<p>Hi guys. I got into UIUC for mechanical engineering; I know that this is a great program but I'm just wondering if it will honestly give me an advantage over others post graduation. I have visited both UIUC and University of Minnesota and I really liked Minnesota's campus a lot more. Also, even though I'm in state in Illinois, the Engineering tuition is pretty expensive (around 34k a year I believe) while Minnesota would be around 29k per year. I know minnesota is ranked very well in chemical engineering, I'm not sure how they are at mechanical engineering, and although I'm not positive which type of engineering I want to go into yet, would it honestly be worth the extra money and going to a school whose campus I didn't particularly enjoy just because its UIUC engineering? Any tips and/or advice will be appreciated! Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>UIUC has top companies visit at career fairs so good internship and job opportunities, plenty of research opportunities for those who work hard and the ME department here has outstanding, very well known faculty(so letters of recommendation mean a lot if they say good things about you). I guarantee it would be worth the extra amount of money based on the facts above.</p>
<p>However, I am sure you could still do fine by attending Minnesota if you get the good grades there. I don’t know what about UIUC’s campus you don’t like or why the campus setting is so important but obviously it matters so you got to choose what matters to you most.</p>
<p>Lastly, you should keep in mind a couple things. In the event ME isn’t what you want to do, but you still want to do engineering… What will you do? Obviously transfer to a different engineering. The fact that UIUC is good in all the disciplines means you will always have good opportunities here even if you change majors. Just one thing to also keep in mind.</p>
<p>Based on what you mentioned about tuition in Illinois I am assuming that though you live in Illinois, you cannot qualify for in-state tuition and your mention of $34K indicates you are likely an international because that is close to the annual tuition for an international in engineering at UIUC. If my assumption is correct then you are way off on the difference in cost between the two. That UIUC number is just tuition and does not include fees, room and board, and book costs and thus you need to add another $11K or even more to to get your estimated total costs. That $29K Minnesota cost is an estimated entire cost including tuition, fees, room and board, and books. The Minnesota tuition for OOS is actually about $18K a year. In other words, the actual cost difference between the universities can be over $16K a year.</p>
<p>If my assumption is correct, you thus have a significant cost incentive to go to Minn rather than Ill and that could be the deciding factor if your preference right now is Minn. My personal bias would vote for Ill but Minn is a top notch university and well regarded in engineering and with that kind of cost difference it is hard to justify Ill if you like Minn.</p>
<p>@drusba, there is a chance when they say the tuition is 34k, they mean the net cost, which would be about 34k for an in-state student. I know when my dad talks about paying my schools tuition, he includes all costs even though obviously tuition is just a part of the overall cost. </p>
<p>However, I agree if he is international, the price is very high (34k is already high) and you may want to consider Minn. if you do well there, you will have great opportunities regardless.</p>
<p>^Yes, if in fact the OP is a resident of Ill entitled to resident tuition rates then the two are actually much closer in total cost than the suggested $5K difference between UIUC and Ill. You can’t get to an estimated $34K for UIUC as a resident unless you include about $3K is spending money and the Minn estimate does not include that and you also have to consider that travel costs to and from Minn are going to be higher than to and from Champaign if your are living in Ill. In other words, for an Ill resident Minn is not cheaper at all and I would favor sticking with Ill but still Minn is not a bad choice.</p>
<p>True. That would definitely make UIUC a better choice. I guess we will see what the OP does if they have in state rates!</p>
<p>Thank you all for the replies. I totally forgot I made this thread otherwise I would have replied sooner. I live in Illinois and I am not international. The engineering cost of attendance for a resident is in fact just about 34k per year according to their website. See this site : [University</a> of Illinois Financial Aid: Undergraduate Resident 2010-2011 Cost](<a href=“http://www.osfa.uiuc.edu/cost/undergrad/res_1213.html]University”>http://www.osfa.uiuc.edu/cost/undergrad/res_1213.html)</p>
<p>I still don’t know what I’m gonna do. I think I’m just going to wait until I get financial aid notifications. Both are pretty good universities and to be completely honest, it’s just undergrad and what is really important would be where I go for grad school.</p>