<p>I am an international student from china, wanting to major in engineering. And the options for me are UIUC and Carnegie Mellon and UCLA. I have pretty much knocked out UCLA since their engineering progarm doesn't seem as good as the other two.
I am not sure which specific engineering I want to do but I am interested in Chemical E, ECE/EE, Material E or maybe BioE. I know that UIUC is ranked higher but is it that different bewteen 4th or 9th on the engineering ranking? I am drawn to CMU by it's reputation considering the fact I might come back to China to work. But I might go for grad school too, not sure.
I went on both school's career center website and looked up their recent graduate salary report. In some majors UIUC have higher starting salaries. But are those statistics reliable? Am I relying too much on the statistics?
Since I am internation, I can't visit them and feel which one I might fit in. Ang suggestion of which I should say yes to? Any input is greatly appreciated. Thanks~~</p>
<p>I’m an international too and I decided not to even apply to UIUC because it is public. I chose Carnegie Mellon and it certainly has an excellent reputation internationally. CMU has one of the best reputed ECE courses in the country and probably the world. I wouldnt go by the salary stats because they show the median salary and not a range so its not the most reliable of stats. At Carnegie Mellon you would enjoy the benefits of a private university over a public university (smaller classes, more individual attention, lower teacher:student ratio etc). However I know for a fact that UIUC is also a great university; I just preferred a private one (I didn’t apply to any public univs apart from Purdue which was just for the lower cost). You need to decide what kind of environment you would like and don’t rule out UCLA just on the basis of ranking; you never know which one suits you best if you don’t check all your options out.</p>
<p>UCLA is better known for Asian countries if you want to go back to China. Personally, if money is not matter, I would pick it over CMU and UIUC.</p>
<p>i dont know about UIUC but other than academics; UCLA is in a great location, i’ve lived within half an hour of it for the past 10 years of my life and what is making me reconsider going to CMU is because of that reason[ however im deciding b/w ucsd and cmu]
CMU is in a college town literally RIGHT next to UPitt so its like a college town; there’s free public transportation over there and its in a safe area[UCLA’s surrounding area called Westwood is not as safe] they have plenty of college student discounts in Pittsburgh</p>
<p>as for the weather at CMU…i visited in mid April and it was snowing
enough said hahahah
i hear it is cold and sporadic in Pittsburgh, but not too bad in the fall/spring</p>