My son has been accepted to UT Austin(no merit scholarship) and U of Minnesota (with merit scholarship) as OSS, and will most likely to be accepted to UCLA, USB and UCSD as in state. We will have to pay 35k to UC, 50 k to UT austin, 20k to U of Minnesota. We want to know which school will have the best intern job opportunity and balance life? We like UCLA since local, but CE ranking in UCLA is as not good as UT Austin or U of Minnesota, so does it matter which school your select even though UCLA ranking in CE not top 10? Thank you all for your input.
UT probably has the best career opportunities and life balance. Cockrell school of engineering is highly competitive and good for chemical/petroleum engineering jobs. However, is this marginal advantage worth the extra money?
Another believer in the sanctity of “rankings”…
Rankings in ABET accredited engineering schools are meaningless for career prospects. If you want to spend the money, go ahead. Just don’t think it’s going to make any difference in job and salary prospects down the road.
UCLA has the best football team. Minnesota’s is OK, but not great. And Texas’ program is a hot mess, even with Coach Strong.
Academically, they’re all great.
It is silly to even be thinking of paying more for UT when you have instate options like you have. I can’t even fathom paying $80k more for UT when you have the UCs instate.
Do you have lots of money that you can just burn and not miss? Isnt’ there anything meaningful that you can do with that money that will help you or your family’s future in a more productive way?
There would no added ROI if you spent that money at UT. No employer is going to pay the UT grad more.
Rankings mean nothing…especially when dealing with UT vs UCs…totally meaningless.
What do you think these rankings are telling you?
As for internships, all good schools will have opps…however it’s up to YOUR child to have the grades, and do what it takes to be attractive to employers. Schools do not hand out internships.
Are you and your son using the same CC acct?
In a thread about whether ChemE and premed can work, there was a post with your screen name:
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Can you share your experience since I am in the same delima to choose major and university . <<<
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Is your child considering ChemE and premed ?
Anyway…back to your question…
My son was a ChemE major at a flagship that probably isn’t even ranked for ChemE, although the school has a very good eng’g school. His classmates got very good internships and got very high paying positions upon graduation …$85k-90k per year positions. Rankings didn’t matter.
It is silly to think that a handful of schools can provide enough engineers for this country. That’s why employers don’t care about rankings…they hire the PERSON. They look at their grades, their classes, their experiences.
My son didn’t do typical chemE internships because he was premed. Instead, he did BioMedE internships and other medically related internships because he knew he needed them for his med school apps. So, if you or your child was asking about ChemE and premed. Yes, you can go to med school as a ChemE major. My son did it, but it is a very tough major to be premed.
^^^“Rankings in ABET accredited engineering schools are meaningless for career prospects. If you want to spend the money, go ahead. Just don’t think it’s going to make any difference in job and salary prospects down the road.”
Yup!
Minnesota-Twin cities has one of the best ChE departments, but it’s probably a distinction without a difference as concerns the OP. As for summer jobs and or co-op rotations, that depends on the individual student’s desire and hustle. Lake Jr. has a co-op offer on the table from a national company and his ChE department is rarely mentioned here on CC or at USNWR. He already has one summer research job on his resume.
Minnesota - Twin Cities if it’s going to be $15k/year cheaper than the UCs for all 4-5 years is a great option.
The ROI is not strong enough to warrant the extra cost at UT - Austin.
I’d make sure the COA for each school is calculated the same way. No doubt room and board is cheaper at UMN. And if your son got a $10k merit scholarship that makes the tuition cheaper as well by a few thousand. The other stuff I would think is a wash, although travel would be higher to UMN. So the real difference in COA may be less than $15k per year.
UT shouldn’t be on the table, not worth the price difference unless you want humid heat and excellent engineering, vs. freezing cold and excellent engineering at UMN-TC. 
Seriously, the real choice is UCs - UCLA, UCSD, and UCSB are nothing to sneeze at and would result in engineering positions and internships if your child does well - or Minnesota (living in another part of the country, inside a dynamic meotropolis, with a top-ranked program). I’d stick with the UCs for weather reasons though, but that’s just me obviously and I do think moving away for college is excellent, so… really there’s no wrong choice between the UCs and UMN.
@jjvine: are you any closer to a decision?