<p>If given the choice, do pick the college with best overall rep say Columbia or the University of Illinois who has a a better Engineering Dept? This is a real example but I asking in general.</p>
<p>Depends on the person, really and what is important to you. Though engineering at Columbia is no slouch either. I bet a lot of people say, go to Illinois and a lot will say go to Columbia.</p>
<p>A degree from either will take you places. Check out both schools, apply to both, go to the one that you feel more comfortable at. They are vastly different schools, overall.</p>
<p>Columbia...hands down...its in NYC /internships/hands on experience...more recruiters...ivy</p>
<p>If you're looking to go into engineering, public schools like Illinois typically have MANY more engineering recruiters. Plus starting salaries for engineering are exactly the same. So if going to Columbia means a higher debt load for you when you graduate, then there's not really much of a reason to pick it over Illinois.</p>
<p>My in-state friends say that Illinois for science/engineering is tops, and many of them had a hard time turning down those educational opportunities for privates.</p>
<p>I'm actually weighing that question also. Such as, how would an engineering degree from MIT compare with an engineering degree from, say, Harvard?</p>
<p>I guess it also depends on whether you're looking at grad school or not.</p>
<p>Harvard vs. MIT for engineering? MIT by far. Not only does MIT have a better rep in engineering, but I'd argue it has just as good of an overall rep as Harvard.</p>
<p>Columbia vs. UIUC? If I live in Illinois, it would be quite difficult to turn down the in-state tuition for Columbia. Otherwise, other factors would come into play in deciding between the two.</p>
<p>What about something like Yale vs purdue? Would an employer rather want an engineer from yale or purdue?</p>
<p>Engineer from Yale, would be better.</p>
<p>If it were Illinois vs Harvard or Yale for engineering, I would take Illinois because Harvard and Yale don't have real engineering programs. If it were Illinois vs Columbia, then I would choose Columbia because Columbia has a very good engineering program, although not as good as Illinois, but it is an Ivy. </p>
<p>I think you have to weigh both program and overall reputation.</p>
<p>Go with the overall university prestige...always.</p>
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Go with the overall university prestige...always.
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<p>By that logic, nobody should ever go to a LAC, since research universities are more prestigious overall globally. That also means schools in the top 30 of USNWR undergrad ratings that have lower peer reputation scores of schools below them should not be considered either. It also means top publics (which includes schools with stellar grad programs and faculty, but less stellar undergrad programs due to their size) should always be considered over the majority of selective privates since they almost always have the higher overall reputations (i.e. institutional prestige in academia), as well as higher individually ranked programs. Since I don't think you mean that, your statement isn't exactly true.</p>
<p>^^ well said! Prestige won't assure you get a great education if the school is not a good fit for you.</p>
<p>There is no one right answer for everyone. Its highly subjective and depends on the person.</p>
<p>It really depends on what you want to do. If you want to be an engineer, go to the college with a better engineering program/more recruiters/more research opportunities/etc. I think it would be foolish to turn down Harvey Mudd or UIUC (colleges with great engineering programs but little name recognition) for Yale engineering (does Yale even have an engineering program?), for example.</p>
<p>JWT...post #13 was made within the context of this thread, which focuses on choosing a good department or a good overall school..note the word "overall" in post #13. So I'm NOT saying it's good to allow prestige in general to be your one and only criterion. I'm saying if you come to a fork in the undergraduate road and one way leads to a really good department and the other to a really good overall college, take the latter. Why? Several reasons</p>
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<li><p>You're probably going to switch majors at some point, so it's better to be at the overall stronger school.</p></li>
<li><p>The majority of the courses you take will NOT be in your major field.</p></li>
<li><p>As you go through life, you will be asked hundreds of times where you went to college for your bachelor's degree. Only occasionally will someone bother to ask what you majored in.</p></li>
<li><p>As undergrads, you will NOT generally be making use of the top professors' cutting edge knowledge and research. So even if you go to the school with a great department in your area, you probably won't even see the superstar researchers who give the department its big name. And even if you DO have him/her teach your undergrad class, the level at which you study will be quite elementary compared to the subject matter that gave the researchers their fame. It's like if you are learning to ski, you don't need the coach of your country's olympic ski team to teach you the basics.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>When picking a grad school, all 4 of these things will be reversed, so it IS important to get the good department for grad school.</p>
<p>It's still important to choose a college that at least has decent program prestige though, because that WILL make a difference when it comes to job placement if engineering is your field. Don't go to Yale engineering if your other choice is UIUC engineering.</p>
<p>It is all about program quality. For example, grads of lesser known (in terms of the general populace) LACs such as Reed, among others, get PhDs at MUCH MUCH higher rates than grads of better known schools.</p>
<p>The OP asks posters to, in effect, compare Columbia engineering (i.e. Fu Foundation SEAS) and UIUC engineering. Personally, though I'm no engineer, UIUC would probably be better for many reasons. The foremost is faculty academic productivity, for which UIUC ranks much higher than SEAS. Check out Chronicle</a> Facts & Figures: Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index</p>