Hi all. I’m currently a high school junior and I want to major in civil engineering. I’m a pretty stellar student (I have a 3.9 gpa, and got a 30 on the ACT) so I would most likely get into my state’s flagship school, which happens to be University of Wisconsin. However, I’m not opposed to hoping to a smaller school like UW-Platteville. Plateville is something like 8,000 dollars/year cheaper, plus seems to be much easier to get scholarships at. They are also ABET-certified, which seems to be important. So, my question is, is it really worth the extra money to go to a top-tier state school versus a smaller one?
Go look at Illinois tech in chicago. It is a small engineer/architecture school in chicago. They do have good scholarships too! the total cost could be the same as in state
Having an ABET accredited degree in engineering is important. The accreditation guarantees a certain level of rigor in the curriculum. That being said, for an engineering degree there may be more opportunities for getting involved in research at a school like UW Madison rather than UW Platteville. There may also be more elective courses available. If you want a smaller school, then @greta2016 has a point. A school like Illinois Tech (or certain other [url="<a href=“http://theaitu.org%22%5DAITU%5B/url”>http://theaitu.org"]AITU[/url] schools) will give you a smaller school environment at a research institution. Of course, financial considerations are always paramount so you have to see which makes it more feasible foryou to complete your engineering degree without too much hardship.
Wisconsin also had reciprocity with Minnesota, and is part of the Midwest consortium (which will give you lower rates), and some schools in Michigan also have reduced tuition for Wisconsin residents. For engineering in particular you will find recruiting is much better at the highly rated schools, because employers trust certain colleges to select better students (and potentially better employees) . Teaching is going to similar at most. Your student peers are going to be more talented at the higher rated schools, which means that clubs and projects will be more interesting. In addition, larger schools have more choices of engineering discipline.
Look at who recruits at each school. That will give you an idea of what kind of internships and full time positions will be available and where they will be. With CE an internship of at least a summer or 2 will pay BIG dividends when it comes to your job search.
While Platteville would be fine as a safety, there are flagships which would give you merit aid to make them as cheap as Platteville, but with the research, big-time sports, and social life more similar to UW-Madison. Check out U of Nebraska, West Virginia, Oklahoma State, Kentucky, Texas Tech, Florida State, Alabama, & Mississippi. Some of these might require that ur GPA rises a bit, some not.
apply to UW-Madison, Platteville as well as some of the others mentioned here, see what offers you get and what the total COA will be, and then decide how much extra Madison will be and how easily affordable that extra is. If you can afford the extra for Madison without huge loans or hardship, it’s probably worth it. But that depends entirely on the final figrue and what it means financially for your family. Too many unknowns at this point to say which you should go for.
With your ACT 30, Alabama would give you a 2/3 tuition scholarship. If you get a 32, then you’d get free tuition.
UW Milwaukee is in state for you, and good for engineering, unless you want ChemE.
In state Madison and MN (reciprocity) should definitely be the focus.