My son was admitted to both Iowa State and UW-Madison’s Schools of Engineering. We are from Wisconsin, but Iowa State’s Merit and Engineering scholarships make both schools total costs very similar on paper over the course of 4 years. My son likes them both and is struggling to make a decision.
For any other students or parents of students that are in or have been in similar positions, where did you choose? What were the factors that led to your decision? Do you have any regrets? Are there any hidden costs or perks that we might not be considering that will come up? Feel free to share anything that you think is important to consider.
Thanks!
Madison is ranked higher for engineering. Did he tour both? Look at curriculum and how many years it typically takes to graduate. How many students “fail out” at each school?
I know kids at both schools. All happy as far as I know.
Yes. Madison is ranked higher, but both pretty high in the grand scheme of things. It is hard to tell if Madison is ranked higher based on a better research program, which doesn’t necessarily mean a better undergraduate program or if it is based on both.
He has toured them both and even though they are very different, he liked them both. Initially he liked Iowa State a little better, but that was before he knew he was accepted at Madison. Now he seems to like them both equally, funny how that worked. Lol
UW is ranked 13th by US News and Iowa State 50th - not sure it matters. Then there’s the discipline. But my kid got into Purdue and attends far lower ranked Alabama and there are many like him - so I agree rank is - ehhhhh - not that important.
You can look at student outcomes.
In the end, you can visit both campuss - which felt better. Madison is in a city and on a lake. That’s a big difference.
Iowa State gets a lot of notoriety on the CC. It could be he would fit at both.
Are there any secondary majors of interest - that one has - but not the other. For example, for my son it was atmospheric sciences - some had but some didn’t.
That’s important because some studies say 1/2 of engineers drop out or change majors. Or are there certain groups - for example, someone into automotive might like to be part of ecoCAR or Formula SAE - and similar for other areas on interest.
Then it could be - both will be just great - so pick one and don’t look back. And he can do his MBA or Master in Engineering or what not at the other
Here’s some career data. They likely won’t help you as they’re similar…but there you go - flip a coin. Or who is going to have the better football team??
Is he direct admit into specific majors at either school? At least several years ago, UW Engineering required application to majors which, depending on the competitiveness of the major, required different gpa minimums in engineering classes and overall. That info should be available on the College of Engineering website. Another consideration, is he admitted into any sort of Honors program at Iowa State? I have a UW alum kid who had many engineering friends – fantastic program and amazing university experience.
He might have known about this. I think I might have heard it too, I don’t remember realizing they were so high. Not a lot of room for error your freshman year.
The placement stats look pretty similar and the averages are within $1000 or so.
Amazing to see that some of the graduates were hired with salaries under $40,000. That seems super low for someone that had to fight through such a hard and selective major. You can make that right out of high school at McDonald’s. Way more than that at a manufacturer plant working right on the line.
Check out the GPA required to keep those scholarships. Even kids with 4.0’s in highschool often find it hard to keep a high GPA in engineering. Will the financial picture change if he ends up losing any of the scholarships?
Both Iowa State Scholarships require a 2.75 to keep them. That is way lower than the 3.2 it looks like Madison requires you to even stay in the program.
We don’t know why they had those salaries. Were they the kids who never interned and got the scraps? Are they working for a non-profit? Did they want to move home and that’s all that was available.
I work in the auto industry and I was looking at Texas A&M engineers - and a few took jobs with the Sewell Group - which owns luxury dealerships. I know from my work that they had the program - some of the folks I dealt with at their dealers came from SMU and UT Austin - so you think - and they’re selling cars? Yes - and making more $$ than engineers - but that’s another subject.
My point - you don’t now what those kids had - but you can go by median/average.
I’m guessing the higher $ jobs are out there. The worst offer my son got for this year - of his 5 offers - was $75K with no bonuses. They did have a nice 401K match and a small pension (defined contribution). His highest offer would have been in the 90s and then 3 in the 80s. He did get a call the other time from his 2-time summer intern wanting to make an offer but he had to decline since he accepted. Our thought is that they would have been lower but we don’t know.
The point is - the jobs are out there - but the kid has to be a go getter!! In my son’s case, he crushed indeed and linkedin - and that turned up a lot of interest…but I think having the internships is what made him stand out.
I’m sure your son will be fine at either school. Good luck to him.
Look at the size of the engineering school in both places. I remember reading Iowa St has close to 2000 students in the mechanical engineering dept and is a very popular major there and maybe UW-Madison is smaller. https://www.me.iastate.edu/new-homepage/why-choose-me/
I think the atmosphere at the two school is quite different. Wisconsin is Big 10, big sports, Saturdays all red and white. Ames is a much smaller town, more centered on campus activities and events. It’s not that Wisconsin doesn’t have a lot on campus, but also has the Capitol at the end of State Street, the lake with sailing and other events, easy to get to Milwaukee or Chicago for major league sports, etc.
Interesting thread…glad to find all this gpa/progression information…my son was accepted in IE at UW Madison and thinking to go there instead UMN where he was also accepted. He was admitted at Purdue but we are in a budget and till now no merit award…do not know if any will come in march!?
We visited Iowa State… i loved the place… new buildings… very clean and modern…good campus vibe and size… from what i saw they are investing a lot of money at the university…but at the end he is the one that will choose and within our budget range…his heart always beat for Madison. For sure I will dig in the gpa numbers, i was not aware of that… even to stay/progression in the course.
We have been to Badger games, took him to a couple football games in Ames and they were pretty big events too. They aren’t in the Big 10, but the Big 12 is a big division as well. The difference between the 2 was that before the game everyone in Madison hangs out and gets pumped at their houses or the bars. Iowa State had a much bigger tailgate experience because their stadium is surrounded by big parking lots. It was actually pretty impressive. The tailgating was similar to what you would see at a Brewers playoff games. Madison is equally impressive with a super energetic atmosphere, but no tailgating. I think he truely enjoyed both football experiences.
I grew up in the Milwaukee area and went to ISU for civil engineering. This was many moons ago when Madison wasn’t nearly so selective. So many of my high school classmates went to UW and I just wanted to get a little further away. I loved Iowa State! I haven’t spent much time in Madison, but it seems so much bigger and the campus so much more spread out than ISU. ISU always felt like a much smaller school than it actually was. The dorms and the college of engineering did a good job of keeping it “small”. And I loved your comparison of tailgating at ISU games to tailgating at Brewers games!! Spot on! It was so weird to me when I was touring colleges with my kids to have the stadiums right ON campus (CU Boulder, Purdue)! I was so used to the stadium being far away and surrounded by parking lots!
Good luck to your son! Both are great schools but my vote is for the Cyclones!
