UMN-TC, UIUC, and UWMadison for Materials Science and Engineering

Hey all,
I am currently deciding between these 3 schools for Materials science and engineering. I have an interest in biomaterials, and all 3 are great schools with great research opportunities, and I don’t really care that much about rankings but they are all good enough. What do people know from experience/stories/etc in this major in these schools? I know that UIUC has a huge department for materials science, and I feel like that translates to less professor contact, and I know UMN is the exact opposite of my theory. What can you tell me about these departments? Also, what is the average GPA weighted to for the programs at UW-Madison and UIUC? I know that at UMN it is weighted to a B- average (2.7), so any and all information on these departments is helpful. Horror stories, anything, and everything. I would like the full enchilada of information.

Thank you all who can help me out!

Hey @haroldmacloud

I’m a MatSE grad from UMN, 2016. I’ll confirm your average GPA for the program as 2.7; I don’t have explicit evidence saying 2.7, but based on a few statements by profs and classmates, that seems right. Also, the major was about 60 undergrads per class. I know the department’s expecting to grow since the demand is growing, but I believe they’re trying to keep it at around 60 for the near future until the amount of dedicated MatSci faculty increases. So, yes, profs are pretty accessible.

Speaking of the profs, I consider them a strength of the department with regard to their teaching, and their aforementioned accessibility. This is no accident. I recall that late in a semester, a professor of ours just spent a period taking our comments and suggestions about the major and department. In response to a complaint about a particular prof, he stated that they do look for evidence of teaching ability, experience, and/or general enthusiasm for it when they are vetting new potential profs. Through my time there, I thought basically every other lecturing prof. that we had was good to excellent.

As a side note, that particular nightmare prof has since left the department (my former classmates speculate she may have been nudged out due to how much of a lightning rod for complaints she was).

I could say more, but I don’t want to write a novel for a post. Feel free to ask more questions so I don’t ramble.

That helps a lot, thank you!

I asked a CSE engineering faculty member (who is a friend) how many grad students they have teaching the undergrads and he looked up, counted on his fingers, and said: “Approximately: Zero.” He wasn’t in MatSE and, as a very well-known academic engineer in his field he works primarily with grad students. However, he knows well the strengths of CSE and one of them is having a high number of excellent faculty available to teach the undergrads. It’s not that way in all the colleges at UMN. Guessing UIUC and UW are the same? One advantage of these midwestern flagships is the quality of their engineering programs.