UIUC vs UMICH

<p>i got accepted into both schools college of engineering, and I am dying here trying to decide between both of them, i am OOS, PLZ help, thank you</p>

<p>From what I've heard, most people choose UMich over UIUC. </p>

<p>All I can tell you is that UIUC has a much more rural feel than UMich. And by rural, I mean farm-like.</p>

<p>depends on type of engineering, though I think most engineering would be UIUC>Umich.
UMich excels in probably everything else, but for engineering, UIUC is hard to beat. +, the engineering quad is beautiful.</p>

<p>mechanical, i'm from Puerto Rico, so im probably gonna freeze to death in both</p>

<p>U of M is highly known for its engineering. I mean, that's where all of the engineers that work of the Detroit motor companies usually come from. I am not familiar with UIUC's engineering program, but I think U of M is pretty hard to beat. On another note, the winters can be really annoying, but they aren't too bad when you get used to them. :)</p>

<p>from USNews:
Undergraduate engineering specialties:
Mechanical
(At schools whose highest degree is a doctorate)
Methodology
1 Massachusetts Inst. of Technology
2 Stanford University (CA)
3 University of California–Berkeley *
4 University of Michigan–Ann Arbor *
5 U. of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign *
6 Georgia Institute of Technology *
7 Purdue Univ.–West Lafayette (IN)*
8 Cornell University (NY)
9 California Institute of Technology
10 Carnegie Mellon University (PA)
11 University of Texas–Austin *
12 Pennsylvania State U.–University Park *
13 Princeton University (NJ)
14 Virginia Tech *
15 Texas A&M Univ.–College Station *
16 Univ. of Minnesota–Twin Cities *
17 Northwestern University (IL)
18 Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst. (NY)
19 Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison *
20 Johns Hopkins University (MD)
21 Ohio State University–Columbus *
22 Lehigh University (PA)
22 Michigan Technological University *
22 Univ. of California–San Diego *
22 Univ. of California–Santa Barbara *</p>

<hr>

<p>basically, #4 and #5. both basically the same.</p>

<p>Take a look at where you would fit better.
Michigan is probably colder than IL, though IL is cold in itself as well.
If you are doing out of state for both, why not just apply to a private engineering school like MIT or Stanford? Assuming you are Puerto Rican, you would get a boost from the diversity factor. Berkeley is pretty good too, if you don't want coldness lol. Same with Georgia Tech, Caltech, and Carnegie Mellon. </p>

<p>Anyways, between these two schools for your intended major, you can't go wrong!</p>

<p>thanks a lot</p>

<p>Emiranda, from an academic point of view, you cannot go wrong. I recommend you go with go with overall quality (slight edge goes to Michigan) and campus/town location, culture and environment (again, the edge goes to Michigan). But you really should visit those two schools to get the whole picture. </p>

<p>Some posters have said that Ann Arbor is colder than Urbana. That is not entirely true. The two cities have similar climates. According to the annual averages, below are the monthly averages for the two cities (highs and lows in Fareinheit):</p>

<p>NOVEMBER:
Ann Arbor 47 - 32
Urbana 50 - 33</p>

<p>DECEMBER:
Ann Arbor 35 - 22
Urbana 37 - 22</p>

<p>JANUARY:
Ann Arbor 30 - 17
Urbana 32 - 16</p>

<p>FEBRUARY:
Ann Arbor 34 - 19
Urbana 38 - 21</p>

<p>MARCH:
Ann Arbor 45 - 27
Urbana 49 - 30</p>

<p>Hope2fetrice, UIUC is not greater than Michigan in Engineering. In most Engineering disciplines, Michigan and UIUC are ranked within 2-3 spots of each other, with Michigan having the slight edge in Aerospace Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Engineering Physics, Industrial Engineering, Nuclear Engineering and the OP's intended concentration, Mechanical Engineering. UIUC has a slight edge in the rankings in Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Environmental Engineering and Materials Engineering. Overall, they are almostalways ranked within 2-3 spots of each other. Those kinds of differences are negligible. Furthermore, I am fairly confident that the OP has already applied to university and is now narrowing her choices, so applying to MIT, Cal or other programs is probably too late, if she hasn't already done so.</p>

<p>By the way Hope2getrice, I am not sure where you got your rankings from. According to my 2009 issue, Michigan is #2 in Mechanical and UIUC is #6. Obviously, there is no difference between #2 and #6, but accuracy is always appreciated. Below are the undergraduate rankings for allEngineering disciplines, including Mechanical Engineering:</p>

<p>2009 USNWR Undergraduate Rankings:</p>

<p>ENGINEERING (OVERALL)
1 Massachusetts Institute of Technolog 4.79/5.00
2 Stanford University 4.65/5.00
2 University of California-Berkeley 4.66/5.00
4 California Institute of Technology 4.51/5.00
4 Georgia Institute of Technology 4.51/5.00
4 University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign 4.45/5.00
7 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 4.40/5.00
8 Cornell University 4.28/5.00
9 Carnegie Mellon University 4.19/5.00
9 Purdue University-West Lafayette 4.19/5.00</p>

<p>As can be seen, the gap in the overall Engineering ranking between Illinois and Michigan is tiny. It is 0.05/5.00 to be precise. </p>

<p>AEROSPACE
1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2 Georgia Institute of Technology<br>
3 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
4 Purdue University-West Lafayette
5 California Institute of Technology
6 University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign
7 Stanford University
8 University of Texas-Austin
9 University of Maryland-College Park
10 Virginia Tech </p>

<p>BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING<br>
1 Johns Hopkins University
2 Duke University
3 Georgia Institute of Technology
4 University of California-San Diego
5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology<br>
6 Case Western Reserve University
7 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
9 University of Pennsylvania
9 Boston University
10 Rice University
22 University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign</p>

<p>BME is probably the only Engineering Discipline where one of the two schools in question (Michigan), has a noticeable,albeit insignificant, advantage over the other.</p>

<p>CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2 University of California-Berkeley
3 University of Wisconsin-Madison
4 University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
5 Stanford University<br>
6 California Institute of Technology
7 University of Texas-Austin
8 University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
9 University of Delaware
10 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor </p>

<p>CIVIL ENGINEERING
1 University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
2 University of California-Berkeley
3 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
4 University of Texas-Austin
5 Georgia Institute of Technology
6 Stanford University
7 Purdue University-West Lafayette
7 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
9 Cornell University
10 Texas A&M University-College Station </p>

<p>COMPUTER ENGINEERING
1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2 Stanford University
3 Carnegie Mellon University
4 University of California-Berkeley
5 University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
6 Georgia Institute of Technology
7 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
8 California Institute of Technology
8 Cornell University
8 University of Texas-Austin</p>

<p>ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2 Stanford University
3 University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
4 University of California-Berkeley
5 Georgia Institute of Technology
6 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
7 California Institute of Technology
8 Cornell University Ithaca, NY
9 Purdue University-West Lafayette
10 Carnegie Mellon University </p>

<p>ENGINEERING PHYSICS
1 Cornell University
2 University of California-Berkeley
2 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
4 California Institute of Technology
4 University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
6 Pennsylvania State University-University Park</p>

<p>ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING
1 Stanford University<br>
2 University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
3 University of California-Berkeley
4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
5 Johns Hopkins University
6 Georgia Institute of Technology<br>
7 University of Texas-Austin
8 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
9 Cornell University
10 Carnegie Mellon University </p>

<p>INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING
1 Georgia Institute of Technology
2 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
3 Purdue University-West Lafayette
4 Pennsylvania State University-University Park
5 University of California-Berkeley
6 Stanford University
6 Virginia Tech<br>
8 Texas A&M University-College Station
9 Northwestern University
10 University of Wisconsin-Madison
11 University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign </p>

<p>MATERIALS ENGINEERING
1 University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
2 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
3 University of California-Berkeley
4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Northwestern University
6 Stanford University
7 Cornell University
8 University of Florida
9 Georgia Institute of Technology
10 Pennsylvania State University-University Park</p>

<p>MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2 University of Michigan--Ann Arbor
3 University of California-Berkeley
4 Georgia Institute of Technology<br>
5 Stanford University
6 University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
7 Purdue University-West Lafayette
8 Cornell University
9 California Institute of Technology
10 University of Texas-Austin</p>

<p>NUCLEAR ENGINEERING (since the USNWR does not publish an undergraduate ranking, below is their graduate ranking)
1 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 4.5/5.0
2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 4.2/5.0
2 University of Wisconsin-Madison 4.2/5.0
4 Texas A&M University-College Station 3.9/5.0
5 Pennsylvania State University-University Park 3.8/5.0
5 University of California-Berkeley 3.8/5.0
7 North Carolina State University 3.5/5.0
8 Oregon State University 3.4/5.0
9 Georgia Institute of Technology 3.3/5.0
10 University of Florida 3.2/5.0</p>

<p>In terms of prestige, I think most would place the engineering schools in this fashion:</p>

<p>Tier 1: MIT, Stanford, Caltech, UC-Berkeley
Tier 2: UIUC, Cornell, Michigan, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech</p>

<p>so, so ur not losing out on anything by picking one over the other, I don't have the numbers, but I have a feeling most OOS students probably pick Michigan over UIUC consistently.</p>

<p>^^those are all pretty much Tier 1's though, when looking at the bigger picture.</p>

<p>That's right Hope2getric. If looking at the "big picture", all of the schools listed by kb would be considered "tier 1". They could be labled tier 1.1, tier 1.2 and I would even add a tier 1.3. I would break it down as follows:</p>

<p>TIER 1.1:
California Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Stanford University
University of California-Berkeley</p>

<p>TIER 1.2
Carnegie Mellon University
Cornell University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Purdue University-West Lafayette
University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
University of Michigan-Ann arbor</p>

<p>TIER 1.3
Johns Hopkins University
Northwestern University
Pennsylvania State University
Princeton University
Rice University
Texas A&M University-College Station
University of California-San Diego
University of Texas-Austin
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University</p>

<p>
[quote]
i got accepted into both schools college of engineering, and I am dying here trying to decide between both of them, i am OOS, PLZ help, thank you

[/quote]
</p>

<p>As pointed out above, both schools are similar from an academic standpoint, so you can't really go wrong.</p>

<p>As for abstract issues (campus feel, quality of life, etc.), everyone will have a different opinion based on their definition of an ideal university. Your best bet is to visit both schools and see which one "feels right" to you.</p>

<p>
[quote]
TIER 1.1:
California Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Stanford University
University of California-Berkeley</p>

<p>TIER 1.2
Carnegie Mellon University
Cornell University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Purdue University-West Lafayette
University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
University of Michigan-Ann arbor</p>

<p>TIER 1.3
Johns Hopkins University
Northwestern University
Pennsylvania State University
Princeton University
Rice University
Texas A&M University-College Station
University of California-San Diego
University of Texas-Austin
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Pretty good characterization, but I would push Austin to 1.2 and Purdue to 1.3.... and Wisconsin and TAMU shouldn't be ranked together. Maybe if you do this..</p>

<p>TIER 1.3
Purdue University-West Lafayette
University of Texas-Austin
University of Wisconsin - Madison
University of California - Los Angeles</p>

<p>TIER 1.4
Johns Hopkins University
Northwestern University
Pennsylvania State University
Princeton University
Rice University
Texas A&M University-College Station
University of California-San Diego
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University</p>

<p>I would go with the best financial aid offer. They are both GREAT! What are the numbers?</p>

<p>Also consider that Ann Arbor and UC are quite different in feel. Personally, I couldn’t ever see myself living UC.</p>

<p>UIUC and UMich are pretty much the same for Engineering.
But UMich does stand higher for overall ranking by far. When it comes down to reputation,
is the Engineering degree from UIUC respected as much as that of UMich, even if UMich has better reputation overall?</p>

<p>Hardly by far. UM is in the 20’s and UI is in the 30’s. That’s much less of a difference than you think. And for engineering it’s easily a toss-up. At UM the engineering school is well off the main campus which I think is less desirable. But Ann Arbor>>Urbana</p>

<p>Michigan>Wisconsin>Illinois</p>