I’m going into my senior year and I have a wide variety of schools on my radar (almost 20). I live in Ilinois, but most of my schools are OOS besides Bradley, Northwestern, and UIUC. I plan on majoring in mechanical engineering, and my strong high school’s rigor and heavy AP/honors coarse load coupled with my very high GPA and ACT score and pretty good extracurricular involvement would allow me to get into most schools on my list with ease. For reference, I’m a white male of upper-middle class standing, so I can’t count on much financial aid from FAFSA, and I don’t qualify for any minority/specialty scholarships.
So here’s my problem: I’m not sure whether it would be better to go to a more average school like university of Alabama where, thanks to guaranteed scholarships, I could graduate with minimal to no debt or if it would be better to go to a prestigious school with highly ranked engineering programs like Purdue, UIUC, U Mich, Northwestern, etc where I will take on tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt, since I can’t count on scholarships there.
Any and all input on scholarships vs prestige for engineering undergrad is welcome. Most articles on student loan debt only debate student debt vs no degree, but I am lucky enough to have options where I could graduate with little to no debt, so I’m just comparing different “levels” of college prestige.
As long as the department is ABET accredited, which all the programs you mentioned are, you will get a certain level of rigor and quality in all of them. Usually I am a strong advocate for going to the cheaper school but in this case you must dig a little deeper.
I would look at the student faculty ratio for various mechanical engineering departments. The last I checked for example Alabama had over 1,400 undergraduates, 25 Masters and 33 Phd Students but only 17 tenure/tenure-track faculty members in mechanical engineering. That gives you a very challenging student to faculty ratio of over 88:1. Do the same analysis for the other departments. You may struggle to get a faculty member’s attention at Alabama, unless you are super aggressive
Also look at the research spending for Mechanical engineering for each school. If you want to do some interesting research, the amount of money the school spends on research becomes key. For the last 5 years, Purdue has been #4 in research spending for Mechanical engineering in the country, with UIUC at #8 and Northwestern as #13. Alabama just doesn’t spend that much on research.
Another indicator is the number of Phds granted by each school. Purdue granted over 40 in 2014, UIUC over 30, Northwestern around 15. Alabama is quite a bit lower.
Bottom line, you will face crowded classes will have to fight for faculty attention and will have fewer choices for research at Alabama, but you can still make it work well if you are a motivated and dedicated student. It will just be harder. That is the trade-off. Only you can decide whether that is a good trade-off for you. The positive aspect for Alabama is the weather, strong athletics and school spirit and generally very friendly students.
Know what’s really prestigious? A full scholarship.
@VeryLuckyParent Thanks for your insight! It is also worth mentioning I would only go to an ABET accredited school, as you mentioned. Also, if I went to a large state school like Alabama, I would make sure to be in the honors college/program to secure some smaller class sizes and more exclusive opportunities, so I would essentially be in a small school within a large school. As you mentioned, there are benefits and trade-offs to both, which is what makes this process so difficult! :)) 
@Chardo now you’re just messing with me
And please, keep the replies coming. I think this could end up being a very useful discussion, and I love hearing the various perspectives on this topic.
Not necessarily. This student would be smaller in honors classes.
Research opportunities and spending are mainly something to consider if you intend to go straight to grad school. If that’s the case, then it’s true you might want to lean toward one of the research giants. If you want to graduate and be a working engineer, you don’t need undergrad research, you need internships.
As for faculty attention, I’ll relay a real world story. My son just graduated from Alabama engineering. He got job offers all over the country. One of the jobs he never even applied for, never heard of the company. Turns out his professor, head of the department, tipped off a friend of his at a large aerospace company. Said you have to talk to this student of mine. DS got an email out of the blue from this company, they brought him in for an interview, and offered him his choice of departments.
@Chardo I actually talked to a neighbor who goes there when we visited and he had only positive comments. Glad to hear your story!
Also, Your grad school comment brings up another good point: I’m not sure how useful grad school would be of how common it is for engineers to go to grad school. I might start another forum about this :))
Most engineering grads go straight into industry, after which many large employers will pay for a masters if desired. Entry to a high paying career with just a bachelors degree is a big benefit to engineering.
Some grads will choose the PhD path instead, which would require significant research to be admitted to a program. PhD usually leads to a career in academia or industry research.
@Chardo good to know! And yeah I guess if I would go to grad school it would be optimal for my employer to pay 