Why is UIUC not respected by MIT, Stanford and Berkeley?

<p>A lot of my friends are applying for grad school now and many have gone to the usual suspetct schools as prospective students. They have all reported to me that UIUC doesn't garner very much respect, despite it's high rankings, from MIT, Stanford and Berkeley. Also, i noticed that each of those schools hire plenty of faculty members from the other schools but none from UIUC. MIT hires plenty of Stanford, Berkeley grads, Stanford hires plenty of Berkeley, MIT grads and Berkekely hires plent of MIT, Stanford grads. Yet there are almost no professors from U of I at those schools. Yet, over here at UIUC we hire plenty of MIT,Stanford Berkeley grads. I stilll have 2 years left but i'm getting a very uncomfortable feeling. I picked UIUC based on it's "powerhouse" reputation but i'm now starting to feel like i'm at third-rate University. What is that we are lacking? I know our research expenditures are huge. I am however that our students SAT scores are quite a bit lower than at the other schools except for Berkeley which i believe has very similar SAT scores. Or is it simply just an elitist attitude because UIUC has very little overall name reputation compared to the other schools and the fact that we are located in the middle of nowhere? BTW, I turned down Berkeley for UIUC because they didn't have Aerospace Engineering and obviously didn't get into the other two.</p>

<p>lol who cares if berkeley, mit, stanford don't respect uiuc engineering. The employers do.</p>

<p>frankly rankings are worthless....</p>

<p>^^ Seconded!</p>

<p>You're so screwed man. You're definitely not gonna get a job coming from a working-class, third rate school like Illinois. You messed up big time boy. You should've spent more time with your "private" tutor cramming for the SAT's, and more time with your tennis coach perfecting your backhand. You should've played a few more string-instruments and saved a few whales. Then, you might've been worthy of an MIT, Stanford, Berkeley acceptance letter.</p>

<p>UIUC isn't respected as much as MIT, Stanford and Berkeley because it has a party-school reputation outside of the engineering school, whereas MIT, Stanford and Berkeley are well-rounded in business, life sciences, economics and even the liberal arts. :rolleyes:</p>

<p>Umm...forgive me if i'm wroing but isn't there rampant underage drinking and alcohol abuse at MIT? I've hard Harvard and MIT also have very "wild parties". Having also attended UIUC for 3 years I agree with the original poster's comment. Thankfully I switched to Georgia Tech which i think has much more solid academic focus especially in Aerospace Engineering. I also hated the fact that UIUC was 90% instate and almost everyone was from the same small town in Illinois or from Chicago and weren't very culturally aware.I doubt you would find that problem at Berkeley, Stanford or MIT. Great Engineering school but i found many students uncultured.</p>

<p>phugoidmode,</p>

<p>Reality, in this case, isn't as important as you suggest. UCSB has a party school reputation, yet for certain fields it's a top school.</p>

<p>But it doesn't matter. People think it's a party school, so it's a party school.</p>

<p>UCLAri,</p>

<p>Good point. I guess it's all about perception.</p>

<p>Underage drinking does not a party school make, I think.</p>

<p>There should be some sort of barometer for this sort of thing.</p>

<p>molliebatmit,</p>

<p>Underage drinking wasn't the sole reason i cited for MIT being a party school. One of my classmates went to MIT and told me that the parties were great and the alcohol was plentiful. She said a lot of people "partied hard" as a result of the insanely stressful weeks they would have. Naturally, that were was a substantial amount of partying going on as a release. Of course, not everything she says is true. Dumb as a bell, and somehow slipped into MIT under the radar with a 1230 SAT (590 M). Oh well. C'est la vie.</p>

<p>that is nice...</p>

<p>The top 3 EE departments' faculty, i.e. MIT, Stanford, and Berkeley, consist of about 60-70% of their own PhDs, and almost none from UIUC. For example, I don't think Stanford EE has a single UIUC PhD on their faculty. This phenomenon isn't limited to UIUC, though. Outside the top 3 (and Caltech to some extent), very few engineering programs place their PhDs in top academic positions to any significant extent.</p>

<p>I agree with im_blue in that this is not specific to UIUC, but really a general phenomenom of all engineering schools that are outside the troika (plus Caltech). For example, relatively few Purdue or Georgia Tech PhD's are teaching at MIT, Stanford, or Berkeley. These are quite highly regarded engineering schools. The same can be said for newly minted PhD's from USC, Michigan, Texas A&M, Maryland, Penn State, Ohio State, and so forth - relatively few of them end up becoming profs at MIT, Stanford and Berkeley. These are quite good engineering schools.</p>

<p>But I don't think it's just a simple matter of location. Both Boston and the SF Bay Area are nice places, but they both have plenty of no-name schools. For example, you don't see too many students from San Jose State going on to get engineering doctorates at Berkeley or Stanford, or graduates of Northeastern going on to get engineering doctorates at MIT.</p>