Mines, UW-Madison, UMN or NC state for ChemE?

what do you think is better for chemical engineering? Mines, UW-Madison, UMN, or NC state?

For Chem E, UW is ranked 5th and MN Twin Cities 7th. Are you direct admit to the major at either school? I know Chem E at UW is demanding, one of the most “exclusive” Engineering majors, with a 3.5 required in the core engineering courses.

It is just an acceptance to the college of engineering. @Midwestmomofboys

Ok, then compare admissions to specific major requirements at each school. As I understand UW, it requires 3.5 in the core pre-requisites for admission to Chem E. Minnesota seems to require 3.2 in the Chem E prerequisites for admission to any Engineering major. Not a walk in the park to get those gpas. How does admission to the major differ at your other schools? How are they on affordability?

You are a full pay international? Is money of any issue? Are you a strong student? I don’t see your full stats and one post indicated you had a sub 1200 SAT if I didn’t misread that, do you have IB/A levels?
The point is to consider the risk potential of weed out at the most competitive schools where the entry standard is already high. Look at the first year drop out/weed out rates if possible. Lots of dropouts or weed outs wouldn’t even make it to the stage where GPA was the admitting factor if that is at the end of soph year. That just makes the competition tougher. What would be your plan B?

Money is not an issue. They wouldn’t have accepted me if I am not qualified enough for engineering. UW-Madison entry to major is after freshman year. My question is “Mines, UW-Madison, UMN or NC state for ChemE?” which program is better? My question is not if I can make it or not. @Sybylla @Midwestmomofboys

They actually do accept people that can’t make it. Understanding if you can actually get into your desired major is a big deal. Walking into a place like Wisconsin trying to be a ChemE is a reality check to many top students in their High Schools.

All good schools. Do you want to be cold? Wisconsin. REALLY cold? Minnesota.

Do you have a particular area you want to study in chemE? If petroleum, go to Mines. If you want a little bit smaller school without the depth in humanities that you’ll get in the big university, go to Mines. If you want better sports, go to Wisconsin.

If they are all tied for you, pick the area where you want to live. Mountains, midwest, southern and closer to an ocean?

Wisconsin appears to require even students directly admitted to chemical engineering to maintain a 3.5 major and 3.0 overall GPA to remain in the major. https://www.engr.wisc.edu/academics/student-services/academic-advising/first-year-undergraduate-students/progression-requirements/

While the program may have a top-end reputation, it weeds heavily. According to https://registrar.wisc.edu/grade-reports/ , it looks like first year chemical engineering students have an average GPA slightly under 3.5, so probably around half of them are weeded out of the major. The grade distributions by course suggest that fewer than half of students enrolled in frosh-level chemistry and physics courses earn A (4.0) or AB (3.5) grades.

I’ve never been clear if the “progression” requirements were to be admitted to the department or to stay in the department, since my UW kid was Humanities. Most of his friends were Engineering, and plenty of them had to adjust their goals from Chem E or another “most demanding” major to something else because the gpa requirements were tough. So when you did meet a Chem E or major in some of the other “super elite” departments, you knew those were seriously smart cookies.

UW publishes its semester grade reports, course by course, department by department. A search for “grade distribution report” on the UW website will pull up Chem E and College of Engineering gpas.

@oam129 some people just don’t get it…as far as which school is the best and since we have no further info to go on (like any preference you might have) just use USNWR ranking for which is considered the best for ChemE.

They wouldn’t have accepted me if I am not qualified enough for engineering<<<<<<<

Well, I would like think that would be the case, do have A levels? IBD? Because while we know that schools like full pay internationals for the money, students as articulate as you should be able to navigate the weed out landscape better than others.
The answer to your question is based on you really. As you only indicate a sub 1200 sat and a toefl score of 94, the answer is that maybe you should use more data points than CU123 suggests. The fact that 50% of native English speaking,strong students with an above 31 ACT score for e.g. CSE at Uminn might never make it out is a cautionary take away. Mines might not weed out until soph year as the first yr retention rates look better. That is an even worse scenario IMO. Mines won’t really have a plan b for non eng options, but the big state schools will have plenty of choices.

Mines as plenty of other majors outside of engineering that are well respected. Economics for one…

cu23 >>>plenty of other majors outside of engineering<<<<<<<<<

    . CSM offers a whole 16 BS degrees. 16 undergrad options LOL. Maybe 3 are not eng? Your definition of plenty is peculiar to me.

Those are the progression requirements! Students should have a GPA of 3.0 and score AB in all of their core classes in order to get into the chemical engineering program. @ucbalumnus @Midwestmomofboys

@Sybylla I got a chance in one of the top schools in engineering so why wouldn’t I take it? I am not a US student; I understand that my education might have been different and that does not scale how will I am gonna do. It was my first time taking the SAT which is not my first language I got less than a week to prepare for it so no wonder I got this bad score. In my country, they do a similar test but in my language and I was in the 99th percentile in both verbal and math sections, and that’s just to give you precise info about my stats.