<p>Hey
So Ive got admitted into UIUC, UCLA and Purdue. I want to major in Electrical and computer engineering or aerospace. I'm international, so I'll have to pay the full tuition at each of these places. Any recommendations on what to choose? (important factors: 1. research opportunities, academics,2. student community)</p>
<p>bump10char</p>
<p>I suggest you choose between UIUC and Purdue for they have stronger engineering programs. If I were you, I would choose Purdue for it’s a lot cheaper.</p>
<p>between UIUC and Purdue, which has better research opportunities and job placements?</p>
<p>guess i should bump it again</p>
<p>UIUC for sure (better ranked). Why would anyone want to go to Purdon’t?</p>
<p>Choose UIUC since you like engineering</p>
<p>Undoubtedly, Purdue, esp, and Illinois have great engineering programs. But I wouldn’t discount UCLA’s either as some of the others on this thread have been doing. UCLA is especially good in EE and Computer Engineering also.</p>
<p>I’m assuming – possibly wrongly – that you’re from India? If I have somehow guessed correctly… I"m sure that both midwest campuses have a good Indian population, but UCLA certainly does too. The Indian students at UCLA certainly have a good time and there are a lot of cultural things they do, dance troups, Bollywood, etc - you might even find some on youtube. Please elide this whole paragraph if I assumed incorrectly wrt your nationality or that you hate the whole Bollywood reference. And sorry to have not distinguished between the groups with the whole if I was correct, esp wrt religion. </p>
<p>Certainly the main question I would have would be this: Do you want to be an engineer here in the states or back in your homeland?
This is my main question at the moment. Add: Sounds like you want to do the whole PHD thing?</p>
<p>The couple E-majors I knew went to med school – both computer if I’m not mistaken. One had to do an outrageous course-load in his last quarter at UCLA, I want to say, ~ 22-24, to be able to attend med school because he had to finish at the end of spring. I believe he got into the premed curriculum pretty late. Anyway, I digress pre usual. </p>
<p>With respect to research: I don’t know what the ops would be at UCLA. Some here might be able to answer this, certainly a lot better tahn I would.</p>
<p>hehe yes your assumption is right 
I am from india … well i want to do engineering from US mainly because of the lack of research opportunities and quality teaching in India…</p>
<p>I dont care a lot about the Indian community there… It would actually be more fun to get to know people from different regions and nationalities.
And, ECE is one of my options… I’m actually pretty open about the major(within engineering ofcourse) I would like to pursue and I would love to know more about some other majors too. I’m pretty interested in Aerospace and nuclear engineering.</p>
<p>well some of the reasons I’m not so inclined towards UCLA are:
- the cost… I doubt the cost justifies its strength of the engineering program
- its too large
- the quarter system: Ive heard more cons about it than pros</p>
<p>For undergraduate engineering the three universities are rated: Purdue, UIUC and (much further down the list in my opinion) UCLA. Of the California flagships UC Berkeley is the better engineering university.</p>
<p>In terms of how the universities are perceived by employers? Major engineering corporations recruit heavily at both Purdue and UIUC. You can confirm that by asking the placement office at these universities for the list of recruiters for graduates of the class of 2010. Also you’ll have a better opportunity to find summer engineering intern positions with the help of the placement office at these universities. And they have exceptional graduate programs. For your likely field of interest you will probably want to stay after receiving your BS for a Masters degree.</p>
<p>Per your concerns of UCLA:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Per 1:</p>
<p>Heres a link to the Nanosystems research guided by [Professor Oscan]( <a href=“http://innovate.ee.ucla.edu”>http://innovate.ee.ucla.edu</a>). He has some undergrads on the team and undoubtedly they are stars. Also, you can find a couple of his projects on Youtube.</p>
<p>Undoubtedly UCLAs engineering employment power would diminish outside of CA, but not necessarily in your homeland or the Near or Far East in general. Rankings questions would probably be best deferred to others, particularly where UCLA should be ranked wrt the others.</p>
<p>I cant speak of the teaching within the department, but perhaps someone else can.</p>
<p>Per 2:</p>
<p>I remember having a conversation with a woman who went to the University of Arizona; one of the things she said, I went to UofA, but it is nowhere near as large as UCLA. All I could say was, Huh?</p>
<p>Another, USC is a tiny, tiny private university so much smaller than the megacampus, UCLA. It had me scratching my head.</p>
<p>Just for your edification:</p>
<p>Purdue, 31K undergrads
UIUC, 31K
UCLA, 26.5K</p>
<p>Per 3:</p>
<p>I cant help you here. Some find the quarter system fast-paced and invigorating. Some find it a challenge, too difficult, or not detailed enough in scope. But the answer to the latter is, yearly courses would be separated into three instead of two, and courses that require specific, detailed scope are often separated into two instead of one.</p>
<p>I hope we helped you at least somewhat, and BOL.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Undoubtedly Berk has a great engineering program. But I wouldn’t hasten to say that Berk grads get all the great jobs – flagship is important, lol – but UCLA, and the rest of the UCs get the leftovers. This is far from true, and UCLA grads in engineering have led large corps, Northrup Grumman, Dr. Sugar; and have started chip companies, Broadcom, Dr Nicholas and Dr Samueli, the latter for whom the Engineering program is named</p>
<p>UIUC is the strongest for your major.</p>
<p>hmm thanks… in a way thats got me more confused especially after reading about UCLA… but the cost of UCLA is still too high… and I guess it cant parallel UIUC’s ECE program(correct me if im wrong) … I’d greatly appreciate if some UCLA engineering graduate could give some inputs about the strength of the engineering program(of course it’s great but how does it compare to the others).</p>
<p>The engineering programs at UCLA are not weak, but UIUC is renowned for them. If you’re pretty sure about your intended major and you’re not particularly inclined towards UCLA, then UIUC would be the clearer choice. The towns of UC are also more laid-back and less crowded than Westwood.</p>
<p>The academic differences between these three seem to have been amplified unnecessarily. They are all Top 10 at the Ph.D. level. Here are the NRC rankings for Electrical Engineering. Still, Purdue/UCLA seem very close, with Illinois being significanly higher rated.</p>
<p>1 Stanford 4.83
2 MIT 4.79
3 Illinois 4.70
4 Cal Berkeley 4.69
5 Cal Tech 4.46
6 Michigan 4.38
7 Cornell 4.35
8 Purdue 4.02
9 Princeton 4.01
10 UCLA 4.00
11 Southern Cal 4.00
12 Carnegie Mellon 3.94
13 Georgia Tech 3.93
14 Texas 3.88
15 Columbia 3.79
16 Wisconsin 3.77
17 Maryland 3.75
18 Minnesota 3.73</p>