Hello. I am a senior who got accepted to both Purdue First-Year Engineering and UIUC DGS(undeclared). Now, it is time to decide, but I can’t choose one until now. I was leaning to UIUC before I found out that it is very difficult to transfer from DGS/LAS to engineering. In UIUC, transfer is not only guaranteed, but also not available until the end of the 2nd year. Money is not an issue here because, as an international student, I will pay that out-of-state tuition anyways. I have heard lots of postive words about both Purdue and UIUC engineering. However, people(mostly from my country) have tendancies to prefer UIUC to Purdue soley because of its rankings and international reputation. At the same time, others(mostly americans) think it is right to go to Purdue.
Apparently, most Americans think that Purdue’s engineering is as good as that of UIUC. Probably, they are right, but I am a little branwashed by crazy Koreans who only care about the rankings and are eager to give crabs about students who go to schools that are ranked lower than theirs. If you are in my situation, where would you go? Do you think 2 years in DGS are worth it even though you have no single clue where you end up?
I think you have a better shot at getting into the actual engineering school at Purdue so you ought to go there.
Do you have any data about the engineering transfer acceptance rate at Illinois? Seems to me that that would be a critical piece of information, if it’s available.
UIUC relevant web pages:
http://engineering.illinois.edu/academics/undergraduate/advising/changing-majors.html
https://wiki.cites.illinois.edu/wiki/display/ugadvise/Want+to+Change+Your+Major
It appears that UIUC expects at least a B in all technical courses. However, it could be that admission to the various engineering majors is more competitive than that, and could vary for different engineering majors. Since UIUC does admit to major, it may be that the space available comes from the students who change out of engineering majors, so there may only be a few spaces to compete for.
Purdue relevant web page:
https://engineering.purdue.edu/ENE/Academics/FirstYear/T2M
You may want to ask the schools directly if you have more questions, like actual GPAs for admission to your desired major(s).
For UIUC, the nice thing is they fix the tuition for 4 years. The drop out rate a ty UIUC is also lower than Purdue. Other than that, the potential issue in getting into engineering at UIUC should definitely be considered. Although the location of the two schools are very close, the campuses are very different. Personally, I like UIUC’s campus, particularly the engineering campus, a lot more. Nevertheless, the CoA at UIUC is a little bit higher than Purdue.
Just for informational purposes. Purdue has not increased tuition since 2012 and a couple of years ago actually reduced the cost for room and board. It’s still not cheap for OOS or international, however, it’s a bargain for Indiana residents.
Purdue has an excellent engineering program, I see no reason to take UIUC DGS when you have an engineering admit at Purdue.
Thank you so much for the inputs guys~ I am leaning to Purdue. Like @billcsho says, lots of people consider UIUC as a “better” institution, but others say they are at the same tier in terms of engineering. I am a little confused haha
I only said the engineering campus at UIUC is better. Other than that, UIUC engineering has slightly better overall ranking than Purdue. You may find certain programs to be better in one school or the other. Both are great in engineering anyway.
An example of how different people perceive things. Our D visited both and really didn’t connect at UIUC, she thought if felt old and dirty. The presenter seemed preoccupied and the students seemed to be walking with their heads down. We were unable to attend an engineering information session. She loved Purdue from the start. She really liked the way that the engineering campus integrated into the Purdue campus and to her at least it just seemed the nicer, prettier campus. The campus was clean and the students and faculty she talked to were friendly. The engineering presentation was the best she had of all the schools she toured. Ironically, given that they are so close to one another and in many ways such similar institutions she had very different feelings about them.
@Ivvcsf We do have a very different feeling from you on these two campuses. We visited them 3 years ago over the summer in the same week. We found the Purdue Engineering buildings to be tightly packed within a block although they do have quite a few new buildings. I don’t recall any landscape on campus other than seeing a lot of bricks for an obvious reason. The cafeteria there is very nice though. For UIUC, the engineering campus is on the north side. The landscape is simply beautiful and there are a lot of open area. They do have some older buildings at the junction between campuses though.
D is junior at Purdue. We must have toured the same year. We had stopped at RHIT, WashU, UIUC then Purdue. That’s why visiting can be helpful. On paper they’re very much alike.