Purdue vs. UIUC vs. UC Irvine for Mechanical Engineering

College Search & Selection
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My son got admitted to Purdue, UIUC, and UC Irvine for Mechanical Engineering.
Many people around me recommended UIUC over the other two, but their arguments are not super-convincing to me.

These are the key factors currently in my equation.
Cost: I’m a California resident so UCI is the cheapest (40k), and UIUC the most expensive at 63k.
Ranking, Different rankings tell conflicting stories about which engineering program is superior, Purdue or UIUC.
Proximity: UCI is only 30 minute drive from home, whereas UIUC and Purdue will take all day to travel to. Since my son wants to find a job near home after graduation, I suspect UCI might have an edge from that perspective.

BTW, my son is currently waitlisted at UCLA which is his first choice school. He likes UCLA because it has higher engineering ranking (than UCI), closer to urban area(than Purdue/UIUC), and known to be harder to get into. (than UCI/Purdue/UIUC). His primary interest is building robots using AI and bionics, but I suppose it can change down the road.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and opinions in advance.

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Rankings notwithstanding, these are all well-regarded, well-resourced, ABET-accredited programs. If your son is not particularly drawn to the locale and campus life of UIUC or Purdue, I wouldn’t spend significantly more money and deal with the travel, to choose one of them over UCI. You’ve been paying for UCI with your taxes all these years, and plenty of kids from elsewhere are seriously considering paying 70K/year to attend a UC! He’ll get an excellent engineering education, and there is plenty of robotics/bionics research going on at UCI. And as you say, it’ll be easier to connect with west coast job and internship opportunities from UCI.

If he clears the waitlist at UCLA, problem solved! But if that doesn’t happen, UCI will give him a great education. 30 minutes from home will still feel like a whole new world once he’s on campus, but he’ll be able to get home as needed, which can be a real plus. People have a lot of opinions about rank and reputation, but the people with opinions aren’t the ones who will be paying the bill and hassling with trying to get a stranded kid home during winter storms and airline software meltdowns. I’d only choose one of the other schools if he truly felt a perfect fit, above and beyond splitting reputational hairs.

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Thank you! If the choice is between UIUC and Purdue, and the cost difference is not a factor, would you agree UIUC is a better option? I’m curious if there is a valid reason that makes everyone around me all believe so (except some Quora postings I read, which might have been written by someone biased in favor of Purdue).

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Purdue and UIUC are peer schools for engineering. Many students in the Midwest pick Purdue over UIUC. Mine wouldn’t even apply to UIUC.

That said it seems like your student would prefer to be in CA.

Congrats on great acceptances!

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Has your son visited the campuses? That really is the best way to decide if it feels like the right place. I think most people would pick UIUC over Purdue given the choice— for the campus, the town, and the quality of the program. The sheer number of Nobels from UIUC in the sciences, is, for example, one metric. But then again who wants to leave California? : ) I think I would have your son visit all three, and then at the end of the day, you can sit him down and talk about how colleges want you to fall in love with them and believe there really is one perfect place but there is not. And saving $100+ K is not peanuts

On the other hand if your kid is someone who you think would benefit from leaving home and being away, that is another factor. Some kids need a bit of a gentle push out of the nest. We have good friends whose son got into several top ranked programs in comp sci. He chose the one closest to home, moved to the dorms, and lasted a month or so before he decided it was way more comfortable having mom and dad cook, clean, do laundry, and pay for gas so he moved back in and commutes. Which, of course, is saving them $ but does not bode so well for the whole learning how to become an independent adult project. If you think those factors are an issue, and you can absorb the cost, then you might want to encourage him to leave the nest —-

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To me, UCI is a suitcase school. Was 30 years ago and others on the board say it still is. So to me, being close isn’t good.

If you look at UCI hiring, it’s more regional…doesn’t mean you can’t go anywhere from there (you can) but your kid wants to stay in So Cal.

Today, with linkedin and indeed plus handshake, your kids can get anywhere and hired by anyone. But that you note UCI is close to home, etc. - to me that’s a crutch for when the kid gets homesick and sees others going hom - so it wouldn’t be for me.

In rep, etc. Purdue and UIUC are indistinguishable. Purdue is #6 US News and Illinois #7 if you really want to look at rank. But they are not the same. We visited both (they are close to one another). My son loved Purdue and couldn’t wait to get off the UIUC campus - which he found dreary. Others love UIUC, etc. so you need to go see.

There is an airport near Urbana-Champaign and Purdue is within range of Indy - not impossible to get to.

btw - if a school is ABET accredited and your kid loves it, it’ll be fine. For example, I’ll assume your kids has an SAT/ACT for the two out of state. Changes are he’d earn $30.5K at Alabama vs. a $33K tuition. Not trying to get you to change your mind. Or let’s say he has a 3.9 UW, he’d get $30K off at Arizona and have lower tuition.

And you told me you were going to choose one of those two over Purdue or Illinois, I wouldn’t bat an eye as many do - both are ABET and my kid at Bama had 5 offers this Fall b4 stopping to look - and a 6th was coming from his intern company. He had offers all over and his first 6 months (he’s on a rotational) will be in Utah, but were almost in Seattle. Irvine is possible for a future rotation. Oh, and he turned down Purdue with merit (refused to apply to UIUC).

So I’d say three things matter:

  1. ABET

  2. Cost - as you note - because if you’re ABET, is it worth paying more (if it’s not Ga Tech or MIT, etc.)

  3. Where will your kid fit - can he handle the cold? Has he been to and seen the environment of all three schools being considered, etc.

What people rank (each is different) or think matters isn’t releveant - only what your son thinks does.

Get to campus and check them out - housing, food, the area, talk to kids…everything.

Good luck.

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Thank you for your thoughtful response. Really appreciate it.

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Thank you for your advice! I will seriously consider a campus visit, although I fear it might lead him to pick Purdue for the wrong reason. He loves going to a gym to work out, and I hear Purdue has one so gigantic :slight_smile:

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Many posters have already provided some great input. I own an engineering company in Illinois and have have interviewed, hired, and worked with many engineers (mainly mechanical, civil, and chemical) from both Pursue and UIUC. Here are some of my thoughts:

  1. Purdue does not offer direct admit to your major for engineering. Your son will get admitted into First Year Engineering (FYE) and need to “earn” his way into mechanical engineering, which is a pretty competitive major at Purdue. I am not sure if UIUC is direct admit or not but this definitely something to be aware of.

  2. The UIUC campus is very dated and has some “sketchy” surrounding area. I think that Purdue has a much more beautiful campus with more modern and accessible conveniences.

  3. I have been more impressed and hire more Purdue grads with only a bachelors degree. The Purdue bachelors curriculum seems to prepare their engineering students for a more practical application and to get a job. The UIUC program seems to prepare their bachelor students to get a Masters.

For what it is worth, my daughter is studying chemical engineering and did not even consider UIUC even though we live in Illinois. She did apply, toured, and was accepted to Purdue but ultimately decided that she liked smaller engineering/STEM-focused schools better.

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Most colleges have great gyms -

He will pick Purdue because he likes the vibe better. Or the food (eat in the dining hall). Or for another reason.

Similar to Illiniois.

There’s not a wrong choice - they’re both ABET and well thought of (and this is far less important than the ABET).

So no matter what he picks and why - as long as he decides, you can be satisfied.

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Thank you for the great info!

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Biggest difference is that Purdue engineering students start as undeclared first year engineering students and need a 3.2 college GPA to guarantee declaring their majors (otherwise competitive), while a UIUC student admitted to major is in the major but may find it much harder to change to a popular major (some require a 3.75 college GPA just to apply to a competitive admission process).

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Ahh… that’s good to know. Thank you!

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We had to make the similar choice for CS majors last year. The difference between in-state mid-tier UC and UIUC was about $15-20k (after accounting for scholarships UIUC gave and regents@UC, ). Also, that difference was not a big concern for us economically.

However, when we visited the college(plus shadowed) my daughter found a better fit at UIUC. I guess the CS ranking of UIUC played a small role too and she found that hardly anyone from her school got into UIUC@CS while a handful got into UCSB@CS. Fast forward one year, it was a perfect fit. She found her people and loves it at UIUC. Maybe she might have been happy with UC too if she picked it, we will never know but I feel the visit solidified things when we were so confused.

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I think others can speak to that better than I can (in fact, they already have), but I’m sure it can go either way depending on the needs and preferences of the particular student. They’re different, but it’s a stretch to claim that either is objectively better. What the student does while in college will be far more important than any gradient of reputation between these two schools, and for that matter among all three.

As for the “it’s better for students to go away” assertion… there’s some merit to that, but I don’t think one needs to arbitrarily head across the country for this reason. There are plenty of ways to set boundaries when a student is closer, so that they focus on campus life and don’t head home as a default. Irvine has that “suitcase school” reputation, but there are plenty of kids who can’t or don’t clear out on the weekends. I’m in NorCal, and my kids both had friends who were happy at Irvine, and who clearly came home only for holidays. One of the downsides of CC is that posters can end up passing around and belaboring the same old stereotypes (UCSD is socially dead; UCI is a commuter school; UCSB is all about parties, etc.), when in reality there are all kinds of kids at all of these schools and any given student who’s well-qualified enough to get in could find their niche at any of them. Of course the stereotypes come from somewhere and there’s usually a kernel of truth, but no highly-selective institution with tens of thousands of students can really be that one-dimensional.

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Thank you for sharing your experience! I did notice some consensus (?) on the internet about UIUC being stronger in CS.

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But CS is one of those majors at UIUC that needs a 3.75 college GPA just to enter a competitive admission process.

If switching to CS is a possibility, check how difficult it is at each school. UCI is probably the least difficult.

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No one seems to know what those rankings mean exactly. As per reddit, even the professors taking introductory courses of CS at UIUC do not exactly know how to compare the similar course at MIT even though both the professors are friends. There is no way some survey somehow ranked all this school accurately.

I suggest comparing courses between the 2 schools if both are equal fit. For instance, I found there were more CS courses available in UIUC for CS than UCSB CS. Also, how easy is it to change majors if interested? How many AP credits do they allow to transfer? UIUC is very liberal with credits so that the students can finish a semester or 2 before. Not sure about Irvine but UIUC has good scholarships options for continuing students. How big are the class sizes ? Create an internal rank between 2-3 schools after the visit based on what is important to you.

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UIUC CS is direct admit only. (There are a few junior year slots for transfers coming from CCs)

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I thought this kid wanted to be a mechanical engineering major. Why are folks talking about CS?

Purdue…the boilermakers…mechanical engineering is very well regarded there. Old fashioned Midwesterner here…for engineering in the Midwest…Purdue would be my choice.

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