Transfer to Uni of Illinois (UC) for Mech. Eng., or stay at Uni of Iowa?

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>I accepted Uni of Iowa's admission in May since UIUC only offered an admission to their general division. However, since I'm a resident in Illinois, Iowa's out-of-state tuition is almost the same as UIUC's in-state tuition, and Iowa's academic scholarships are lacking. My dad is a researcher at UIUC, so I will get a discount in tuition during my sophomore year, IF I go to UIUC (and assuming they didn't axe the discount program).</p>

<p>Currently I'm enrolled in Uni of Iowa's Mechanical Engineering and Honors program. I was also informed of their "Fast-Track" program, which students can get a Masters Degree in 5 years instead of 6, and I do believe honor students have priority over others.</p>

<p>I plan on applying for a transfer to UIUC, but there's a few questions that are bothering me.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Are there more offerings of academic scholarships at Uni of Illinois compared to Iowa?</p></li>
<li><p>Iowa's Honor program requires at least a 3.3 college GPA to stay in the program, is that enough to have a good chance for my transfer application to be accepted?</p></li>
<li><p>How difficult is it to get into University of Iowa's and Illinois's 5 year Mechanical Engineering M.E. program?</p></li>
</ol>

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<p>I can’t say if there are more than at Iowa, but Illinois is pretty well-known for not giving out a whole lot of financial aid, whether it is need-based or merit-based.</p>

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<p>It may have changed since I was in the MechSE department at UIUC, but at the time it was really difficult to get in, requiring like a 3.8 GPA at the end of your junior year to apply. That said, the program was in its infancy at that point I believe, so it was quite possibly more difficult to get into for the purposes of just testing the program out.</p>

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<p>Iowa’s out of state tuition is far higher than UIUC’s in-state tuition. If you get in, definitely transfer to UIUC.</p>

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<p>What’s the difference between Iowa’s and Illinois’s Mechanical Engineering programs?</p>

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<p>Other than prestige and location of the school, you will have to do your own research for that question.</p>

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<p>What’s the difference between Harvard law and Iowa law ?</p>

<p>Anything you can think of is better at UIUC. Resources, recruitment, graduation rate, research, retention rate etc.</p>

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<p>What I’m looking at right now:</p>

<p>Transfer to UIUC:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Slightly lower tuition until the employee discount kicks in.</p></li>
<li><p>Better undergrad education;</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Stay at Iowa:</p>

<ol>
<li>Likely better chance of being accepted into the 5 years Masters degree program compared to UIUC.</li>
</ol>

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<p>EDIT:</p>

<p>I should’ve worded the phrase “Slightly lower tuition until the employee discount kicks in.” as “Lower tuition in both the short (about $5K in savings) and long run (employee discount for their children).”</p>

9

<p>You still have to do very well to transfer into any engineering program at UIUC, especially for majors with less students like AE, ME and some others. Make sure you do well at Iowa if you want to transfer here.</p>

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<p>Slightly off-topic, but what about University of Michigan? If they offer at least $15K of scholarships per year (because Uni of Michigan’s out of state tuition is over $50K per year), I might transfer there.</p>

11

<p>I was recently told by three Uni of Illinois students (who are going to be sophomore this year) that once I join a fraternity, I can not leave. Thus, I can either be part of a fraternity at Iowa or Illinois, but not both. However, they’re not fully sure about the academic-focused fraternities.</p>