My son is admitted to the UIUC CE and UW engineering. UW is in-state for us but there is no guarantee that he will get into CE at the end of first year at UW. So the first order question is which way to go?
My son is very keen on CE but also wants to take CS classes to have exposure to both hardware and software. UW’s CE and CS programs are under the same department and most courses are common with very few differences between the two programs.
UIUC CE is in the Electrical Eng dept? One concern is that taking CS courses would be more difficult at UIUC?
UIUC CE is very similar to CS, though with a greater focus on low level and hardware. CE majors still have to take an algorithms class, which from my understanding is not very common in most CompE programs. Most of the CompE classes are cross-listed with CS so there’s not much in the way of restrictions. CompE’s are only required to take three Electrical courses (2 intro and at least 1 elective)
One more question we have is around internship and campus recruitment opportunities for CE undergrads at UIUC? We hear that there are numerous opportunities for UW students due to Microsoft, Amazon and many other hi-tech companies in the Seattle metro area. So wondering how things are at UIUC?
UIUC is a major industry and scientific computing research hub. From personal experience, my son (Engineering Physics) got an internship after his freshman year coding for robotics at John Deere. Here are some of those affiliated with the Research Park, but there are others like Nvidia and Wolfram as well.
When you said UW in the first post I thought you meant Wisconsin;-) It’s too bad the admit to CE/CS isn’t guaranteed, as otherwise I’d say it’s a no-brainer with resident tuition.
I decided to go into academia, but I did a few internships in the Chicago area in CS.
MS, Amazon, and a lot of other big companies have a presence at the career fairs and usually have tech talks or other little recruiting events throughout the year.
Thanks illinoisx3 and literallymarx for your replies as these are valuable inputs for us and address our main questions around the UIUC CE program. Yes, there is a cost difference between resident tuition and UIUC but given the limited capacity in UW CE program, I believe the risk is not worth it.
We did try to get details on the chances of getting into CE/CS program but got no official response from UW. All the anecdotal data we have shows that admission to CE program is quite competitive.
Finally, there is the campus life/experience argument between Seattle vs. Urbana-Champaign, with Seattle offering more as a big metro area but I think that is an individual preference. However, your thoughts are surely welcome.
I’ve lived in Chicago, the suburbs, and spent 4 years in CU so far.
I love big cities, but CU is definitely big enough to have some of the amenities of a large city. The music scene here is excellent, especially if you’re into emo (American Football was based in Urbana after all). The transit system makes being car-free not too bad. It’s also a more “traditional” college town experience for what it’s worth. Plus, it’s only a 2.5h train ride to Chicago which makes it perfect for a weekend trip.
We are same situation living in Bellevue but also have University of California, Irvine direct admit to CS choice also. But UIUC is top 5 programs and strong alumni network. so likely to send our D there.
We decided to go with UIUC!
Thanks for your inputs as it helped us make the call.
The information we received from UW was that while they are adding capacity to the CS/CE majors, the demand is so high that it does not move the needle on the acceptance rate.
In the end we decided to go for a sure thing rather than play the odds.