<p>Hi all, I was accepted to both Virginia Tech and University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign for engineering. I got into UIUC as engineering undesignated (I applied for computer science, which seems to be popular there, but now realize computer engineering fits my interests better and is an option for me to get into without many questions) and VT as Engineering Undeclared. I have only visited UIUC so far, but I liked the campus layout a lot. I will be visiting VT on this Friday, so that may influence my current stance between these two schools. Besides the obvious ranking difference, which my dad has decided does not mater, are there any major factors that should cause me to either lean more towards UIUC or change my current favorite to VT?</p>
<p>Can anyone provide a comparison between VT and UIUC or at least point me in the direction of some information of how good their program is and how their campus is?</p>
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<p>Net cost after non-loan financial aid?
Difficulty or lack thereof in declaring the desired major at each school?</p>
<p>No aid from either school. I don’t think it would be hard to declare my wanted major considering I was accepted to their engineering schools and VT admits everyone as undeclared. UIUC’s description of “engineering undesignated” never mentioned computer engineering as being a closed major and, when I was visiting, all of the students and their advisiors were saying that transfering between majors in the school is not really that hard as a freshman.</p>
<p>“No aid from either school” – are you out of state for both schools, or in state for one of them? Will you need to take unsubsidized student loans to finance the cost of attendance?</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.admiss.vt.edu/cost.php]VT[/url”>http://www.admiss.vt.edu/cost.php]VT[/url</a>] = $15,739 in state, $29,507 out of state
[url=<a href=“http://www.osfa.uiuc.edu/cost/index.html]UIUC[/url”>http://www.osfa.uiuc.edu/cost/index.html]UIUC[/url</a>] = $33,028 in state, $47,170 out of state</p>
<p>The difference in cost over four years could range from $14,084 in you are in state for UIUC to $125,724 if you are in state for VT, with $70,652 being the difference if you are out of state for both.</p>
<p>I’m oos for both schools. Vt would cost about 38 thousand for me first year and the cost you said for uiuc is correct.</p>
<p>Ah, didn’t notice that the VT figures did not include living expenses.</p>
<p>But it looks like the overall difference for you would be about $36,000 over four years. Only you can decide if you like UIUC better than VT by $36,000 (if that amount is even realistically affordable for you). If you like them about the same, or like VT better, then VT is the obvious choice between the two.</p>
<p>Computer Science and ECE at Illinois are renown across the nation, it’s in leagues with MIT and Cal when it comes to CS and ECE. If you’re willing to pay the extra money, I’d say go for Illinois for its reputation.</p>