<p>I was admitted to Pratt through ED two weeks ago, but ended up getting no financial aid which is really not affordable for my family. I posted something similar in the Duke forum but wanted some of your guys' opinions too.</p>
<p>So It'll cost me 62k a year to go to Duke and if I declined, 33k for U of I.
I got into U of I bioengineering, but I feel that I wouldn't have an opportunity to go into business after engineering which is why I'm drawn to Duke. Many Duke eng. grads go into finance/consulting. Also, If I didn't want to stick to bioengineering, I could go to EE.</p>
<p>Could you guys give me some #s on job placement for u of i engineers? bioengineering? EE?
Do companies look for engineers to work in finance/ consulting at U of I? </p>
<p>Also I currently have about 50 hours from AP tests and plan on having 70 after this semester. In my case, How hard would it be to double major in say EE and Bme or EE and finance?</p>
<p>I’m not sure about the BioE departments but for EE UIUC definitely wins.</p>
<p>Regarding business recruiting: Bain, BCG, McKinsey, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Deloitte, Accenture, Citadel, DE Shaw, Blackstone, tons of prop trading firms, … all recruit at UofI. UIUC is more semi-target so these guys aren’t on campus as much as your top schools (and probably Duke), but you will definitely have opportunities to get into business and I know a huge number of engineers going into consulting. Duke has its perks in prestige but the difference probably isn’t worth 100k.<br>
Some other benefits at UofI: an extremely competitive Technology & Management minor, two very prestigious consulting clubs (OTCR and IBC), 1000 RSOs, better research opportunities (mainly in EE).</p>
<p>Your AP credits will get you out of all the easy stuff like gen eds and basic math and physics. That’s great, you can jump right into the meat of engineering. You could definitely double in EE and BioE, I wouldn’t recommend EE and Finance. If I were you I wouldn’t even do a double major because employers don’t care about the second degree. My advice would be to use that extra time to take extra courses in EE, finance, CS, and BioE, and also get some good experience doing extracurriculars or research. The courses and experience matter more than actually getting that second degree (which would include many useless lower level hours esp. if you did EE and finance)</p>
<p>@dabears116
So it wouldn’t be worth it to double major ee/bme to expand my career options?
Also, if i plan to work in business, wouldn’t it be more beneficial to minor in econ/finance? What do you think would be best to do?</p>
It all depends on where you want to end up. If you spread yourself too thin you may miss out on better opportunities. I don’t think a EE/BME would expand your options more than EE + a few bme electives. If you’re dedicated you could pursue the dual degree and you will stand out, but let passion for the subject be your main priority because the benefit is marginal.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>What kind of business do you want to work in? Finance? Consulting? Trading? When it comes to degrees and certificates, the overall assumption is that if you can do engineering, they can easily teach you business.</p>
<p>If you want to work in consulting, the T&M minor will be very useful because it is 1) extremely selective and makes you stand out, and 2) involves projects where you work in cross-disciplinary teams with business and engineering students. A business minor won’t help you much. You could get a second degree in econ (no minor), but really I would focus on taking beneficial classes as opposed to fulfilling the degree requirements. Overall, club leadership and involvement in consulting clubs will serve you better than a second degree or minor (besides T&M which is more than just a minor)</p>
<p>For trading, especially prop trading, the field is becoming increasingly quantitative to the point where they prefer math, stats, cs, physics, and engineering majors more. If you want to work in trading just do well in your engineering classes (maybe take some extra math/stats classes and get programming experience) and teach yourself about financial markets yourself or through elective classes. There are a number of clubs that will boost your profile in this field too.</p>
<p>I hope this helps. Your main takeaways should be 1) don’t spread yourself too thin because its impossible to have it all 2) experience matters more than actually getting that 2nd degree certification</p>
<p>Congrats on your acceptances. Both of them such great schools.</p>
<p>@dabears116 makes very good points. it depends what you want to be. But I believe UIUC is a better option, specially if you want to study engineering. (because there is not a big difference between these two college’s eng. schools, but business schools… Well! Duke is fantastic!)</p>
<p>These two colleges, both have fantastic engineering schools, and yes! Duke’s eng. programs mostly have better places in academic ranking and it is more prestigious (if that matters to you at all!)
But, do NOT forget the grad school! Top positions in engineering and research need more advanced knowledge than what college teaches you.</p>
<p>Don’t waste 250k on some fancy college degree! With this money and your APs, you can stay like seven years at UIUC and get two BS and one or two masters or more!</p>