Hello i am a senior who has been accepted into purdue first year engineering, U of Illinois MechE and the presidential scholership(full tutition) at University of Alabama. I am having trouble deciding between these three schools because i dont know how much of an impact rankings have on engineering post graduation and really like the money i would get from alabama. I also am considering changing my major to computer science and i am wondering if thats even possible at U of I and if the program is good at alabama. Any advice you can give would be awesome to help my decision.
If cost is not an issue, I’d choose Purdue. But with the full scholarship, Illinois is the way to go. It’s a great school (really no different than Purdue). You’ll get a top education, access to all the great companies and internships, and you won’t burden yourself or your parents with high college costs.
Congrats!
I meant the scholership at Alabama sorry if i wrote that in a confusing order
Beginning engineers don’t get paid more because of where they studied. And when they move to a new job, or apply for a promotion, what matters is their previous job performance. There is some difference in regional employer recruiting patterns, but if you have an industry or employer you are particularly interested in, you can check with the career center at each campus.
Engineering and tech employers are fully aware that Alabama has been collecting top applicants for years with its big scholarships. It has turned itself into a tech powerhouse. If money is an issue for you, take the scholarship.
@mom2collegekids probably has good information for you about Alabama. Two of her kids graduated from there.
UIUC: you are in the ME major, but changing to CS is very difficult:
https://cs.illinois.edu/admissions/undergraduate/transfer-students
Purdue: you will need to go through a secondary admission process to get into ME or CS:
https://engineering.purdue.edu/ENE/Academics/FirstYear/T2M
https://www.cs.purdue.edu/undergraduate/codo.html
Alabama: no indication that changing major to CS is difficult; you may want to ask directly to verify.
While there are plenty of reasons to go to Alabama and it’s a very good deal financially, this is not true at all in my experience, at least in tech cities on both coasts. I’ve encountered people from most of the “tech powerhouses” and even most of the “second tier” tech schools but have never once even heard of someone from Bama. Perhaps regionally that could be the case in Atlanta, but even there, I think you’re talking about things that stay within the CC bubble of knowledge when it comes to Alabama attracting top applicants via scholarships.
All three schools will offer what you need to know academically. Based on possibly switching to CS plus the likely savings on cost (can you list the net cost of each here?), it does seem like Alabama is the likely best option.
Ualabama is not at the level of UIUC or Purdue. But you won’t be able to change to cs at Uiuc and you’re not into your major at Purdue. You’re in at your major and can switch at UAlabama. So it all depends on what you personally prefer - prestige with inflexibility, prestige with risk, lower prestige but money for later and guaranteed major.
Have you visited all three? Done an overnight? Attended classes in your fields of interest?