<p>From what you people know and have experienced, how do the two engineering programs compare?</p>
<p>According to graduate department rankings, they are pretty close in most fields except EE/Computer for which, Michigan is in the top-10 while NU is ranked 18th in Computer and 31st in EE. Comp/EE have traditional been NU's weakest engineering departments; they recognized that and merged the two couple years ago in the hope to improve collaboration between the two and the program overall.</p>
<p>So if you are going to major in comp or electrical engg, Michigan may be the better choice (assuming Michigan also "fits" you in other areas). Otherwise, I would pick based on other factors.</p>
<p>By the way, NU's introductory engineering curriculum is unlike almost any others' in the country. NU has been very forward-thinking and came up with a new pedagogy for engineering education:
<a href="http://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/undergraduate/prospective/efirst/%5B/url%5D">http://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/undergraduate/prospective/efirst/</a></p>
<p>NU has made presentation on its curriculum in few major conferences. I won't be surprised if some schools are already using NU's as their model.</p>
<p>It's often said that research Us only care about graduate students but the fact that NU went out of its way to put some much energy to design this curriculum shows they do care about undergrad education. By the way, about 40% of engineering grads work for finance/consulting after graduation.</p>
<p>materials is northwestern's strongest department.</p>
<p>also northwestern has the availability of a kellogg certificate in managerial analytics, paving the way to both the business world and engineering management (which i am told is the career you really want to aim for if you become an engineer... engineers have short shelf life and little opportunity for salary increase otherwise)</p>
<p>I don't know how the Michicagn engineering curriculum is designed, or the engineering curriculum at any university in the rest of the world for that matter, but at NU, we have this thing called EDC which is really good. EDC stands for Engineering Design and Communication, where NU hooks you up with an actual client in the real world who has a serious problem, for example, my client was an upper arm amputee who couldn't work out his chest, back, and shoulder muscles, which would lead to muscle atrophy, bad posture, and respiratory problems. </p>
<p>In EDC, we learned what constitutes good design, the design process, and how to draw prototypes plans, and for communication, they taught us how to deliver presentations and write up reports. You had to do all these things and create a solution for your client, and then write up reports and a presentation to show off your product. Most people don't like it, mostly for the communication part, but it was a really good class, you learn a lot of skills in it. Also, at other schools, they teach you your communication requirement through creative writing 101, which in all honesty, won't pertain to the communication you'll be doing in engineering anyway. That's one of the main highlights of a Northwestern engineering education.</p>
<p>30% of engineers participate in whats known as the 5 year co-op program. You spend several quarters of your time away from NU working at an engineering firm or company earning a salary and not paying tuition. Takes a bit longer to finish your degree, obviously, but some really great opportunities.</p>
<p>And as stated above, the "Engineering First" approach is great as well--you do your EA classes your first year unlike later in your curriculum as at other schools.</p>
<p>(I'm not an engineer so this is just the key points I give out on tours)</p>
<p>Hahaha... uh... yeah... EA Classes ... rock. </p>
<p>"Can't spell death without EA."</p>
<p>In all seriousness though, one of Northwestern's really great aspects is that it's really geared toward preprofessional tracks, and the EA classes take huge advantage of Matlab programming, which is a really powerful engineering tool that I don't think most of my other engineering friends at other schools know about. For example, in EA4, differential equations, we use a lot of numerical approximation in matlab for differential equation problems instead of standard analytic approaches, which is what is generally done in the real world. It's really valuable that we do so, and I think we gain some important skills that other students might not get so early. </p>
<p>On the other hand, EA homework blows. Don't get your hopes up too high. </p>
<p>Summary - The end is good, the process is... not that fun.</p>