<p>Sang, the main difference between UIUC and UT-Austin is not the campus or the academics, but the surrounding area. Most people would agree that Austin is a better place to live than Urbana Champaign.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Sang, the main difference between UIUC and UT-Austin is not the campus or the academics, but the surrounding area. Most people would agree that Austin is a better place to live than Urbana Champaign.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Alexandre, I never said there wasn't a difference between Urbana and Austin. I was just sharing my opinion regarding my school.</p>
<p>I spoke to a Dad`s friend (went to UT-A (undergrad in EE), UIUC (Masters in EE) and then Havard (MBA) on this and his views are:</p>
<p>Traditionally, UIUC is superior. UT's EE dept has a long history of poaching the best grad students from UIUC to join the faculty here.</p>
<p>MIT is clearly the top dog.
Stanford, UIUC and Berkeley all are in the second tier. Wisconsin, Michigan, Cornell and UT are in the third tier. I believe that UIUC is academically much more rigorous than UT is.</p>
<p>Urbana-Champaign is a one-horse town - one horse for both Urbana and Champaign. It's in the middle of a cornfield, for cryin' out loud. And cold as hell. I went to both places, and I wish I had gone to Stanford or Berkeley instead. :-)</p>
<p>In terms of job prospects, being from UIUC got me quite a few more interviews than I would have had as a UT grad. Heck, the fact that I went to UIUC was even mentioned as a positive by the guy who interviewed me for Harvard - he said he thought it was the best state engineering school.</p>
<p>Suggest you take that advice with a grain of salt. If your dad's friend is my age, his view is true for his time. UT has come a long way since...and UIUC has lost some of its prestige (compare UIUC's ranking in the '70s to what it is today).</p>
<p>
[quote]
UT's EE dept has a long history of poaching the best grad students from UIUC to join the faculty here.
[/quote]
Now UT ECE hires most of their faculties from Stanford, UCB and MIT. There are about the same number from UIUC and UT.</p>
<p>Hi Alexandre, </p>
<p>In another similar thread: " CMU or uMich or UIUC or GTech or Purdue"</p>
<p>People are advising: CMU> UMich>Purdue as far as academics go ?</p>
<p>Does the same hold true for UT-A vs UIUC ?</p>
<p>In this present thread, all I understand is that quality of education in all top 10 schools is equal...one should base ones decision on "fit" rather than quality.</p>
<p>I don't see how CMU can be > than Michigan. They are roughly the same for Engineering. I will agree that for Computer Engineering, CMU is slightly > than Michigan, but it is negligible. And Purdue is not far behind either. For Engineering, UIUC is also roughly equal to CMU and Michigan. UT-Austin is slightly better than Purdue, but not quite as strong as CMU, Michigan or UIUC. But like I said, the difference between all those programs is VERY negligible.</p>
<p>As far as employment opportunities and graduate school placement is concerned, all of the schools you have listed are on par. I definitely recommend you focus on fit since there is virtually no difference in quality.</p>
<p>Thanks for yr prompt reply.</p>
<p>Alexandre,
I am going in for EE/CE. So, is UIUC>UT-A (purely in context of quality of education imparted at undergrad level) ?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Kindly advise..have to decide over this weekend. Thanks</p>
<p>Surely UIUC has a better reputation than UT in terms of Engineering.</p>
<p>The college of Enginnering at UIUC has shaped the whole world by inventing/developing transistor, the LED, integrated circuit, quantum well laser, MRI, air conditioning, skyscrapers, flat panel televisions and plasma screen. Alumni have created companies and products such as Netscape Communications, AMD, PayPal, Mathematica (Wolfram), National Football League, Siebel Systems, Mortal Kombat, CDW, YouTube, Oracle, Lotus, Mosaic, Safari, Firefox, Delta Air Lines, BET...etc.</p>
<p>"In the 24 February 2004 talk as part of his Five Campus Tour (Harvard, MIT, Cornell, Carnegie-Mellon and UIUC), titled "Software Breakthroughs: Solving the Toughest Problems in Computer Science," Bill Gates has mentioned that Microsoft hires more graduates from UIUC than from any other university in the world.Alumnus William M. Holt, a Senior Vice-President of Intel, also mentioned in a campus talk in 27 September 2007 entitled "R&D to Deliver Practical Results: Extending Moore's Law" that Intel hires more PhD graduates from UIUC than any other university in the country."</p>
<p>But UT kicks butt in Petro Engineering. Also I don't know that the best engineers even want to go to Microsoft anymore. They have been moribund for nearly a decade now.</p>
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Also I don't know that the best engineers even want to go to Microsoft anymore. They have been moribund for nearly a decade now.
[/quote]
You mean engineers aren't clammoring to develop the next annoying Paperclip Office Help Assistant? :rolleyes: </p>
<p>Oh good, I guess they already took that advice:
[quote]
The Office Assistant was a feature included in Microsoft Office 97 and subsequent versions until Office 2007, in which the assistants have been removed due to widespread[citation needed] dissatisfaction on the part of Office users. The default assistant in the English language version was officially named Clippit, nicknamed Clippy,[1] after its animated paperclip representation.
[/quote]
<p>Microsoft pays quite good though. Almost 85k with just BS.</p>
<p>shivkhemka,
You seem to have your mind set on UIUC already. Everyone (well, almost everyone) here is telling you to pick on fit as the difference in academics and engineering reputation is minimal... yet you keep on asking whether UIUC>UT. There is no way Alexandre is gonna tell you that UIUC is better than UT in undergrad EE/CE education.</p>
<p>Since your have already made up your mind that UIUC has better EE/CE programs, go with your gut feel. You will be successful whichever school you choose.</p>
<p>What about Bob??</p>
<p>That's why I said "almost" everyone... LOL</p>
<p>what about size of the classes? i hear in UT-A, they go upto 200-300. Don`t know much about UIUC, though.</p>
<p>^ Likely very similar class sizes between the choices. You'll have larger classes for lower-division math and science and smaller classes for upper division engineering classes.</p>
<p>FWIW, data on class size from USNWR:</p>
<p>
School % Classes under 20 % Classes over 50
Michigan 45 17<br>
Texas 35 23
Illinois 37 18
</p>
<p>All big schools have some classes over 200 students--even some Ivy schools.</p>