UIUC Engineering vs U-Mich

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
1

Given the selectivity of UIUC Engineering (EE admit), how is it perceived in comparison to other top schools that are more well rounded in terms of overall ranking. I would like to understand the differences across these programs that are non-academic, particularly U-Mich since I am admitted.

  1. Networking at UIUC: I guess this has to do with the diversity of the students? How does it compare to other schools?
  2. Students at COE’s attitude towards academics: Are they driven, determined and initiative?

Thank you

2

Our meme group is way better.

That being said, given how large the university, you wont have an issue finding a group to “network” (god I hate that word) with. You can find plenty of slackers and hard-workers in CoE.

3

I can’t imagine there are major differences of this type in EE/CompE/CS or most engineering disciplines among UIUC and other top flagship state schools, like Michigan, Purdue and Wisconisn, and maybe even Cal, GT, Texas, etc. Perhaps there are some regional differences for those, but public funding (or lack thereof) gives them a lot of similarities, especially like those you mentioned. Of course the campuses will be a lot different and any particular school may appeal to one person but not another for any number of reasons, but that’s with any college. Plus, the engineering departments of many of these flagships are already as large and selective as some smaller private schools. Outside of engineering, I expect you’d find schools like Michigan and Berkeley to have somewhat greater differences due to higher selectivity.

I’m sure you’d find much bigger differences at the private elites, Stanford, Cal Tech, MIT, CMU etc. From class sizes to diversity to networking to getting to know faculty. As for students, I’d guess the top 10, 20 or 30th percentiles at the top state flagships are pretty similar to those at the top private elites. But after that, I suspect that there’s very little dropoff at the private elites, while there’s a modest falloff in selectivity at the flagships. Outside of someone who has attended more than one of these undergrads in the last decade, it’s mostly just assumptions based on numbers and surveys, though.