Hi guys, recently I was accepted to both UCLA and UMN for mechanical engineering. Honestly, I have no idea how to choose between the two. I know that LA is a big and impacted city, but what about Minneapolis? I’m an international student from WA, and I’ve never been to any of those two states sadly. As far as living expense goes, would Minneapolis be a more affordable place to live compared to LA? However, my main concern is about the program quality of those two schools. The most important question for me is: Which one would give me a better shot to find a job after I graduate? (assuming I maintain a good enough academic standing).
Thank you guys so much, any helps would be greatly appreciated !!!
I can actually answer this question! (Kinda)
I live near UCLA and have visited UMN, but I am not a student at either (yet). Overall, I’d choose UCLA both for the weather (UCLA doesn’t get snow) and location (so much to do in LA!). Both are in pretty large cities. However, my guess is that UMN is much cheaper to live at. IMO, UCLA has the nicer campus of the two.
One thing that UMN has is that everyone is incredibly nice. UCLA has nice people too, but UMN really surprised me with how kind everyone was. I can’t speak much for the respective engineering departments.
If you can, try to visit both and see if one feels better than the other. Congrats on both acceptances!
UCLA, and LA, will be much more expensive than UMN and Minneapolis. They will both provide good opportunities if you do well.
While UCLA has some academic advantage, you ought to sort out your costs of attendance and living first, before you would decide on academic and other qualities, as they are both solid educations.
I’m from the Twin Cities and many of my friends went to UMN, and yes living there is much, much cheaper. That being said, go to UCLA. There’s a reason Minnesota so much cheaper. The temperature in MN gets down below 0 with wind chill, as opposed to LA where it is rather pleasant all year long. I got out of there as soon as I graduated hs. Minneapolis as a city is pretty nice, but nothing compared to LA.
More importantly, hardly anyone outside of MN has even heard of UMN, whereas UCLA is internationally known. The amount of doors it will open for you and the nice climate are well worth the extra cost.
hah. Look like UCLA is a better choice for me. Although UCLA is more popular, when I looked at the us news ranking for my major in both schools, It’s suprising to know that UMN is only 3 rank below UCLA. Anyways, thank you guys very much for responding…
Just double checking with USnews ranking today. They both rank 18th under mechanical engineering. I’m just really curious if that the case, how come UMN is less popular than UCLA in terms of engineering field?