons (e.g. unavailability of courses required for the major)? The last is often blamed, but is probably a convenient claim by students who just don’t want to take classes at 8am.
if you are looking/want/need 4 years, 8 semesters II would look at the degree navigation for Mechanical Engineering at both schools, chances are they are very similar but look at the total credits to get the degree. See if there are any classes that can be eliminated with AP credit or anything that he might be able to test out. If I recall i discovered at one uni for my engineering son that the graduation requires, if he took around 15 credit hours per semester, followed the plan to a tee and always got into the classes required, it would require an extra semester no matter what…this was confirmed at a parent info session we attended.I found this true at quite a few unis we looked at with son #3. Without overloading, and in my opinion much more than 16 (4 - 4 credit hr. classes) is taking a heavy load of classes, there simply wasn’t any way to finish in 4 years. I do know kids that can handle 19 for several semesters, but not many in engineering. This is just my personal opinion, but I really think engineering is more likely to be 4.5 years without testing out or placing out of several classes. I never looked at Wisconsin’s engineering degree navigation so am just suggesting that might be one thing to take a close look at for comparison.
Both are great schools - I’m a parent who has one 1940s Wisconsin parent and one 1940s Michigan parent! But i will say Michigan engineering is tough to beat if cost is not a factor. You won’t go wrong either way.
Watch the final four basketball tonight and then decide 
Go Badgers!! They are both great options- congrats!
Go Green 
and yes, I’m sorry, I forgot to say congrats on two great options!
Thank you to you both; we feel very blessed!
@calspeed I don’t have the data for Engineering specifically, but the 4 year graduation rate for Wisc is 50% and UMich is 72%. The job placement at UMich is very good but I don’t know how is it with Wisc.
UMICH IS “GO BLUE”.
Lol too funny I am sure they wish they were in the final 4
I think all of the large ME schools wished they were in the final 4
Go badgers!