The labs are pretty amazing in the Michigan engineering school. Most of them are available to undergrad students with the requisite safety training. There are full machine shops, 3D printers, robotics labs, micro and nanofabs and huge amounts of space devoted to student projects. In addition the NCRC complex has > 1 million square ft of lab space devoted to research (the facility cost over $1 billion to build). Many undergrads and especially engineering students participate through the UROP program.
The main library is the Duderstat (“dude”) which is open 24x7 and is full of engineering workstations. Most every piece of software you might want or need is loaded on these. There are also remote / virtual stations you can access from your PC. There are lots of study rooms for group projects and (of course) ready access to coffee+snacks via the cafe. It is attached to Pierpont commons which has a few eateries (the Panda express is really good for a Panda with super fresh vegetables) , plus has a bookstore, pizza bar, piano lounge and tables for get togethers. There are also numerous other libraries around campus, the biggest are the grad library (beautiful reading room), undergrad library (UGLI- referring to its horrific pre-2000 appearance, now nice) and libraries for each school (business, law, etc) open to everyone. Sometimes they request only grad students or law students at a particular spot. They just refurbished the North Campus diag, it should be done by the time you start. There are also really interesting spaces like the map room ,Bentley historical library (rare books), art, archeology, and natural history museums. In nice weather many students study outside.
The engineering school maintains a separate network which has faster internet access than the rest of the university. It’s mostly gigabit speeds wired and >100Mb wireless. It can get slow around exams / semester end though. The university has PC’s and Macs all over campus but you can only access engineering software through the engineering workstations or via a virtual session.
Your cell phone carrier & phone should support wifi calling since signal can be bad in some buildings, especially in basements. UM has made a big effort to install cell repeaters but wifi is everywhere.
I’ve taken a few engineering classes recently and I was most impressed with the support you get. You just have to reach out. There are departmental lounges, help sessions, and the professors were always willing to help out during office hours or after class. Sometimes if I was stuck on a problem set the would nudge you in the right direction - but not so much that you did not learn.
In addition there are engineering fraternities - these are great to join - it is difficult to get through your classes without some help.
You will probably spend a good amount of time on central campus - I would try to request a dorm there because many of your classes will be there initially (chemistry, math) and the dorms are either refurbished (all) or new (North Quad) . Almost all are coed by room. The older ones are mostly doubles with a few singles and triples. It takes 10 min on the bus between campuses. Classes are staggered so they start 10 min past the hour (Michigan time) on central campus and 40 min past the hour on North campus. Best food is at West Quad, the Hill dorms, and the lawyers club. Avoid Markley dorm.
Social life outside of your dorm is mostly around central campus because of off-campus housing, restaurants and shops. The music school (on north campus) has lots of free recitals and concerts and there are productions at the Stamps theater. Most of the big (student theater, UMS, etc) are on central campus. You also have access to city buses (free with university ID) which go all over town- direct to grocery stores, the mall, etc. and to Ypsilanti.
If you are from Chicagoland RT via Amtrak is $50-80, less on Megabus.
Recruiting is very strong at Michigan. There are also student incubators and lot of local startups founded by Michigan students. Alumni come frequently to speak on how they founded their companies. There is a very entrepreneurial spirit at the engineering school.
You don’t have an easy decision. Minnesota ChemE is outstanding. You also get Minneapolis, a wonderful city but extra cold. You would be giving up flexibility should you decide to change majors vs Michigan, but is that worth $52K? I think a lot of it depends on your future goals too.