I was accepted into NYU for engineering but physics for UIUC. I was just curious as to if NYU Tandon is as bad as people say?
First, let me say congratulations! Both schools are great options. I was also accepted into NYU Tandon, and I don’t think it’s bad at all. Both school are continually ranked top 30 engineering/comp sci schools. The Tandon school of engineering has many notable alumni including Ursula Burns, the first black female CEO of a Fortune 500 company. I think a big factor you should take in for both schools is location and opportunities. NYU has a large and active alumni group, and is also in one of the fastest booming cities in the US. UIUC is in a more suburban area, and has more of a campusy feeling than NYU. I think I’m biased toward NYU since it’s where I’m going, but I also really like UIUC. Hope I helped.
What do you mean by as bad as they say? Tandon is in Brooklyn as NYU bought out the old New York/Brooklyn Polytechnic. So it’s not the core NYU campus near Greenwich. As doodoo27 said as well, they’re very different campuses in terms of feel, culture etc.
If you want to do engineering at UIUC, but are admitted to a non-engineering major, you first need to switch to pre-engineering:
https://dgs.illinois.edu/ict-to-pre-engineering
Then you need to take the specified courses and meet college GPA requirements:
https://dgs.illinois.edu/current-pre-engineering
Note that GPA requirements vary by major (click on “major capacities”). Bioengineering, computer science, and mechanical engineering require a 3.75 GPA just to enter into a competitive admission process. Other engineering majors have automatic admission at 3.75, 3.50, 3.25, or 3.00 GPA.
Chemical engineering has a separate process:
https://chbe.illinois.edu/undergraduate/apply-to-chbe-at-illinois/transfer-students/ .
Personally–I’d go to UIUC all other things being equal. It’s probably cheaper and if you can figure out a way to achieve your goals, so much the better. NYU engineering is a much different environment from the rest of NYU