<p>Hi. I am an international student, majoring in electrical engineering. I have been accepted to UIUC and UCLA, and I am having trouble deciding where to go. UIUC's engineering is ranked 4th, which is quite a bit higher than UCLA (14th), but UCLA's overall reputation is better, especially in Asia. I plan to do an MBA later. I heard from others than if I go to UIUC, my engineering career will be very good, but i will have better chances to be accepted at top business schools if I go to UCLA. Also, UCLA seems to be a more prestigious school that UIUC, as the acceptance rate is much lower. UIUC is known to be a "safety" school at my high school. Can anyone give me some advice? Costs is not a issue. And which university will give me a better college experience and life?</p>
<p>To be honest, I would say that UCLA will give you an overall better college experience and life, both in terms of the rigor of the academics and the social environment. But if you are really serious about electrical engineering, then you can go wrong with UIUC either.</p>
<p>Here's one way to look at it. Rankings change. In 10, 20, 30 years, will UIUC be ranked 4th in electrical engineering? Will UCLA be ranked 14th? My gut feeling says that the rankings will change, but that UCLA will remain relatively more prestigious than UIUC.</p>
<p>But if you think you'll be happier at UIUC, then go there. It's that simple in my mind. Who cares what people in Asia think about the degree? It's about how butt-kickingly awesome YOU are.</p>
<p>No college will give you a "better life" especially when you are looking at two quality schools such as these so forget that nonsense. UI is far better knwn for engineering than UCLA and I doubt that changes much in the next 20 years. California has serious financial issues and won't be able to inject large amounts of $$ anytime soon. The only reason UCLA is harder to get onto is population. Actually the average SAT scores are about the same at around 1280-1290.</p>
<p>UCLA's electrical engineering ranking will never surpass UIUC's. It ranked higher 10 years ago, it ranks higher now, it'll probably rank higher 10 years from now. It's that simple.</p>
<p>barrons,</p>
<p>UCLA is mostly privately-funded, which helps insulate the school against California's financial issues. Last I read, UCLA was at least 70-80% privately funded.</p>
<p>Also, the average admit to UCLA had around a 2000, or 1300 on the old scale. Not a huge difference, but just a smidge over your median figure. </p>
<p>Paerra,</p>
<p>Never? Based on what? And even if it doesn't, who cares? Who says that the OP will even go into EE 4 years from now and forever?</p>
<p>All,</p>
<p>The problem I have with basing choice of undergrad on ONE major is the fact that the majority of people will change majors and careers. Don't go to a school for something you may not do when you're 30.</p>
<p>UCLA and UIUC both have median SAT scores (Math + Verbal) around 1340. I don't know about UCLA Engineering, but UIUC Engineering has a median of 1400 SAT and top 5% class rank.</p>
<p>UIUC has the better program, but I would choose UCLA for the overall prestige and college experience. Champaign-Urbana is a terrible place to experience the United States.</p>
<p>UCLA has better weather, nice area, nice campus, its very posh, so if thats what you want go for it. UIUC has a very nice campus town, in that, the campus is HUGE and its a college town only. (financially, I live California, so i read about the huge UC System financial cuts; specifically the 100 million dollar one taking effect this next year, hence the tuition has gone up). The one thing that turned me off on the UC system is that the housing is absolutely terrible. Its very likely that you will get stuck in a triple (3 per room), with a really small room, same is the issue with Berkeley. I was accepted into UCLA and UCSD, but im picking UIUC over both, because i wanted to out of state (that doesn't apply to you), the Comp Sci program is more prestigious in the engineering world (i think Bill Gates said they hire most engineers from UIUC), but apart from that, the standard of living at UIUC is much better, naturally, land in the midwest is far cheaper, and therefore campuses are bigger, and housing is better.</p>
<p>btw, its a nice problem to have, picking between two awesome schools is a fortunate problem. congrats on your acceptances! its what you make of your education, so doing well at both schools will keep your future bright.</p>
<p>im_blue - Do you really think LA is a much better place to experience America? I doubt</p>
<p>And for what its worth, Bill Gates said that UIUC is the third largest feeder to firms such as his surpassed only by MIT and Stanford. Honetly, for EE you stand a better chance of being recruited by tech or engineering firms</p>
<p>MBA schools give ALOT of importance to work experience. Being a UCLA graduate as against a UIUC EE graduate will not give you any advantage in MBA school admissions AT ALL</p>
<p>aj16,</p>
<p>Well, for one... better weather. LA is also a bit more exciting.</p>
<p>UCLAari, you are just wrong on the average SAT figure. I just looked it up for another thread not a week ago. It was well under 1300 (1276) and has been flat to down the last few years.</p>
<p>barrons,</p>
<p>Those are the stats for registrants, not admits.
UCLA</a> Undergrad Admissions: Profile of Admitted Freshmen, Fall 2008</p>
<p>The figures are higher for admits and lower for registrants.</p>
<p>We always talk about a school's scores for enrolled students when comparing school academics. What does it really matter if you admit a bunch of high scores who all go elsewhere? The academics on campus depend on who is there--not who was admitted. Such a large gap suggests UCLA is a safety for many top students.</p>
<p>barrons,</p>
<p>Even if that is the case, we can't rule out the same for UIUC until we see the figures on matriculants.</p>
<p>But really, this niggling over numbers is pretty meaningless. Why shouldn't the OP just attend the school that he'll be happier at?</p>
<p>UIUC is a much better engineering school than UCLA but, UIUC does not have UCLA's glamour.</p>
<p>Actually, I just got a hold of the UIUC matriculant data...</p>
<p>LAS:</a> About Us: College Profile</p>
<p>Mean Standardized
Test Scores
ACT: 27.3
SAT: 1249</p>
<p>That's for letters and science.</p>
<p>For engineering, it's:
ACT 30-33
SAT 1310-1460
High School Class Rank 90-98%</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="http://www.aim.ucla.edu/Statistics/admissions/SATDistributionFall2007.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.aim.ucla.edu/Statistics/admissions/SATDistributionFall2007.pdf</a>
UCLA</p>
<p>L&S
Average SAT (V+M): 1263</p>
<p>Engineering
Average SAT (V+M): 1364</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I can't find the stats on the distribution for the UCLA engineering school, so I can't say exactly how the mean and standard deviations look compared to UIUC. Either way, I think it seems to me that both UCLA and UIUC suffer by losing their best admits.</p>
<p>I think my point, which is that the OP should go to the school he'll be happiest at both for the experience and the schooling, stands.</p>
<p>UIUC is about 2 hours outside of Chicago, and the traffic isn't bad at all - LA is exciting, no doubt, but Chicago is a blast. Better restaurants, a little cleaner IMO, and while still somewhat sterile personality-wise, is a bit more approachable.</p>
<p>Rathbass1,</p>
<p>I would definitely recommend Chicago over LA if you can handle the weather. It's a better city in a lot of respects.</p>
<p>
[quote]
a little cleaner IMO
[/quote]
This is an understatement...as a whole Chicago cleanliness >>> L.A. cleanliness.</p>
<p>But West LA is very clean...albeit for the bum encampments living in the berms off the 405.</p>
<p>LAS traditionally tends to be the weaker college in terms of selectivity compared to business and engineering. Engineering has SAT average around 1400, and business being around 1360. The campus average of the admitted last year was around 1340, which we could expect the average of the admitted to be around 1290.</p>