I plan on trying to get a high college gpa and applying to those schools. They both cost roughly the same (iowa-30K, uic–25k) per year. I’ve heard that UIC’s professors have thick accents making it difficult to learn. UIC is slightly cheaper but there is also ranking which would limit my options for grad school. Iowa seems better in quality (rank much higher), doesnt have the language barrier, and isnt located in the ghetto. Im deciding between electrical/software engineering. If i went electrical that iowa would be the obvious choice but software seems about the same except iowa state gets better recognition. How should i decide? I wonder if i did well at a lower ranked school (3.8+ at uic) because it would be easier i might get into a better grad school
Have you thought about going to community college for a couple years? This will give you a shot to not UIC but UIUC which has an outstanding world recognized engineering program.