Friend’s son got accepted by both UIUC or Case Western Reserve math major. Doesn’t know what to choose. Can someone please give some advice? Thanks for all your help.
International Asian male, likes small class, also cares about how the school’s reputation will affect job hunting or grad school application.
These are vastly different schools. In my opinion, he’ll be provided with substantially the same opportunities for jobs and grad schools no matter where he goes out of these two options. If he’s going into industry, both schools probably are going to provide the most opportunities in the surrounding area. Does he prefer to live in Illinois (e.g., Chicago) or Ohio (e.g., Cleveland, Cincy)? If he’s going to grad school, I don’t think the undergrad school matters as much, as long as he maintains a high GPA, participates in relevant extracurriculars, does research, etc. The name/ranking/reputation is less relevant, especially between schools that are pretty much peers, such as his options.
So it comes down to financials and the college experience. In terms of cost, is one school more expensive than the other? If so, at face value it makes sense to go to the cheaper school. In terms of experience, however, the two schools are very different.
UIUC will probably provide a more stereotypical college experience. It’s a large public school located in a college town. UIUC will likely have larger classes, which is the opposite of what he’s looking for. UIUC also has a decent athletics program and, with that, lots of school spirit. It’s a fairly big party school, but with an excellent STEM program, so there will also be a lot of more geeky, techy students as well. Case Western, on the other hand, is a small school in a large, urban environment (i.e., Cleveland). There might be more to do in the metropolitan area at Case, whereas UIUC life is likely concentrated on or around campus. The student body has more of a nerdy vibe, but there are a fair share of parties and what not as well. Sports are not a big part of the student life, but Greek life is. However, it’s not the typical Greek life you may think of but, rather, more of an avenue for leadership opportunities, philanthropy activities, socializing, and so forth.
Basically, ignoring reputation, does he want to attend a big school or a small school?