<p>I've been looking around and I've found that both University of Michgan and University of Illinois UC are both great engineering schools, especially in terms of ECE and Computer Science. However, both of their sites suck and I can't get anything useful to help me decide between the two.
This is what I am looking for:
I know that I will do some kind or Robotics graduate degree. In order to lead into that, I want to be able to take either a computer engineering or computer science major that I can later focus in that direction.
I also want to have some flexibility so it would be easy to switch from one to the other if something changes my mind later on.
I'm also looking for the right location. Which college has the better city?</p>
<p>Any kind of advice might help, so give me anything you have to say on this.</p>
<p>Well people have told me that UIUC is in severe financial trouble, so if you are out of state and looking for money it won’t happen. But if money isn’t an issue, I heard that is a really good engineering school. Though in terms of academics and prestige, I believe that University of Michigan is ranked higher for engineering. But I’ve also heard that they don’t give a lot of money unless your scores are extremely high as in 2300+ SAT. But let’s just see what others say :P.</p>
<p>Both are outstanding for ECE and CS. Neither is preferable to the other from that perspective. Michigan is stronger in most areas outside of engineering, though Illinois is still a very solid school.</p>
<p>Neither will offer much merit aid, and both are very expensive for OOS students. How much can you afford to pay?</p>
<p>Michigan is the obvious choice here unless you’re in-state for Illinois. They both have equally good engineering programs for the most part but Michigan has a stronger reputation overall as an university and is located in a MUCH BETTER college town, Ann Arbor.</p>
<p>I’m not sure about Michigan but Illinois offers a pretty large Merit scholarship for OOS students if your ACT/SAT scores are high enough ($12,000 a Year). </p>
<p>Many of the flagship publics offer large merit scholarships to OOS students if your SAT/ACT scores are above a certain level. I’m not sure if Michigan offers a similar scholarship so you should definitely investigate.</p>
<p>“University Achievement Scholarship
Requirements: Out-of-state incoming freshmen with outstanding academic achievement
Amount: $12,000
Renewable: Yes – four years, provided the student maintains a 3.0 GPA”</p>
<p>How many University Achievement Scholarships are offered each year?</p>
<p>p.s. It doesn’t say anything about high “ACT/SAT scores”.</p>
<p>* Requirements: Out-of-state incoming freshmen with outstanding academic achievement
Amount: $12,000
Renewable: Yes – four years, provided the student maintains a 3.0 GPA *</p>
<p>I think the words, “outstanding academic achievement” means high GPA and high test scores. </p>
<p>Test Scores
Middle 50% of First-Year Students
SAT Critical Reading: 540 - 660<br>
SAT Math: 660 - 770<br>
SAT Writing: - -
ACT Composite: 26 - 31 </p>
<p>So, since often good-sized scholarships are given to those with stats in the top 10% of freshmen, that would suggest to me that ACT scores would have to be about 33+ or SAT 1460+ (M+CR) to get the money.</p>
<p>Viggynash…What state are you in? </p>
<p>What are your stats?</p>
<p>Will your parents pay for wherever you go? If you’re OOS, don’t expect need-based financial aid from either school to help with high OOS costs.</p>
<p>I’m from Illinois, and everything others have said about the school being in financial trouble is correct. Our state government is floundering and not giving adequate funds to the state schools, so UIUC and the rest have to raise tuition to make up for it. These tuition hikes are likely to continue in the future. Also, though both have good engineering departments, Michigan is strong in many other areas, whereas Illinois isn’t good at too much else. I’d recommend Michigan.</p>
<p>UC system plans to raise fees by 8% next year…this on top of a 33% increase over the last two years.
British universities plan to triple fees which have sparked protests.</p>
<p>UIUC is a great university and will continue to be a great university despite the decrease in state support. Out of pocket student fees will have to increase to make up the difference…unless governments prioritize more funding to public higher education.</p>
<p>I would add that those stats posted above are for all UG students. It doesn’t seem to be possible to find out what the engineering students had, but it is definitely higher than that of the total incoming class.</p>
<p>Perhaps you guys should post on those schools’ forums and ask if those who got OOS scholarhips will tell you their major, stats and amount of the scholarship they got.</p>
<p>SAT Math=730
SAT Reading=580
SAT Writing=680
GPA~3.64
mom2collegekids asked for my stats, so here it is. And I’m not in-state for either college btw.</p>
<p>I think my parents would be willing to pay for both colleges, although being the brown parents that they are, they’re going to want me to get as much fin-aid as possible. Actually, I don’t know about my dad since he is still pushing for me to study in India.</p>
<p>So, in summary, it seems like you guys are telling me that Mich is a more prestigious college with a better college town, although both offer a comparable education in both fields. </p>
<p>I forgot to ask the first time, but which college is relatively the easier college to get into? And based on my basic stats (also considering that I took a ridiculous amount of APs), how do you guys think I would stack up to both colleges? I keep getting mixed responses when I try to find out how I would fare against both colleges. From one side, I’m told that I shouldn’t have much of a problem for Illinois, but it would be a bit of a challenge to get into Mich, but from the other side I’m told that I’m screwed either way and shouldn’t bother applying to either. Insider feedback would definitely help a lot.</p>
<p>PS to AnagramPanda: lol, very ironic, but reasonable given the reason.</p>
<p>*SAT Math=730
SAT Reading=580
SAT Writing=680
GPA~3.64
mom2collegekids asked for my stats, so here it is. And I’m not in-state for either college btw.</p>
<p>I think my parents would be willing to pay for both colleges, although being the brown parents that they are, **they’re going to want me to get as much fin-aid as possible. **Actually, I don’t know about my dad since he is still pushing for me to study in India.*</p>
<p>Brown parents? Is this a reference to them being Brown alumni? Or their ethnicity ???</p>
<p>You need to talk to your parents about how much they will pay. OOS publics aren’t going to give you financial aid. Talk to them. They may have no intention of paying $50k per year for UMich.</p>
<p>Your M+CR SAT is 1310. That’s not high enough for good merit from UMich or UIUC.</p>
"The Illinois House on Wednesday approved a measure that would extend tuition freezes for an additional two years. The vote was 66-43. The bill now goes to Gov. Pat Quinn’s desk.</p>
<p>Senate Bill 3222 is an extension of the Truth in Tuition Act, signed into law in 2003. Under that law, students lock in tuition for four years of college when they start as freshmen.</p>
<p>Under the new law, students who continue their studies for another two years would be charged the same amount for those two years as students who began college a year behind them."</p>
<p>For engineering and computer related engineering in particular there is no gap with a small advantage to Illinois. Illinois is far deeper in this area and has a long track record going back to the invention of the IC.<br>
UM if fine but this is not a major strength area compared to Illinois which has had mulitple Nobel prizes.</p>