UMN vs UW Madison for ChemE

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Minnesota
1

I know they are both excellent in ChemE (#5 and #7 in the rank), but should I go with UW because of its better national/engineering ranks? Money is not a problem, but UMN would be cheaper.

Also, which one is the best in terms employability? Any advice welcome, please.

2

They are both superb. TC metro has lots of Fortune 500’s; however, UW has Chicago not too far away.

If it helps split a hair or two, the current UMN pres. Eric Kaler is a Chem Eng. PhD and alum.

https://cse.umn.edu/news-release/chemical-engineering-alumnus-eric-kaler-named-16th-president-of-university-of-minnesota/

3

UW is guaranteed major.
But umn you have to apply in sophomore year?

4

with UW you are provisionally admitted to the major but you still have progression requirements to meet. It’s not a guarantee.

5

For UMN you are guaranteed your major as long as you have a 3.2 GPA. So technically its easier to keep your major at the UMN since they base you entrance only on meeting this 3.2 technical gpa. At UW madison, for chemical engineering, you need to maintain at 3.5 technical gpa and a base GPA (3.0). However, I am in the same boat as you. I intend to go into chemical engineering and have been accepted to both, just madison scares me especially if I dont meet the GPA requirements. But if I go ill just have to work REALLY hard.

6

@Lauren8040 - do Madison and MN calculate their technical GPA’s for ChemE using the same courses, or are there differences there?

7

I don’t know, you would have look at their 4 year plans. For the UMN I know thst their technical GPA is based off the classes you take as a freshmen and sophomore, so physics 1/2, calc 1/2, and chem 1/2. It does not include the liberal education classes.

8

For Madison it’s pretty specific:
https://www.engr.wisc.edu/academics/student-services/academic-advising/first-year-undergraduate-students/progression-requirements/

For UMN a lot less so (at least that’s how it reads):
https://www.advising.cse.umn.edu/cgi-bin/courses/noauth/tgpa-courses

However, practically speaking there will probably be significant overlap in type of course going into that techincal/core GPA calculation.

9

If it helps at all I’m a freshman engineer at Madison right now. I took some of the typical “weed out” classes; chem 103, comp sci 200, calc 3 with Sean paul (I luckily didn’t have to take calc 2 which is notoriously difficult). They were all hard in their own way, but it wasn’t bad if you did all the work and studied a little bit. Even though I was pledging a fraternity all semester so my academics weren’t necessarily my priority, I still ended up with a 4.0 (I was right on the edge for a lot of classes so I got kinda lucky). If you do all the work and go to office hours you should be fine.
Also, the gpa requirement is only for automatic progression in the major; you can still make it into the major if you don’t meet the cutoff, it’ll just depend on how many spots they have.

10

“Also, the gpa requirement is only for automatic progression in the major; you can still make it into the major if you don’t meet the cutoff, it’ll just depend on how many spots they have.”

  • That's true at UMN (CSE) as well.
11

UW-Madison is not a guaranteed admit. You have been admitted to the Freshman “intro to chemical engineering class” but not to the major. For that, you need to meet the requirement.

I recommend you call and ask what happens to the UW students who don’t meet the cutoff, then do the same at UMN. Ask about how far down they go beyond the cutoff.

Here’s a link for UMN.
https://www.advising.cse.umn.edu/cgi-bin/courses/noauth/apply-major-statistics

It is great that jheidenreich did so well, and he should be proud. Most don’t do quite that well.

12

After doing some reading, I have a couple comments and questions.

UMN

  1. Application into ChemE is contingent on 3.2 GPA in technical classes during Fall semester sophomore year. The department takes into account Fall semester sophomore year grades
  2. Fall semester sophomore year includes, what I believe to be, a couple of difficult ChemE classes; i.e. many students who are used to A’s might get B’s or worse

UW-Madison

  1. Progress requirement is 3.5 in technical courses (3.0 overall GPA) to guarantee spot in ChemE
  2. Progress requirement is after Freshman year; i.e. classes should be “easier” so may be better able to maintain 3.5 GPA

Question - does anybody have statistics as to % of ChemE admits (for UW) who end up graduating (meeting progress requirement)? I called UW and was not able to get any significant information. It would really suck if say 50% of the ChemE admits get weeded out.

13

@Bay_blade2000 Well, yeah. But posters have stated that it’s not necessarily the case that you are weeded - you just aren’t guaranteed admission at that point. Same with UMN - that 3.2 technical means automatic admission but others are able to get in as well on a space available basis.

Also, “weeded out” of Chem E doesn’t mean you are weeded out of engineering, assuming good enough grades.