<p>I was planning to apply to Carnegie Mellon and Northwestern's engineering before I've been admitted to UM engineering.</p>
<p>Now that I've been admitted to UM, should I even bother about applying to those other 2 colleges???</p>
<p>It’s entirely up to you. Have you visited both colleges and UMich? If you haven’t, I say go ahead and apply because you need to choose the school that feels right to you.</p>
<p>U-M=CMU>NU. But all three are very good. I’d decide where I would be most happy. If you are instate, it’s really a no brainer.</p>
<p>@rjkofnovi</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say that it’s a “no brainer” if you’re in state. I live in IL, and, although UIUC is a better engineering school than UMich and NU, I am seriously considering UMich and Northwestern. Northwestern because of it’s business outlook on engineering, and UMich because of the social life and how they are reputed in almost every other field. Of course, I will not be able to attend these Unis w/o considerable Fin. aid and scholarships, but, taking financial status out of the equation, you should definitely at LEAST APPLY to where you think you will be happy. Unless, of course, as I have previously stated, you have visited all of the campuses or have visited UMich and ABSOLUTELY know that’s where you want to spend 4+ years of your life.</p>
<p>And I am not picking on you rjkofnovi. Simply offering my input. :-)</p>
<p>rjk,</p>
<p>Let’s just assume graduate rankings are indicative of undergrad education and so “U-M = CMU > NU” is true in general but ultimately, the OP is gonna pick one discipline; Material Sci, NU is actually the best among the three. In BME & industrial engineering, NU > CMU (CMU may not have IE). Between U-M and NU, the difference in BME & IE are negligible. NU’s IE has 2 extra benefits: 1) there’s a 4-yr dual IE-Econ program, 2) IE requirements match the pre-reqs for Kellogg certificate very well so if one does well in those pre-reqs, he/she would have the option to pursue it and complete all these in 4 years.</p>
<p>NU also has a unique first-year curriculum with similar concept to Olin’s. That’s not reflected in the rankings.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say that it’s a “no brainer” if you’re in state. I live in IL, and, although UIUC is a better engineering school than UMich and NU, I am seriously considering UMich and Northwestern. Northwestern because of it’s business outlook on engineering, and UMich because of the social life and how they are reputed in almost every other field. Of course, I will not be able to attend these Unis w/o considerable Fin. aid and scholarships, but, taking financial status out of the equation, you should definitely at LEAST APPLY to where you think you will be happy. Unless, of course, as I have previously stated, you have visited all of the campuses or have visited UMich and ABSOLUTELY know that’s where you want to spend 4+ years of your life.</p>
<p>You live in the state of IL. My point stands. UIUC=U-M=CMU>NU for engineering. If I lived in the state of IL, I would balk at attending UIUC too. I just don’t care for UC.</p>
<p>If University of Michigan isn’t your top choice and finances is a concern than you should countinue to apply to other universities. You may find the other schools to be cheaper or gain preference in them later on.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses.
So, reputation and academic-wise, all three of these engineering schools are more or less similar, right?</p>
<p>They are all very similar academic wise and although one may have more prestige than the other I couldn’t imagine any schools outweighing the other in terms getting a internship, job, etc… speaking as if you would have the same academic standings at all three.</p>
<p>I think you should base it on the rating and reputation of the specific major within engineering. For example, my son wants Materials Science…not all engineering schools have a good program or a program in it at all. Which concentration of engineering are you thinking of?? Hope this helps.</p>
<p>In terms of overall engineering, all three schools have excellent, and roughly equal reputations. As Sam Lee pointed out, each school has its own niche. For example, for Materials Sciences, NU is slightly better than Michigan and both arebetter than CMU. For Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Michigan is better than the other two. For Computer Science and Engineering, CMU is slightly better than Michigan and both are stronger than NU. Overall, the three have excellent programs all-around.</p>
<p>This said, Michigan and NU are more well-rounded than CMU in terms of campus life and environment. </p>
<p>If you are happy with Michigan, I don’t think applying to NU or CMU is worth it. There are only three or four undergraduate Engineering programs I would recommend over Michigan. Those are MIT, Stanford and maybe Cal and Princeton. I would recommend many schools as highly as Michigan (schools such Caltech, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Cornell, Georgia Tech, Northwestern, Purdue, Rice, Texas-Austin, Wisconsin-Madison and a few others), but not higher.</p>