I’m from Illinois and was admitted to Minnesota Engineering, but haven’t found out from Wisconsin-Madison yet, though I applied Early Action back in October. Instead of listing my stats, is it realistic to assume I should be able to get into Madison as well? Also, I’ve read that both schools are very similar in the strength of their respective engineering programs. Does anyone have any advice to which university is better? Pros/cons to deciding between the two?
You can’t necessarily expect admittance at WI because you did at MN. You’ll have to wait and see.
They both are strong Engineering schools. Have you visited both? I would go with fit.
I’m from MN and have visited both schools. Like wayneandgarth said, you can’t assume you’ll be accepted to one because you were accepted to the other. The biggest difference between the two schools would be setting. UMTC is spread out over two large cities in a very urbanized, busy area; Madison is sitting on an isthmus in between two lakes and located in what many consider a college town. There’s plenty to do at both schools, but the Twin Cities campus has more of a big-city feel, while Madison has more of a small-town vibe. You may also want to consider cost-the total estimated cost for attendance is $30,000 at UMTC and $40,000 at UWM. Definitely try to visit to see for yourself; ultimately go with whichever is a better fit for you.
Visit both, but it is correct that U of MN - TC is going to be cheaper for you.
Thanks for the feedback, guys! I just realized how much cheaper Minnesota is than Wisconsin. Maybe I was a little unclear in my original post, though. What I meant to say was, whether it applies to me or not, is Wisconsin in general as hard/harder to get into than Minnesota? I read online that Minnesota accepted around 26% for engineering last year, opposed to Wisconsin’s 40%-ish. Does anyone have experience with getting admitted to one or the other? Just trying to get a sense of how hard getting into Wisconsin really is.
I think engineering is the hardest major to get into at MN. Not sure how they compare to each other, though. You might Google to see if you can find average test scores for the engineering programs at both schools. That could be more helpful to see than acceptance percentages.
I do think engineers from MN do just fine in the job market, I don’t think the difference between the programs is huge. I’d go for the less expensive option unless money is not a factor.
This link has some interesting data about Minnesota students. Click on New Freshman Characteristics on the right side and then look at the composite ACT score.
Are you looking at grad school eventually? If so, your undergrad “prestige” really doesn’t matter.
Here is another Minnesota link. See stats on bottom of page
Just got accepted to University of Minnesota in Engineering. 
Any other international students here who got accepted?
@bkamber for what it’s worth here are the US News rankings on undergrad. engineering:
UW-Madison: #14 overall; #25 biomedical; #5 chemical; #13 civil; #14 computer; #19 electrical; #9 industrial; #17 materials; #17 Mechanical.
UMTC: #22 overall; #18 aerospace; #3 chemical; #19 mechanical. Other categories not ranked/not in top 20-25.
Note that for the fields in which both schools are ranked, WI and MN are very similar (Chemical, Mechanical). But on the undergraduate level at least, WI has a deeper field of more highly ranked programs. WI is also more expensive to an OOS student (assuming no scholarship). So I think a lot depends on your planned field and how much credence you give rankings as a proxy for overall program quality and selectivity.
I’ve also included graduate rankings (see below). While grad. school is a whole different ball game w/r/t admissions and academic work, there can still be some spillover from grad to undergrad in terms of reputation and selectivity:
Overall: WI #17; MN #28
Aerospace: WI not ranked; MN #14
Biomedical: WI #24; MN #20
Chemical: WI #8; MN #3
Civil: WI #17; MN #20
Computer: WI #13; MN #21
Electrical: WI #15; MN #21
Environmental: WI #16; MN #19
Industrial: WI #10; MN #42
Materials: WI #16; MN #22
Mechanical: WI #21; MN #16
Nuclear: WI #3; MN not ranked
Hope this information is helpful to you!
Seriously, it will make very little difference if any, in your job placement or graduate school acceptance whether you graduate from Minnesota or Wisconsin in engineering. They are very, very close and engineers are in high demand. Possibly a Minnesota graduate might prefer to hire another Minnesota graduate and a Wisconsin graduate might similarly prefer a Wisconsin graduate. I have a friend whose son graduated from Northern Arizona University in mechanical engineering. NAU is hardly an engineering powerhouse, but his son got good grades, had some good internships, and he is now working in Seattle for Boeing.
madison doesn’t accept people out of high school into engineering. Its something that you apply for after you get there. Wether that be after 1 semister or 2. Thats why the acceptance rate seems so high at 40%. The actual rate out of all applicants who entended to study engineering at madison is probably around 15-20% acceptance. The reason for this is that Madison is slightly higher in rankings then UMN-TC and is more well-known around the US. If I was you I wouldnt be nervous by any means considering you have acceptance into umntc which is still a very good school but at the same time you are definately not guaranteed admission into Madison engineering. You may receive admission into the actual university but its still a risk considering that only 40% of all applicants within Madison get into engineering. Take the safe bet and perform well in college.