<p>I am an international student planning to major in EE. I've been accepted to UIUC and UCLA but can't seem to decide.</p>
<p>My main concern is, how good is UCLA for EE? I know UIUC is good, I know a few people who go there and it beats UCLA in rankings. I plan to get a job after graduating so which school would better prepare me for the industry? Cost isn't really a factor, though of course UIUC is cheaper but not by a huge amount.</p>
<p>Any school such as UCLA or UIUC will land you a job right out of college. Go where the money is, which is UIUC, and fortunately for you in this case, it’s also a higher ranked program.</p>
<p>But won’t LA offer more opportunities as compared to Urbana-Champain? Also the weather at LA is fantastic. However I consider these to be factors only when the program quality is comparable. I’ve heard that the program at UCLA is more theoretical and geared towards grad school. Is there any difference in undergrad or am I just splitting hairs? Any idea about placements?</p>
<p>I think this may be a case of split hairs. You can’t go wrong with these options. And I’m not aware that UCLA is more theoretical compared to UIUC. I think both may be more theoretical when compared to your average EE program, but I’d expect you’ll find a balance between theory and practice at both UCLA and UIUC that will prepare you well for industry or graduate studies. </p>
<p>I think I will go with UIUC then, it’s about 7-8k a year cheaper and hopefully I’ll be able to tolerate the abysmal weather. Any other pros for UCLA?</p>
<p>Better looking coeds :)) and slightly better athletics. More food choices, easier travel.</p>
<p>Having said this, Urbana/Champaign is an interesting place and the weather is not that bad. </p>
<p>UCLA does seem to have, on average, better looking coeds, but I met my wife at UIUC and I tend to think I made out like a bandit in that deal. It’s not like the coeds are bad looking at UIUC; far from it.</p>
<p>I know but I gave up on coeds once I decided to take up engineering 
Any idea why UCLA doesn’t make the top 10 for EE in US news ranking, not that I care about them that much…</p>
<p>I am from India and I find 32 Fahrenheit to be cold so…</p>
<p>Well, all my Indian coworkers here in the Midwest survived the winter even the guy from Tamil Nadu so there… You’ll be fine. From my experience Michigan has good looking coeds, maybe IU but on average… I was married when I attended Purdue but still it’s noticeable. </p>
<p>To the serious question now, why UCLA is not as highly ranked… Well, it is in some things. I have some friends who did PhD in engineering there and they’ve done well for themselves. They have a good Neuroscience program (my younger one is looking), and great rankings in other areas. But in engineering, the Big 10 state schools have had a head start of a hundred years or so, the Illinois, Purdues, Micghigans, MSU’s, OSU’s, Wisc’s, and the like In engineering money talks, and the big state schools have had plenty of time and plenty of money to build up their reputation. </p>
<p>What area of EE are you looking to focus in? Also, the college towns of the Midwest are all quite different from the larger metropolitan areas of India so that’s part of the experience. If you’re looking for co-ops, LA may be easier to find, but if you’re looking for grad school, Illinois may be more helpful.</p>
<p>There are ample internship/co-op and graduate school opportunities coming from both schools in question. That shouldn’t be a deciding factor.</p>
<p>Well to tell you the truth, I’m not that diehard a fan of EE. I just took it over computer science because I like Physics and Math. I obviously have done AP physics level and beyond, but my exposure to the actual electrical engineering is pretty much nil. Hence, I would like to be able to change majors and explore other subjects and branches of engineering. I also like astrophysics. I really plan to work hard in college and will try to make the most of the opportunities available.
That being said, my parents want me to go to UCLA because I have family in Cali. I am unable to decide.</p>
<p>My son and I just returned from UIUC and UCLA admitted student days. Hands down UIUC has the better EE, ECE, & CS programs. New state of the art EE building opens in the fall. Sieber Center for CS is incredible. So not one building but two dedicated buildings. The Hackathon was going on when we visited. Grainger Engineering Library was luxurious and huge. The research park on campus has numerous companies including Yahoo offering research and internship opportunities. Yes, companies have moved to the University of Illinois to get these students first. It was all very impressive. UIUC has a beautiful campus with that traditional college campus feel, typical housing and dining options as well as being adjacent to downtown Champagne with additional shopping and dining. Yes, it snows in the winter but there is a reason US News ranks it #5. In contrast, UCLA’s CS dept. is on the 4th floor of a random old Engineering building. UCLA has a beautiful campus and no doubt UCLA graduates will still find good jobs after graduation and you can’t beat Southern California. UCLA wins for best weather. But, we didn’t see anything special about their EE or CS departments. I was sorry to learn this because now my son will leave Southern California to go to UIUC and I will miss him. </p>
<p>Well if that’s the decision I have to say congrats on deciding. I loved my time there.</p>
<p>Well my decision now pretty much hinges on internship opportunities and the weather. Given that UIUC is pretty isolated, how are the internship opportunities there? The weather being horrible, are students stuck inside the campus only? Also, are the class sizes huge compared to UCLA?</p>
<p>Like I said before, there are ample internship opportunities at both schools. The surrounding area has little to do with job opportunities for schools with international reputations such as those in question here, and a sizable number of my classmates ended up all over the country: California, Illinois, Texas, Washington, Connecticut, Virginia, Missouri, etc.</p>
<p>Weather-wise, I’m not sure I get your question. Sure people tend to stay inside when it’s 10°F outside, but they still have no problems leaving campus if they want or getting around campus. The road crews are excellent since they are used to that sort of things and the bus system is award-winning and can get you pretty much anywhere you need to go off campus if you don’t have a vehicle of your own.</p>
<p>I don’t know how big classes are at UCLA or in the ECE department at UIUC so I can’t say for sure, but is imagine they are similar. Sure some of the earlier classes at UIUC (macroeconomics, for example) were huge, but usually for the upper-level courses the size ranged from 20 to 75. That’s not all that big and is generally comparable to what I’ve seen at other, similarly sized schools.</p>
<p>So what would you advise? Is UCLA worth about 8k more per year for fantastic weather and LA over cornfields? If I want to get a job in California, would UCLA suit me better?</p>
<p>I’m not sure there’s any way for me to give an unbiased answer to that question. All I can say is that UIUC gives plenty of opportunity for employment in CA after graduation. It’s probably the single largest destination state for the people I know other than the ones who stayed in Illinois.</p>
<p>The weather is not that bad, as mentioned they clean the roads, there’s express bus service to Chicago, and so on. Now, remember, Doctor Sivasubramanian Chandrasegarampillai was not at UCLA *-
… UIUC has gotten their money’s worth with the ILLIAC project, too. Heck, we had a guy from there in my school and every year there was a random ILLIAC question in the PhD qualifier exam. There’s NCSA there, too. Who knows, you may run into my daughter in the fall of 2015 doing her M.Arch there.</p>
<p>It sounds like you want to go to UCLA. I don’t think one should worry about money. Always choose the best life experiences for yourself. UCLA is a beautiful school in a beautiful area with the best weather in the world.You will get a good education from a great school and get a great job when you graduate from UCLA. However, it appears that UIUC has a better engineering program and has a better engineering student experience. The engineering campus is incredible. Engineering is the top major at UIUC and the engineering students are very well respected. You can feel that these students are changing the world and the college is providing everything needed to do it. I did not get that feeling at UCLA. Engineering is not their most popular major and you can tell by the lack of attention to the buildings and program. Clearly their funding is going to other programs. We live in Southern California. My son plans to come back to California to work after graduation as many of the graduates from UIUC do. Good luck with your decision. Both schools will get you to where you want to go. The questions is what kind of experience do you want to have getting there. </p>