UW - Madison and U of MN Engineering

College Search & Selection
1

Hi all

I have been accepted to both Madison, U of MN, Purdue, and RPI. Unfortunately both Purdue and RPI require taking on debt I would rather avoid so I am looking to the U of MN and UW - Madison. I can graduate from the U of MN debt free or go to UW Madison with roughly $20,000 in debt. I am looking at the mechanical program at both schools as well as the Nuclear program at UW Madison. As a bonus, a small freshman research grant has been offered to me at the U of MN.

I was wondering if anyone could offer some insight on the programs at both of these schools. From what I’ve been able to find UW Madison is ranked higher for Engineering overall but I am not finding much on how the mechanical programs compare. I would greatly appreciate any thoughts y’all have on the subject.

P.S. my ultimate career goal is engineering consulting or defense industry related work/research if that matters

2

Minnesota: you are in in first year pre-engineering. Earn a 3.2 GPA and you are in major of your choice; otherwise, you may need to compete by GPA for admission to your major. ME was one of the majors that had capacity limitations and did not admit all applicants (although some seem to be have been admitted with GPA as low as 2.4).
https://www.advising.cse.umn.edu/cgi-bin/courses/noauth/apply-major-statistics

Wisconsin: you are in your major, but you must meet progression requirements to avoid being weeded out. Technical/overall GPA thresholds were 3.2/3.0 for ME and 3.0/2.5 for NE recently.
https://www.engr.wisc.edu/academics/student-services/academic-advising/first-year-undergraduate-students/progression-requirements/

For ME, it looks like Minnesota has a lower risk of being weeded out. Of course, if you want NE, only Wisconsin has it.

3

Granted I know college is an extremely different environment than high school, but I am not overly concerned about minimum GPA requirements. I am currently 4.0 unweighted, 4.27/4.33 weighted, and ranked first in class at a very large public high school with nationally recognized PLTW program. I would like to think some of that success would continue in college.

Since my first choices of UC Berkley (denied) and GIT (wait listed) didn’t pan out I’m trying to pic the best option in terms of education with out being super broke for the foreseeable future.

4

Both are very good.

  1. Look at the course sequence, requirements, etc.
  2. Would you rather be in the heart of a thriving metropolis or in the coolest college town in the US?
5

UWM is a little bit better overall than UMTC but is dealing with budget issues. For ME they are the same. Minnesota is more stable financially speaking. I would just go with UMTC , MSP is a really fun town, and graduating with zero debt is a real plus!

6

Remember that getting a 3.2 GPA in college is a lot harder than getting a 3.2 GPA in high school. Average GPAs at both schools are around 3.2; at Wisconsin, the students’ average high school GPA was around 3.8.

Unless you really want to do NE which only Wisconsin has, it looks like Minnesota wins on both the cost/debt aspect and the lower likelihood of being weeded out.

7

But you are stuck with being a Gopher fan (do they exist??) for the rest of your life. Heavy price to pay.
Also budget issue seems improving going forward.

http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/govt-and-politics/election-matters/uw-system-president-ray-cross-walker-proposal-the-best-budget/article_021f34f9-0e3d-5d5b-b9bb-5e5cd015fc61.html