UIUC's engineering reputation? Concerns of a senior...

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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<p>Hi all,</p>

<p>I was recently admitted as a compsci major in the College of Engineering @ UIUC.
I was happy to have been admitted but I'm a little confused about UIUC's reputation... </p>

<p>I'm from New Jersey and nobody knows what the hell UIUC is-- nobody from my school ever applies there. Hell, the only reason I applied was because I saw its engineering program high on a list, but now that i'm in, I feel like I'd be making a mistake to base my decision to enroll on some rankings on a random list.</p>

<p>So i guess my question is-- What is Illinois' reputation? I know i'm looking stupidly far into the future, but how do grad schools regard Illinois' engineering program (ie Where do Illinois engineer grads usually end up going for grad school?)? What makes UIUC's engineering better than, say, Carnegie Mellon's?</p>

<p>I guess one of the reasons i'm being cautious is bc
1.Noone in the east (or outside of illinois) seems to know what UIUC is
2. It has a pretty high acceptance rate-- and I don't completely buy that it's because it's a "self selective" applicant pool.
3. UIUC seems suspiciously eager to push it's ranking at its applicant's face... I don't think very many other schools do this (sign of insecurity/ issues within the school?--I'm def overanalyzing haha)</p>

<p>Sry for the long message-- I'm just looking for some answers and I want to make an educated decision. Thanks all!!!!</p>

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<p>Alumni have created companies such as Netscape Communications, AMD, PayPal, Oracle Corporation, Siebel Systems, Lotus Software, YouTube and structures such as the Sears Tower, and the John Hancock Center.[3]</p>

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<p>East Coasters in general don’t know much about anything that happens west of Philly so why would you be surprised that they don’t know anything about UIUC. I am not knocking them…it is a fact. They have their life on the East coast and they don’t look far beyond Philly to the West.</p>

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<p>As someone admitted to CS, you might be interested to know that UIUC is Microsoft’s go-to school. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve heard that Microsoft hires more graduates from here than any other engineering school.</p>

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<p>I agree chriscollege! Have lived both mid-west and east (currently); In the midwest, UIUC is definitely perceived as a well-known engineering school (my son plans to apply there, Purdue too). If you talked to mid-westerner students about Carnegie Mellon, Case Western, Rutgers…they’d react the way the east coasters do to UIUC…would have to look it up on map!</p>

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<p>realtime : you mean that UIUC doesn’t have nationwide engineering reputation?</p>

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<p>It has a nationwide and worldwide rep among engineers and those who hire them. Who cares what some NJ kids don’t know? Really.</p>

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<p>Thanks for saying that barrons, I know your a badger, and now I know your pretty even-handed too.</p>

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<p>Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that UIUC does not have a good reputation in the engineering community. I live on the east coast and know for a fact that among engineers UIUC is well known. It is the neighbors and friends that you will tell that won’t know anything about the school. You will just have to say it is a top ten engineering school ranked below MIT and Stanford but above Cornell and Carnegie Mellon. That should give them enough facts to let them know that you are going to a reputable school and maybe they can get out their map and look beyond Philly!</p>

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<p>tonyecc: I think that anyone researching engineering programs will quickly find out it does have an excellent reputation but if you say “UIUC” to many of my kid’s eastern peers they’d say “what’s that?” You’d have to be specific…University of Illinois/Urbana/ Champaign!</p>

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<p>realtime: I am from NYC. So, what school your kid’s eastern peers know? MIT? Do we have to say Massachusetts Institute of Technology? I just wonder that eastern kids don’t like to go west or midwest? So they just consider east colleges?</p>

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<p>Haha, I understand why you’re freaked out, but UIUC is well known. Out of 7 real-life engineers (electrical, civil, and mechanical,) all of them, including my dad, had heard of Illinois when I mentioned that I was applying there. It has an outstanding reputation among Civil and Elec/Comp engineers, and many alumni have gone on to do great things, as was already outlined in this thread.</p>

<p>I’d say the problem is more of general publicity. Half of the people I mention “Caltech” to at school don’t even know what it is (I’m from Texas). If i asked the same engineers that knew about Illinois, though, they would (and have) responded enthusiastically when I bring it up. ‘General’ prestige is always nice to have, but it really is not indicative of the quality of your education, or the job opportunities upon graduation. I recommend asking some people in the field you’re interested in that have pursued higher level degrees (all of the ones I asked had Ph. D’s, but none of them had attended Illinois), and ask them what they have heard of the school. I’m sure that will put your mind at ease.</p>

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<p>It’s very well regarded for engineering.</p>

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<p>yeah. all that matters is that future employers know what it is, and they definitely know about illinois. at least here in the the states. i cant believe those people havent heard of caltech. its insane</p>

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<p>I have also been accepted to UIUC for computer science.</p>

<p>Their reputation is one of the best in the nation.
Microsoft hires from them more than any company in the world.
They have a gorgeous engineering campus.
Their new computer science building is one of the most impressive buildings I’ve ever seen. It’s completely state of the art.</p>

<p>The fact that you got in is wonderful, because it is an incredibly competitive engineering school.
Sure, many don’t know what UIUC is, but just be specific and say the whole name for a while.</p>

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<p>I can say that no one in my school really knows what UIUC is. In fact, a lot of people have never really heard of it. But If you graduate from UIUC in engineering, you’re one of the top dogs in the engineering world.</p>

<p>high acceptance rate, it’s not self-selective. they just let not good enough ppl fail out or switch majors (that goes for any university)</p>

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<p>“high acceptance rate, it’s not self-selective. they just let not good enough ppl fail out or switch majors (that goes for any university)”</p>

<p>What does that mean?..</p>

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<p>he means that they don’t just reject applicants because they think they can’t handle the workload. They let people decide for themselves once they’re in :P.</p>

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<p>UIUC has a 92% retention rate, so I doubt that’s the case. </p>

<p>UIUC has a high acceptance rate because it is a public school. It’s as simple as that. Public research schools usually have an acceptance rate of 50-70%. The reasons are straight forward: public schools are much larger than private schools, and must matriculate (and thus accept) many more students. For example, UIUC matriculates 10x the number freshman than MIT each year. For UIUC to have the same acceptance rate as MIT, it would need 10x as many applicants. There just aren’t enough applicants to make that happen.</p>

<p>Also, public schools have a lower percentage of accepted students that matriculate. Think of the perfect student living in Chicago: 4.0 UW GPA, 2400 SAT, president of every club in high school, etc. Where will that student apply to college? Probably the top schools (say, Stanford, MIT, etc.) but she’ll also send an application to at least one in-state school (in this case, the best in-state school is UIUC) as a safety / low cost option. As a result, flagship public schools have to accept a higher percentage than private schools (which are rarely used as safety schools).</p>

<p>Private schools also get more trash applications. There are thousands of people that apply to Harvard with below average stats ( <1500 total SAT, <3.0 UWGPA). Those students have zero chance to ever be admitted but apply anyway either as a novelty or because they don’t know any better. Those applications artificially deflate the acceptance rate at the top schools. Public schools rarely get applications like that.</p>

<p>Finally, public schools also tend to have more non-competitive degrees. Programs like Agricultural Science, Education, Social Work, Physical Therapy, Library Studies, Hotel and Restaurant Management, etc. are not as competitive (in terms of supply an demand) as engineering, business, pre-law, etc. The former group are primarily found at public schools while the latter group are the bulk of most private colleges. If someone applies to a public schools with an intended major of “Social Work”, there is more pressure (both because of a lack of applications and because of political pressure) to accept that student even with not-so-stellar scores. </p>

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<p>As someone who has never lived in Illinois and has no connection to UIUC - every engineer in the country - and probably the world - knows what UIUC is and respects their program heavily. Graduate schools (both engineering and non-engineering) look very favorably upon your UIUC degree. Most non-engineers know the University of Illinois from sports, but do not know it’s engineering ranking. Then again, most non-engineers really only know MIT and their local schools for engineering.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OEQryeDuh0#t=13m48s[/url]”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OEQryeDuh0#t=13m48s&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;