<p>Daughter was accepted to Purdue in Engineering (out of state) and accepted to in-state U of Illinois as undecided/undeclared into the school of general studies (I assume with the intent to transfer in to engineering school at a later date). Both schools have similar engineering schools, but clearly there is a cost difference with the out of state and a bit of a risk having to transfer in at U of I. Not sure what to recommend to her here. Is the risk of transfer in at U of I greater than the $$ extra at PU? Any help or experience would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p><a href=“http://engineering.illinois.edu/academics/undergraduate/advising/changing-majors.html”>http://engineering.illinois.edu/academics/undergraduate/advising/changing-majors.html</a>
<a href=“https://wiki.engr.illinois.edu/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=30803845”>https://wiki.engr.illinois.edu/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=30803845</a></p>
<p>Unfortunately, it does not say how selective changing into engineering, or a specific major, is.</p>
<p>Purdue engineering has no grade inflation. They grade harder on purpose, I hear. Look up the engineering school ratings and Univ of Illinois rates really high. I’d just send her there, no questions. It’s a great school, no reason to go our of state for engineering. Just call them and see if is easy to transfer into engineering at UI.</p>
<p>I would not ‘just send her there’(meaning Illinois)…it is not easy transferring into Engineering or Business at UIUC - that’s why they direct admit and put others into DGS. Depends, too on what type of engineering she’s interested in. If it were my child, I would advise taking the direct admit at Purdue assuming she really wants to study engineering and I could afford it. Purdue engineering is excellent. </p>
<p>We had a similar decision with my son and business. Decided if he wasn’t direct admit to in-state we would send him out of state.</p>
<p>Is your student sure she wants to be an engineer? If so, then Purdue is the choice because it can be difficult to transfer in to engineering at Illinois, and even more difficult to transfer in and graduate on time.</p>
<p>The reason it is difficult to transfer in is that you need to have had certain classes and good grades in those classes–and the students already in the school of engineering have first priority on registering for those classes. Also, if she is lucky enough to get the classes she needs, those classes are hard-- a lot of students struggle. If she does not do well, her grades could keep her from transferring in.</p>
<p>And if she cannot get all the classes she needs in a timely fashion, it could take her longer to graduate–and there goes the money that would have been saved by staying in state. It could be an extra year of tuition and living expenses, and also the cost of being a year behind in getting out in the work force and earning that engineer salary.</p>
<p>Yes, time is a consideration as well as “sure she wants to be an engineer”. Living is the same, however, just tuition at Purdue out of state at 4 years would be $120K versus 4 years at UIUC would be $68K. While money is not the sole decision factor, she could do almost 8 years at UIUC for the same price. Ability to get into engineering classes as a DGS student is key. I would need some guarantee that she would get access to the classes she needs to pursue the engineering degree/curriculum. If she’s locked out because of space priority to Engineering school students, then this decision becomes very easy. Again it’s not about the grades or desire, it’s about the opportunity. If the opportunity is not there, then we need to go out of state. Thanks. </p>
<p>Be careful that Purdue has GPA requirements for first year engineering students to declare their majors. See <a href=“School of Engineering Education - Purdue University”>School of Engineering Education - Purdue University; . For comparison, Purdue’s grade averages are shown here: <a href=“Purdue University”>http://www.gradeinflation.com/Purdue.html</a> .</p>
<p>So it looks like the OP’s daughter may face a competitive admission process to get into an engineering major at either UIUC or Purdue, although getting a 3.2 GPA and EAI (modified version of GPA) means automatic admission to any Purdue engineering major except BME.</p>
<p>Good luck with your daughter’s very difficult decision. Just make sure that you/she ask all of the questions that you need to make the decision–and that you carefully review all of the relevant information on the university websites.</p>
<p>I know too many kids who, for example, got admitted to General Studies at Illinois or to Indiana, with intention of transferring into the Business Schools–and later were not able to do so. It makes for an even harder decision further down the road–do they transfer schools so they can get the major they want to pursue (if they can even do that!)? And that means leaving the campus life they may have already built for themselves. Or do they find another major?</p>
<p>1214mom, your son had lots of good choices! Has he made his decision yet?</p>
<p>No decision yet. It will likely be Maryland or MiamiOhio. He said Indiana is out of the running, but I haven’t canceled the room deposit yet…</p>
<p>acbalumnus thanks for that link. As usual, these “additional” requirements are often in smaller print and I was not aware of FYE admissions. However, I guess if your not getting a B in engineering, you might want to reconsider engineering major. So now even more important to understand the transfer requirements at UIUC. BTW, I transferred in from School of Humanities at Purdue to Engineering and graduated with BSCE but that was back in 1987 when they didn’t have FYE:) Thanks again all. </p>