It’s come down to our D attending one of these two schools for Chemical Engineering. Although UC Davis is a higher rated school overall nationally, University of Minnesota’s ChemE department is one of the top programs in the world, rated just behind MIT’s and about equal with Berkeley’s.
So does a graduate from a top-rated ChemE program (such as UMin’s) have a significant advantage (in the eyes of employers and grad schools) over a graduate from a slightly lower-rated program (such as UC Davis)?
UC Davis is in-state for us and so total cost would probably be considerably less (we’re awaiting financial aid figures from UMin), plus we’re concerned about the additional cost of travel back and forth to Minnesota. And of course we’d prefer that our D not be so far from home, so we can visit her more frequently. But we don’t want to hold her back from attending a top-rated ChemE program if that’s what’s truly best for her, and if the extra costs are worth it.