<p>I'm interested in materials science and engineering or possibly chemical engineering. I'm having a hard time deciding which school would be the best fit for me, and any advice is appreciated! I would be OOS for each school (I live in ohio) and tuition is very similar for the three. I have campus visits scheduled but haven't seen any of them yet. </p>
<p>UIUC
pros: highest ranked engineering of the three (overall and in MSE)
cons: social atmosphere seems to be all about partying and greek life neither of which I'm interseted in. I feel like I would have a hard time fitting in. I've heard class sizes can be enormous (up to 800 students)</p>
<p>Purdue
pros: very highly ranked engineering as well. Social life less about greek life and partying than UIUC. Closest to home of the three with a 4 hour drive
cons: correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like outside of engineering purdue doesn't have near as high of a reputation. If for some reason I decided to transfer out of engineering I don't think I'd be very well off</p>
<p>Penn State
pros: Social life less centered around partying than UIUC. Great school reputation both in engineering and outside of engineering.
cons: ranked a little bit lower in engineering than the other two, farthest from home at about a 6 hour drive</p>
<p>Basically what's most important to me is a quality engineering program and school overall, a good social life, but one that isn't completely centered around partying and greek life that would allow me to fit in and easily make friends, good research opportunities, good job opportunities after graduation, and a nice campus would be a bonus. </p>
<p>Right now I'd say I'm leaning more towards purdue and penn state. Any information or suggestions would be great!</p>
<p>If you think UIUC is more of a party place than PSU you are wrong. Purdue is just kinda dull. Not much of a town. Worst of the three. Same for class sizes–not much difference.</p>
<p>I don’t know the others, but at Penn State (and I bet it’s the same at any large university) there are parties - lots and lots of them - but you don’t have to go if you don’t want to. There are thousands of things to do, and you find yourself with different types of friends from the different parts of your life there. By my senior year, I had friends from work, friends from my major, friends from my freshman year dorm, friends from my apt. building, etc. They weren’t all the same by any means. Some I would go to a party with. Some I’d go canoing with at the state park. Some I’d just hang out with. </p>
<p>Penn State is a good school. For every partier staying out until 5 am, there’s a serious student studying in the library. Sometimes they are the same person - just depends what day you’re talking about.</p>
<p>What is wrong with tOSU? There may be a difference in rankings for engineering or some other major, but certainly not enough to justify paying OOS tuition somewhere else. All 4 are in the Big 10, state flagships, and members of the AAU.</p>
<p>Paying out of state tuition to study engineering is, to put it very, very mildly, simply insane, unless you have stratospheric stats that would qualify you for a merit scholarship. As long as an engineering program is ABET certified, it does not matter very much where you get your degree. And as for the rankings, they are useless, and measure only prestige - prestige that is based mainly on largely uninformed opinions about graduate programs and say nothing about the quality of undergraduate education.</p>
<p>Your parents are willing to pay for those three with tOSU available for significantly less cost?? If so I think UIUC is probably the best choice.</p>
<p>What about The Ohio State University? How does its net cost compare to the others?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not necessarily, if the OOS cost is similar or lower than the in-state cost of your state universities, or your state universities do not have the type of engineering you want to study.</p>
<p>I live just a half hour away from the Purdue campus and I end up going to Lafayette quite a bit. The area is great with tons of shops and it’s always fun to go over there and watch the people in costumes at football games. It’s a big school, but Penn State is also, so that might just be what you want. Purdue’s engineering program is great, and I know that just about everyone in Indiana wants to go if they want to go into engineering. The competition between IU and Purdue is a big deal as well; it seems like if you go to Purdue, you have to hate IU. The weather in Indiana is terrible, though: very cold winters and hot summers, but if you live four hours from it, you probably have some idea of what that’s like. I agree with you when you say that it’s engineering program is its best program, but that doesn’t mean that it’s its only program that is good.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about the others, but I hope I helped some.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the replies!
I was trying to avoid OSU just because it’s a little too close to home and tons of people from my high school always end up there. I don’t want it to feel like I’m around a lot of the same people all over again. Also, I go there for sports events and other things all the time so it wouldn’t be as much of a new experience as other schools. The in state tuition would be helpful though.</p>
<p>Not my field, but US News ranks Ohio State #17 for materials science/engineering and #28 for chem e, both very respectable. NRC rankings look to be slightly lower but still quite strong. Given the (at best) marginal differences in the quality of the programs, if it were my kid I’d urge her to go to OSU and use the $120K cost savings to make a nice down payment on a house when she’s done.</p>
<p>Groundbreaking for Ohio State’s new science and engineering building to be held June 18</p>
<p>The Ohio State University will celebrate the groundbreaking of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Chemistry (CBEC) building at 4 p.m. on Monday (6/18).</p>
<p>The new 225,000 square-foot-building will be located in the heart of the science and engineering corridor of campus in the Academic Core North. It will create laboratory space with the proper floor-to-floor height, structural dimensions and environmental stability to support intensive research. With a total project budget of $126 million, CBEC will not intended to simply replace existing laboratory facilities, but will substantially upgrade and expand them to enable a strong focus on interdisciplinary research in the areas of chemistry, biochemistry and chemical biomolecular engineering.</p>
<p>OP will be missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to carry out research in the best chemical engineering facility in the nation. What a shame… :(</p>
<p>If the difference in net cost is as large as what #9 says, then the discount is likely to be more than helpful. $116,000 over four years is nothing to turn away from. If you wanted to go out of state, did you apply to lower cost out of state schools like Minnesota?</p>
<p>I have looked a lot at the University of Minnesota, and it would be my top choice if it wasn’t for the distance. It’s a 14 hour drive and I’ve never flown, but it seems like it’d be quite expensive to do a few times a year. Also I’m not sure my parents would be willing to let me go there because of that distance. I do have family in Wisconsin though so maybe it would be possible</p>
<p>Kathryn - you could live on campus at tOSU and still save a wad over OOS costs anywhere else. The school is so huge and diverse that “tons of people from my high school” are really just a drop in the bucket when you live there.</p>
<p>Depending on your stats, you could look at other state schools further away. U of Alabama will give full tuition for engineering if SAT >= 1330. SUNY-Buffalo the same for slightly lower stats. This was for class of 2016. Do you play in the marching band? Texas A&M practically guarantees in-state tuition for people in the Corps of Cadets / Aggie Band. There are many more options if you look, and if the objective is to really get away from home. Good luck.</p>
<p>Not sure where you live in OH but round trip airfare between Cleveland and Minneapolis-St. Paul, non-stops in each direction, is about 375 dollars. At that rate you could make about 50 round trips per year on the price difference between attending Minnesota and UIUC as an OOS student. You won’t need to go home nearly that often, guarantee it; maybe 4-5 times tops, which would cost you under 2,000, whereas the difference in COA is about 20,000. Minnesota is the best of the lot in chem engineering, and pretty strong in material science as well.</p>
<p>My son got into all 3 and in the end picked UIUC. He had a hard time choosing. Purdue gave him a nice scholarship and since we are moving to Illinois for other reasons, the costs at UIUC and Purdue were about the same. I believe what won him over in the end was the quality of the engineering school at UIUC and the wide variety of opportunities there as well. He will probably minor in Music (Jazz) and Illinois has a great music department. He also loved the campus. Purdue was also seriously considered. The campus is very nice. However, you get the impression that it is an engineering school with other majors tagged on.
He will most likely not join a fraternity and does not drink, yet there are many options for a good social life.
He loved PSU, but in the end felt the most comfortable at UIUC. </p>
<p>These are all great choices and you will be happy at any of them. Purdue is your best bet in terms of getting scholarship money if you are a top student. Penn State has amazing school spirit. There are all top schools in terms of recruiting.</p>