<p>Hi,</p>
<p>My son has been accepted in U of Michigan, U of Illinois,Urbana, Georgia Tech and UPenn for Mechanical Engineering. My dilemma is Ivy League university or the Engineering universities? Appreciate all the advice I can get.</p>
<p>Parent</p>
<p>What type of money is he receiving from the schools you listed?</p>
<p>[Undergraduate</a> Engineering Specialties: Mechanical - Best Colleges - Education - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/spec-doct-mechanical]Undergraduate”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/spec-doct-mechanical)</p>
<p>More importantly, what does he want to do afterwards. The three non-Ivy schools on that list are easily more reputable programs than Penn. Penn is a great school, but like every Ivy except Cornell and to a less extent Columbia, engineering is an afterthought.</p>
<p>Penn apparently has wonderful connections to the business world (obviously since they have Wharton) but it don’t have the same sort of connections within the engineering world that UMich, UIUC or GT have. Don’t get my wrong, both types of schools have their advantages and they all will give your son a top notch education, but if your son wants to go into an actual engineering career path and not something less traditional like investment banking, then UMich/UIUC/GT offer, for the most part, a better option.</p>
<p>Between UIUC, GT, and UMich, it is pretty much a wash when it comes to engineering. They are all pretty much always ranked approximately the same and all have great industry connections. I will say that if he does have any interest in the business side of things but still wants to do the engineering stuff, then UMich is going to be slightly better than UIUC, which will be a little better than GT just based on the strength of the business school (though someone could definitely argue with me about that since I don’t know business that well).</p>
<p>Perhaps this will be the most important thing I saw, however. This is not your dilemma as you said before. Perhaps it was just semantics, but this is your son’s dilemma. It is his future. Obviously as a parent you should have some say and be able to give him whatever advice and hints and whatever else you like, especially if you are paying, but I would urge you not to make this choice for him. Above everything else, he should go where he will be happiest.</p>
<p>Hi boneh3ad, your thoughts is very important to me. And my major is also mechanical. I have been accepted in UCSD, Columbia and USC. They are all MS program. Now I am wondering which school I should choose. My next step is to finish my Master, and then get a job in industry. I have tried to contact with students from Columbia Univ in my major, and they told me it is hard to get a job cause NY is finace center. So that is my dilemma. You know Ivy is so exciting. Appreciate you guys’ advice.</p>
<p>Thank you for the feedback. I share your view about engineering programs in Ivy League institutions. I will certainly be leaving the ultimate decision to my son.</p>
<p>A Masters is a totally different animal. For that, look at the research and professors at each school and choose based on which gives you the best chance to do whatever it is you want to do. You can even email/call professors for more information if you would like, after all, grad students have very close working relationships with their professors. For graduate school, it is far more important who you work with and what your research is than the name on the school.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your reply :-)</p>