Any advice on which school to choose? Pitt is offering scholarships and grants so it’s about 12K less than U of I.
If you’re out of state, I’d say go to Pitt, but if you’re instate I’d recommend UIUC since the programs are more nationally ranked than at Pitt.
Thanks for the input. We are from Illinois but Pitt is so much less expensive because UIUC isn’t offering any need or merit aid. Just have to weigh the ranking vs. cost.
Illinois is much higher ranked and has a strong reputation for Engineering. Are you pretty set in which Engineering discipline? Can you compare the research opportunities (if you’re interested in that), the faculty and any other campus life details?
It may depend on which engineering discipline.
My daughter accepted same schools OOS but zero aid from both so the choice is Uiuc. I see the dilemma on your part and if I were in the same boat with the price difference, prob lean toward Pitt as I think their n engineering program is good, just not as highly rated as uiuc reputation.
Thanks anjony. We are still debating on this big decision. My S is leaning towards UIUC. We will have two students in college so not getting any aid or scholarships from UIUC will be difficult. Our D goes to a school that meets 100% of financial need so hopefully they will increase her financial award. It’s a shame that UIUC doesn’t help middle class families more.
Hello DeAnn, I can completely empathize with your decision…we were in a similar dilemma 6 years ago…let me tell you what we ended up doing!! D1 had a full-ride at Pitt…that named scholarship,(can’t remember what it was called) that gave tuition + room and board + stipend; and he turned it down to go to (in-state) UIUC,who offered much lower scholarships. It was agonizing for us to know that he was turning down all that money!! He was adamant about wanting to go to “an engineering powerhouse” and he somehow felt that the campus honors program at UIUC would hold more weight in the job market than Pitt would. He was also motivated to do well, get more scholarships, get research opportunities, etc. etc. We eventually bit our tongues and let him make his own decision. Obviously I don’t know what would have happened if he went to Pitt. But here we are 6 years later, and I can say that he did very well at UIUC and now has a really good job in his field. Maybe it would have happened anyway, I don’t know, but things turned out well, and I’m grateful.
Well, IL is broke and in general, so are most public U’s . . . (Pitt, like PSU, is almost private now).