I’m in a bind as to which of these two universities to attend starting Fall 2015 for Mechanical Engineering. As an international student, I’m paying OOS for both, but UCLA seems to be more expensive.
UCLA is undoubtedly better as a whole, but falls short of UIUC in engineering. However, I’m not completely sure that I will stick with engineering, and I’ll definitely want to take other classes too. Which uni will offer me the chance to take more classes outside my major and provide academic flexibility?
UIUC is heavily recruited by the Detroit auto majors; will there be similar opportunities in the automobile and aerospace industries in California? (Note that I’m not an American citizen; will defence jobs be unavailable to me?) LA wins location and weather wise, but will it pump up the already higher cost of UCLA?
UIUC has a well established FSAE team, where as UCLA’s team is much newer. Will it be an advantage to work on a team being built from the ground up, or will the experience of an old team be better?
The quarter system at LA will hopefully keep me on my toes, which is good because I tend to work better with deadlines. However the semester system too has its advantages, with fewer exams, more time on the material, and a longer winter break.
Any help clarifying the above doubts and bringing up new perspectives would be much appreciated. I’m posting this on the threads for both unis.