I am looking for some advice on the selection. We are OOS. My daughter has admission from college of engineering in Wisconsin, Ohio state and Florida. She also has an admission from UIUC in computer science & linguistics. We are torn between Wisconsin & UIUC ( Computer science rankings) and scholarships ( nearly 14K per year) from OSU. Any advice on quality of these programs and prospects after her graduation would be highly appreciated.
UIUC has stellar programs but you might want to research the current budget debacle in IL (search “IL budget Rauner” and you should get lots of hits). UIUC probably has the most chance of surviving but the mood in the state is pretty grim. Students aren’t getting promised aid, tenure lines and programs are being cut at regional campuses, and there seems to be no end to this stalemate. The HLC sent a warning to IL colleges last week, I believe, saying that they had to develop a plan for helping students transfer if the institution becomes financially unstable. If the plan is not approved, they will lose accreditation which makes enrolled students ineligible for financial aid. Again, I don’t expect UIUC to lose accreditation but think it’s important you know these are the threats hanging over the heads of everyone in higher ed in Illinois until a budget gets passed. You might talk to some current sophomores & juniors at UIUC to get a sense of the mood on campus.
Can you afford all of them without sticking your D with large loans at the end? All are good choices.
All of them are costing ~ 45K per year. We need to scratch to the bottom of the barrel to pay most likely. I would like to know if the rankings should supersede the $$s (scholarship) and if better ranking results in better job opportunities.
Will you be able to afford without parent loans or parent-cosigned student loans?
For UIUC, does she want to study linguistics and take fewer CS courses than a CS major would take? CS+linguistics has 30 credits of CS and 24 of linguistics, versus 58 credits of CS for the CS major.
http://cs-ling.linguistics.illinois.edu/
https://cs.illinois.edu/current-students/undergraduates/undergraduate-curriculum-requirements
Changing into the CS major is extremely competitive – GPA >= 3.76 and minimum A- grades in CS courses to apply.
https://cs.illinois.edu/prospective-students/undergraduates/transfer-students/transferring-another-university-illinois-major
Ohio State requires an overall GPA >= 3.2 to assure admission to the CS major.
https://advising.engineering.osu.edu/sites/advising.engineering.osu.edu/files/uploads/Admission_To_Major/engineering_major_application_information_su2016-sp2017.pdf
Wisconsin appears to be easy to get into the CS major:
https://www.cs.wisc.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/cs-major-requirements
But not as easy to get into the computer engineering major:
http://www.engr.wisc.edu/cmsdocuments/First-year_GPA_requirements_to_accompany_GCR15.pdf
http://www.engr.wisc.edu/current/coe-egr-general-college-requirements.html
What about the home state public universities? Many (e.g. Rutgers for NJ residents, Stony Brook for NY residents, UMass Amherst for MA residents) are perfectly fine places to study CS.
She wants to study computer science. She has admission for Comp Science +Linguistics @ Urbana, her first choice was Engineering. She has admission for Engineering in Wisconsin and Ohio State.
How can all be $45K if OSU gave you $14K off?
Yes with the scholarship from OSU it will cost 31 K.
DD is in a similar situation. She has been admitted to UIUC for Chem E, and Wisconsin for engineering. Our concern is that at UIUC Chem E is in a different school from the rest of engineering (with Chemistry and not with engineering) and also separate from CS. It is apparently not easy to transfer, so she is into Chem E, but if she changes her mind, it may be very difficult to change her major.
In contrast, at Wisconsin, she is into engineering, but still has to apply for Chem E after one year and the gpa requirement is 3.5 which apparently can be challenging. So at UIUC she may be stuck in Chem E and at Wisconsin, she may be stuck out of Chem E.
Both states are struggling with budget cuts and political infighting. We are assessing other options, but she may end up at one of these it is unclear. They are both great schools, but somewhat inflexible in allowing students to major in that they want to study.
She will do fine with an Osu degree…the others aren’t worth the extra money.
I would suggest discussing what your D wants to study - if she wants to do computer science, then UIUC - which is tops in CS and she’s admitted. If she wants some branch of engineering (ee, mech, comp eng, etc.) then go with OSU (if cheaper than Wisconsin).
If she’s not sure what she wants to study or plans to maybe switch majors, etc., then I’d pick OSU as she’s admitted to engineering so it’ll be easy to switch out (easier to switch out than in), whereas at UIUC it’ll be hard to switch from L&S to SoE.
Wisconsin probably not worth $15/year over OSU given your financial situation. OSU is also very good in engineering.
Thank you … I will keep you all posted as we move along here. Sincerely appreciate all of your feedback and thoughtful views - @insanedreamer, @much2learn & @mooop.
I might be a little biased, but OSU isn’t running out of money anytime soon, and like some of the others have said, all these schools are great options. She can’t go wrong with any one of them, at which point economics might have to decide for you.