<p>Hi, so I got accepted from UW Madison, UW Seattle and UIUC with majoring in Physics.
I'm thinking about changing my major to Computer Science or Computer Engineering, so I thought UIUC would be great, but I couldn't ignore the location of the school, whcih UIUC seems to be very rural to me. I know that UIUC has a more advanced academic programs than those two schools but I prefer the urban areas like Madison or Seattle.
I need some suggestions to keep my stand firm and stable from now on, so please help me!!</p>
<p>Madison is a happy medium between Urbana and Seattle. great school. great city, and great school spirit. you can’t go wrong.</p>
<p>i personally think that u of i has a great town around it, yah it obviously is not as large madison but you will always find something to do! plus the academics are way better! oh and you can get into bars at 18 in urbana and 19 in champaign, which is always fun!</p>
<p>UIUC admits you directly to the Physics program. UW-Madison does not. You have to compete for available program spots after your freshman year at UW, and UIUC’s undergrad Engineering Physics program is ranked #2 in the country. If, as you say, you’re contemplating a transfer into CS or ECE, UIUC is where you want to be.</p>
<p>Lastly, you should visit the campus and surrounding area. It’s not just a few university buildings surrounded by farms. The Champaign-Urbana metropolitan area and Madison are roughly equal in population with the Champaign-Urbana metro area at approximately 232,000, and the City of Madison boasting only 1K more at about 233,000.</p>
<p>The Madison metro population is over 575,000 based on same measurements. Nice try though.
UW’s Engineering Physics is highly research oriented and competitive as it is designed for future PhD students. Regular Physics only requires having a 2.5 in math and physics first semster classes.</p>
<p>[Engineering</a> Physics - College of Engineering @ University of Wisconsin Madison](<a href=“http://www.engr.wisc.edu/ep/ep-research-priorities-engineering-physics.html]Engineering”>http://www.engr.wisc.edu/ep/ep-research-priorities-engineering-physics.html)</p>
<p>[Table</a> of United States Metropolitan Statistical Areas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_United_States_Metropolitan_Statistical_Areas]Table”>Metropolitan statistical area - Wikipedia)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.physics.wisc.edu/undergrads/handbook.pdf[/url]”>http://www.physics.wisc.edu/undergrads/handbook.pdf</a></p>
<p>at Madison you CAN start directly into physics program as a freshman – well you have to get a C+ in math and physics in the first semester – if not you don’t want to be majoring in physics any way! so it’s not any different from uiuc.</p>
<p>[Undergraduate</a> Catalog, University of Wisconsin-Madison | College of Letters & Science](<a href=“Guide < University of Wisconsin-Madison”>Guide < University of Wisconsin-Madison)</p>
<p>So then you can’t start directly in Physics. UIUC’s Engineering Research Budget is 220 million annually as compaired to only 100 million for Madison. When you start at UIUC, your tuition is fixed for 4 years, not so at Madison. Illinois is about 2.75 hours away from the world-class city of Chicago by train, and it only costs $14 each way. There is no direct train service from Madison to Chicago, nor is there any way to make the round trip in anything less than 7-8 hours by bus unless you start your travel in the middle of the night, so day trips aren’t really possible.</p>
<p>Looks like we have a couple of Madison fanboys trolling the University of Illinois CC site. I can’t blame them. Madison loses a lot of people to Illinois.</p>
<p>Overall, both schools will offer you a great education, but visit Illinois, and you’ll be able to see for yourself what a great place U of I is to live and learn.</p>
<p>So, when is the state going to forward the next support payment to UI? I would say the state of illinois loses FAR more kids to UW than Wisconsin does to UIUC. If they had a tuition deal with Illinois like they do with Minny the kids would flood north and trickle south. Then there was the recent failed brief UI President forced to quit. And the prior admissions scandal. That even got a full Wiki page. Nobody puts UI in UW’s league for for campus town and overall excitement. And your teams suck.</p>
<p>BTW UWEng research spending was $142 Million for 2010. UI includes Physics and Comp Sci under engineering while UW has them in Liberal Arts. They do substantial research. </p>
<p>[Delayed</a> state payments cause headaches for Illinois public universities | Inside Higher Ed](<a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/01/27/delayed-state-payments-cause-headaches-illinois-public-universities]Delayed”>Delayed state payments cause headaches for Illinois public universities)</p>
<p>[University</a> of Illinois clout scandal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Illinois_clout_scandal]University”>University of Illinois clout scandal - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Really? Did you find a new Engineering Dean up there in Walkerland, with public employees, including those at UW-Madison, leaving in droves due to the state’s war on public service?</p>
<p>If there were a tuition deal, the engineers would flood south, and the OP is contemplating engineering.</p>
<p>The president’s leaving, shows how strong the sense of collaboration between the faculty and the administration is. The president lost the trust of the faculty, and because of that strong commitment to collaboration, he’s out. The post was immediately filled by Bob Easter, a respected and celebrated scholar and a proven university administrator. You’re sounding a bit desperate trying to bring up U of I’s dirty laundry. The bottom line is that U of I is head and shoulders above Madison in Engineering, and our business schools are competitive with each other.</p>
<p>As for Engineering research dollars, even if I accede to your 142 million claim, Madison falls 35% and 60 million short of U of I. Of course, that might have to do with the fact that our graduation rate for engineers who start at U of I is so high relative to Madison, where 4 out of 10 leave after the first year.</p>
<p>Illinois, by the way, has a great campustown area, and as for your nebulous claim of besting U of I in “overall excitement”, whatever that means, your desperate posts do seem a bit over-excited.</p>
<p>Aside from all the back and forth of this argument, as a neutral observer I will tell you what my son decided and why. He is a top student from a private school in the northern suburbs of Chicagoland. He was accepted into the EE program at UIUC and also the Engineering School at UW (among some other top engineering schools). After careful consideration he chose to attend UW despite the OOS tuition difference that we will pay. </p>
<p>His reasons were several-fold: Firstly, he was more attracted to the curriculum at UW where an engineering student applies to their major course of study as a sophomore, rather than being admitted directly into the program. He just wasn’t certain about EE, but he had to put something down when he applied to UIUC. Now he is locked into it. During the decision process, he definitely expressed concern about the difficulty of switching engineering majors at UIUC after matriculating, which we were told is in the range of difficult in some cases, to impossible in other cases. At UW students take some intro engineering courses first year which gives them a survey of engineering fields, and may provide a better idea as to which field they ultimately wish to pursue. For my son this approach was better, and it has already payed off. After getting further into his AP Chem class this semester, he is now finding that he really likes Chem and is in the fact now considering Chem E instead. </p>
<p>As for school rankings, UW is ranked very highly in Chem E (last checked it was at 7 I believe), and UIUC was not in the top 10. But that is only for Chem E, which is one of the top programs at UW. UIUC is ranked higher in other engineering programs. I know a lot of engineers and they all tell me the same thing: when hiring new engineering grads, they aren’t very concerned about the school they attended or its ranking (provided it is a top program, which UIUC and UW both are). They are more concerned about the student’s accomplishments while in school. Yes, an MIT grad will get a bit higher starting salary, but this difference disappears into the salary curve after 1-2 years in the job force. The bigger factor in your student’s success will be how they perform in school, and their drive, motivation, and ambition to succeed. They will perform at their highest if they are happy and comfortable with the university.</p>
<p>When my son visited UIUC (twice) he told me the same thing after both visits: the campus is boring, it’s flat, it looks very cookie-cutter, and it is in the middle of nowhere (his words not mine). Also, my son is also a huge big-10 basketball and football fan and couldn’t bear the thought of going to a school with poor team sports (again his words). After both of his visits to UW, he told me that he felt very at home there (which he never said about any other school), and he absolutely LOVED the campus. After he visited State St. and saw the never-ending choices of cuisine and culture he was sold (he’s quite a foodie). For my son, UW-Madison just had more to offer him and is right for him. With two top schools like UW and UIUC, rankings mean nothing if your student is unhappy or uncomfortable with their surroundings. YMMV.</p>
<p>I think that @hawksfan has a good point. As a student admitted into both schools, I choose U of I for the reasons his son chose UW. I think it is mostly just a personal opinion of what you like. Both schools have comparable academics and you will always get a great education. But I have to add that UW is good if you are unsure of what you want bc you get more time to decide on your major, but once accepted into the eng program at u of i it isnt that hard to change to a different major, besides bio med eng. But if you are sure on you’re major it is nice to start your first year at U of I bc you take specific classes earlier. For example, I am sure on nuclear engineering and at U of I I already am taking a nuclear engineering class my first fall semester and another one my spring semester.</p>