My son (Illinois resident) got acceptances at UW-Madison and Ohio State in their College of Engineering. These are the best universities that he has offers from. He would like to pursue Electrical Engineering.
We are now facing a dilemma. Both have strong engineering programs. UW-Madison is 14th and Ohio State is 26th in the US News report for Undergrad Engineering. To me they are reasonably close and comparable.
We visited both campuses, attended their admitted student sessions and College of Engineering sessions, toured the residence halls. Again, each had pros and cons, but both were very good. My son liked them both.
Ohio State has offered significant scholarship moolah, but UW-Madison is notoriously stingy on scholarships, particularly for OOS applicants. So that is a point in favor of Ohio State. UW-Madison will be significantly more expensive (about $15k more per year).
On the other hand, UW-Madison seems to have the upper hand in terms of the quality of academics, research opportunities, favor-ability with employers etc.
I would welcome any thoughts from anyone in a similar situation.
I think you know the answer. If you can comfortably afford it, then UW can be in the picture and your son can go by fit as either will do the job of getting him a fine education. If you need loans, then for sure OSU is the choice.
Finances are now the deciding factor. Needing to borrow $15K per year is a huge expense- $60,000 for 4 years. The quality of education/experiences difference isn’t worth that much debt. However, if family finances can easily handle the difference let the other factors rule.
Agree with the above. You should probably go over carefully with your son the circumstances, and see what is possible. Ohio State will be fairly strong in his area; Wisconsin is arguably stronger, and Wisconsin is also stronger in more potential areas than simply the declared major.
What I think would be most beneficial is to consider not only current finances (while in college), but potential impact over the career, including relationships, experience and some other intangibles – would your son receive a boost (either in the midwest, or nationally) that could justify some extra spending up front? This being the Wisconsin page, you may indeed receive input favoring the latter, but you should also receive some prudent financial advice. Too much debt for undergrad isn’t recommended.
@Madison85 - I don’t really expect that Wisconsin taxpayers pay for my son’s education, not sure how you got that idea from my post. I was simply stating that one public university has offered a significant scholarship and the other has not, and that is a factor to be considered in my decision, same as thousands of other families.
Hey there! I’m a current Mefhanical Engineering student at Ohio State and I faced the exact same dilemma as your son. I think I was being offered the exact same scholarship as your son (for out of state residents to bring the price down to in state levels), while UW didn’t really offer me anything. I’m from California and I got rejected from both UCLA and UC Berkeley. UW Madison and Ohio State were the only out of state schools I applied to. The quality of education, research, and academics is pretty much the same at both, and you can’t go wrong with either. What pushed me towards OSU, besides the scholarship, is the fact that they are a bigger school and have a lot more money to spend on stuff like research and other facilities. It’s pretty obvious when you see state of the art facilities at Ohio State which simply aren’t there at UW.I got an internship at Tesla Motors so large companies do want OSU students
I don’t have much time, but I hope somebody else can correct the above poster’s errors regarding money, facilities, and parity of programs between the two (if, indeed, we are truly talking about parity). tOSU does have some strong programs, but overall, they do not surpass Wisconsin’s research and departmental strengths. Wisconsin’s combined endowments are quite a bit more than tOSU, while serving a smaller campus and student population. Further, Wisconsin brings in significantly more federal research funding per annum – over $1 billion per year, for a smaller school than tOSU. This is usually within the top five for all schools in the country. Certainly engineering enjoys some of these benefits and grants. Has the above poster even visited the WARF facilities or research parks?
There is nothing wrong with loving your school, and especially when it has some of tOSU’s strengths. It may end up being the best choice for the OP’s son, and it may not. There is something wrong about misstating facts, however.
OP, also when making your decision please factor in the amount of time it takes to get an engineering degree at both schools. You may be paying $15,000 x 5 years at Madison, rather than the 4 years you stated.