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Columbia is a lot more prestigious to whom? The average person on the street? Or the industry people who’d be hiring you?</p>
<p>UT-Austin is consistently ranked among the top 5 in the nation in Civil Engineering–i.e., the uber elite in that field–compared to Columbia’s being ranked among the top 30:</p>
<p>[NRC</a> Rankings in Civil Eng](<a href=“http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/area22.html]NRC”>NRC Rankings in Civil Eng)</p>
<p>[Best</a> Civil Engineering Programs | Top Engineering Schools | US News Best Graduate Schools](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/civil-engineering-rankings]Best”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/civil-engineering-rankings)</p>
<p>Seems to me (and I’m not an engineer) that in this particular field, among those in the know (including those who do the hiring), UT-Austin is “a lot more prestigious” than Columbia. Just as, for example, the University of Iowa’s Creative Writing MFA program is a lot more prestigious to those in the know than most–if not all–comparable programs in the Ivies.</p>
<p>So the question is: who do you want to impress? The average guy on the street? Or the industry people who can hire you?</p>