UIUC vs. Tufts for Civil Engineering

Colleges and Universities A-Z Tufts University
1

Hi everyone,

PLEASE HELP THIS POOR GIRL WITH NO TIME LEFT!

I was taken off the waitlist from Tufts University a few days ago, and I really don’t know what to do. I’m choosing between Tufts and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). I’m OOS for both since I live in PA, and in the end, the tuition at these two schools is about the same after financial aid. So please, do not ask about whether I’ve discussed the finances with my parents, because yes, I DID. (Sorry for the attitude. I just see a lot of people respond with crap like this that really isn’t helpful).

But anyways, I’m majoring in Civil Engineering for both schools, and I’m 99% sure I will stay in this field since I’ve loved highways and streets my entire life and never lost interest in the subject after numerous summer programs and internships. And as that suggests, I’m specifically interested in Transportation within Civil Engineering.

I love UIUC. When it comes to engineering, UIUC is spectacular. Its undergrad engineering is ranked #6 according to USNWR, and I was able to confirm this upon my campus visit; UIUC has the biggest engineering library (Grainger) in the country, an engineering quad, and brand new buildings for ECE and CS. I also heard that the startup culture is huge at UIUC, and that Intel has built its own fabrication lab on campus or something. Well if that’s all true…wow. BUT, when it comes to Civil Engineering, UIUC kicks even more butt; it’s consistently ranked #1 on USNWR. CivilE has it’s own building with huge labs and brand-new lecture halls, its own career fairs, and about 10 research areas, one of which is Transportation. The CivilE major I shadowed has gotten an internship every single year since she was a freshman, and told me that companies come after her and that all of her friends find it really easy to find a job. Sooo yeah, pretty much UIUC academics is unbeatable for CivilE, I would say. However, not everything is perfect. Champaign-Urbana is about 2 hours from Chicago and is not a very big city in itself. The campus definitely provides plenty of opportunities to socialize and have fun since it’s supposedly a “party school”, but I don’t know; living in the middle of cornfields for 4 years might get old after a while.

I also love Tufts. Mainly because, unlike UIUC, it’s right next to a city (Boston). I’ve always wanted to go to a school where I could independently take the train into the city to shop for clothes and look at museums, which Tufts definitely allows for. Plus, Boston is absolutely beautiful AND student-friendly with all the other schools like Northeastern, BU, BC, MIT, and Harvard. Its overall ranking is also higher than UIUC (#27 vs #44), and the school has fewer students, which means smaller class sizes and more opportunities to talk with your professors. But on the down side, Tufts’ undergrad engineering is ranked #58, and undergrad Civil is not even ranked… (lol). And to me, it seems like a fair assessment. I saw that all the engineering majors are clumped into a single building, there is no engineering library, and there are only 4 research areas, none of which is Transportation. And when I surf all over CC and Quora to find out about Tufts’ engineering program, I see both ends of the spectrum. One person said that all of his classmates were able to find a good job, while another (an actual employer) said that Tufts Engineers are really not prepared for the workforce when compared to the Northeastern students with the co-op experience. This variety in opinions on Tufts engineering really worries me, since for UIUC it’s always a unanimous appraisal.

Although very different, I love both campuses and can see myself at both schools. I also always hear about Tufts’ “small barrier between engineers and arts majors”, but honestly I don’t get what’s so special about it since UIUC too has plenty of non-engineers and makes you take Gen-Ed classes outside your department. I didn’t apply to schools like MIT, Caltech, Georgia Tech, and RPI for a reason.

But essentially, the main dilemma here is whether I go for:

  1. UIUC’s engineering with more resources, better employment, and a transportation program that closely aligns with my interests.
    ~or~
  2. Tufts’ smaller class sizes and proximity to Boston that allows me to have more fun options on the weekends.

Is it better to be happy with:

  1. what you’re studying?
    ~or~
  2. where you’re living?

I’m posting this thread on several forums to hear from students of both schools, because I don’t have too much time (5 days left) to make this decision, and AHHHH I DON’T KNOW WHAT DO.

But yeah, thank you so much for reading! And also, don’t be afraid to share the drawbacks of your school if applicable, because really, no school is perfect, and hiding the negative aspects of your school will do more harm than good for me :slight_smile: And I promise, I’ll always love both schools no matter which I choose in the end.

2

Tufts really isn’t known for engineering.

3

Coming from a Boston loving student here: UIUC will just a big step up when it comes to engineering. Boston is an amazing city. In the end (as you said), it comes to which you value more - the 4 years in Boston, or the UIUC engineering. You can make the best of Tufts engineering, but you’ll have to work harder and press for opportunities more than UIUC.

I love Boston and am a huge advocate for fit when comparing schools in the same ballpark. For engineering, it’s hard to put Tufts at the level where its comparable enough. If you will be happy at UIUC, you’ve got the rest of your life to live in Boston or any other city you please. I say go UIUC, assuming you’ll be happy there without the city for that period of time.

4

@Muad_dib @PengsPhils Thank you so much for your suggestions! I really appreciate it.

To everyone: Once again, really sorry about the attitude in the beginning! Didn’t realize I said “crap” after apologizing…

5

This may be a minor point but the engineering school at Tufts doesn’t just occupy a single building - the departments are spread out across 5+ buildings which are, for the most part, either very newly renovated or still under construction. I also don’t think there’s any real advantage to there being an engineering library…

As far as the quality of undergraduate education, the majority of my classmates (I graduated 5 years ago) have gone on to start interesting careers in industry and/or academia. I’m not familiar enough with Illinois’s engineering school to say what sorts of opportunities are available there but I do agree that compared to somewhere like MIT or Stanford (where I went for my MS) you need to be a little more proactive at Tufts in going after research/project/internships. On the plus side, though, many of the engineering professors at Tufts are there BECAUSE they want to teach undergraduates, not in spite of it, and are happy to give undergrads the chance to do research.

I guess my point is that you shouldn’t feel bad if you choose Tufts despite a lower ranked engineering school as there will still be plenty of opportunities (and maybe better opportunities to actually develop relationships with professors) and the student life aspect is very different between the two schools.

6

Thank you so much everyone for the responses! I really love Tufts, but I’m kinda leaning towards UIUC now.

@hebrewhammer May I ask how the job searching process went? Did recruiters ever come on campus? Did you feel well-prepared when starting your career? Did companies respond to your applications often? I’m really trying not to underestimate Tufts Engineering, but I just want to know the real scheme of things. Thanks!

7

@andrea2021, there are pretty large career fairs at Tufts; while I was there I was only ever looking for internships, not full time jobs (I went straight to grad school after). I didn’t find internships in industry for the summers after my freshman (which is rare anyways) or sophomore years but spent both summers working for one of my professors. The summer after my junior year I had two internship offers (I forget if the companies were at the career fairs, had posted through the Tufts portal, or if I applied through other channels) but wound up turning both of them down so that I could spend most of that August in Uganda with Tufts Engineers Without Borders. After my senior year I spent the summer at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, who regularly recruit on campus (I think that was how I got hired).

When I was looking for jobs out of grad school I leveraged my Stanford network to a much larger extent, but part of the reason for that is I was mostly looking on the west coast. Most of my friends in engineering at Tufts found jobs coming out of college, I think without too much difficulty. Everyone I know who has gone on to grad school for engineering (either straight from Tufts or after working for a few years) have managed to get into top schools for grad programs (a number of former classmates were at Stanford with me, I also know plenty at MIT, Michigan, UIUC, Georgia Tech, Oxford…).

As I stated earlier, I’m not that familiar with Illinois’s engineering programs (I applied and was accepted for grad school but didn’t end up visiting after I got into Stanford) but my honest (and biased) opinion is that I’d be surprised if it was enough better than Tufts’s engineering to justify going there over Tufts solely for the quality of the engineering. If you want to go to a school in a rural environment, or with tens of thousands of students, or with a big D1 sports emphasis then those are all reasons that could put you over the edge for Illinois. But if you prefer everything else about Tufts then I think the engineering school at Tufts is strong enough to justify going there.

8

My son graduated Tufts Engineering in’13.
I would note that, based on his friends’ experiences, internship and summer job opportunities for women in engineering seemed to be excellent.

9

Thank you everyone so much for the insightful advice! I ended up staying committed to UIUC, mainly because they offer a concentration in Transportation, but also based on the Civil-specific career fairs and frequent on-campus recruiting that they offer. UIUC students seem to be doing internships as freshmen and sophomores more so than Tufts students, and although Tufts has a better student-to-faculty ratio, getting research opportunities as an undergraduate doesn’t seem to be a problem at UIUC. But once again, I still LOVE Tufts. I will definitely be missing out on the city life, but since I’m going to be spending most of my time on campus, I decided it’s better to be satisfied with what I’m studying than where I’m living. I can live wherever I want after I graduate, so hopefully I can make my way to Boston then :slight_smile: You all brought up some VERY good points, and I really appreciate it!

Also, feel free to continue the discussion if there is anything else you might want to add, since there may be others faced with a similar dilemma whether that is now or in the future. I’m sure others would find this forum very useful as well.

Go Jumbos!

10

@andrea2021 sounds like you made a good choice for you, good luck!