I have been accepted into both institutions as an engineering major. I am currently from NY, and not sure where I want to reside later in life. I have a brother that goes to OSU as well.(I see that as a positive thing). I can’t make a decision. Any thoughts?
Congrats - getting into UT Austin as an OOS is very impressive.
Austin is a fantastic college town, with a lot going for it - and many CA companies
moving there. The weather is also awesome during the winter.
UT is uniformly strong in most (especially engineering) areas.
I’d pick Austin without a second thought.
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Are there major cost differences?
In a sense, they are generically the same (big campuses, big time sports, diverse majors, etc.). I was going to suggest you base your decision on the intangibles, like surrounding area, weather, etc…until I read engineering. As a result, I’d also give the nod to UT.
That said, either can prepare you well for the next phase of your life. It will be much more about what you put in that the name on your diploma. Put some thought into where you might want to live after, as all schools have a regional bias in their recruiting and then go with your gut.
Good luck!
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Cost is not much of a factor, but I don’t know if I want to reside outside of the northeast either. I think that is what is halting me, also the fact that my brother is at OSU and a lot of New Yorkers/OOS come to Ohio State, where at Texas I know no one at all and it is primarily people from Texas
I’d go to OSU then. 
I also think it would be a very cool experience in Austin though. As you can see I’m having a lot of trouble😂
Go to Texas then. 
In all seriousness, don’t sweat this. My son was heavily conflicted and didn’t sign until 2 days before the deadline. Something will tell you which one is right. For him, being from OR, the day the sun came out, he knew how important that was to his happiness. He chose Cal Poly. The sun or something just as mundane will give you the signal.
Good luck!
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UT Austin is definitely stronger in engineering, by quite a margin. The local tech industry is also superb.
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Something to consider:
UT admits directly to major for engineering majors. However, engineering majors tend to be “full”, so changing to a different one may be difficult. See Internal Transfer .
tOSU admits to a first year engineering program. Students declare major after completing some college courses. However, many of the majors have limited capacity and require college grades/GPA higher than C/2.0 to declare. See Admission to Major | Engineering Advising .
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The UT way is how Cal Poly does it. You’re in the one you apply for if you get in (which is awesome IF you don’t want to switch), but switching can be a matter of either space availability restrictions or being held to the standard of having been able to get into the destination major in the first place. At CP, a school I know a significant bit about, it actually happens both ways. Based on space, only CS, SE and Computer Engineering can switch around among one and other. No other engineering majors can move into those majors, ever. Within the other majors it’s a matter of how hard they were to get into in the first place. ME which is a tough admit can pretty much have pick of the litter, whereas IE, a relatively easy admit might have a challenge moving to anything else. It all depends on how strong the student’s stats were in the first place. Essentially, you can generally get into any major you would have gotten into in the first place after jumping through the right hoops. Not sure if UT is that specific or not, but CP does it to keep less competitive students from backdooring into tougher admit majors.
The wau OSU does it is like Purdue. It’s nice because you get to choose after you have a better foundation. The risk is getting locked out. I can’t help but think that if most Purdue students get their first choice that most OSU students wouldn’t too.
There’s uncertainty either way.
Always amazed that @ucbalumnus knows these important details about SO MANY schools! Props!
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Among the many schools that do it this way, the difficulty to get into specific majors varies. For example, Pittsburgh and Michigan only require 2.0 GPA and C grades. But some majors at Texas A&M are unlikely to let in many students who do not reach the auto admit GPA of 3.5.
The difficulty is based on the department capacity versus number of interested students.
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So I applied and was accepted as an Architectural Engineering major at UT. I picked that major but I am very unsure as to whether I would stick with it. Do you know if that major is on the more difficult spectrum at UT? Like would I be able to switch to mechanical or something?
You probably need to ask the UT Austin engineering division and/or mechanical engineering department how difficult it would be to change into mechanical engineering.