Hi I’m an international student. So I got in both wpi and uw madison u minnesota twin cities and purdue for chem engineering. And now I sort of narrowing it down to either worcester polytechnic and uw-madison
Academic wise, I think Uw is more reputable for chem engineer and more prestigious as a whole. I’m not so sure about wpi’s reputation to hiring companies. My goal is to find a job sponsorship after graduation to work for a couple of years to gain experience, so the school’s reputation may mean something.
Also, from what I heard, the coop programs at wisconsin is stronger ( i could be wrong :P) which also helps with job opportunities.
Price-wise, I got a scholarship from wpi, so I’d be around 42k/ year, for uw-madison i’m paying the out of state tuition for 54k/year. I’m leaning more on uw-madison because it has better ranking but I don’t know if the price difference is worth it.
Also, I know the schools are very different from each other, one is a large public school while one is smaller private. I’m worrying about fitting in in such a big school, and I’d heard that at wisconsin-madison some professors only care about researching and not much about teaching students (again i could be wrong)For wpi, because of the smaller class sizes, students do get more care from professors and faculties.
Locationwise, I’d heard some bad reputations about uw racism to native americans and african americans and the whole #realuw thing. I don’t know if it applies to international students. For Wpi, it’s not a very safe city either, but it’s probably more diverse and open (?)
Again I obviously have to make the final decision, but I’d appreciate any advices and opinions from you guys.
If your goal is employment (which for an international student is not easy, because the goverment’s expectation is that you would return to your country after graduation), I would look closely at the career services department. UW Madison has a great reputation, but it is a big institution, and one can get lost in the shuffle. WPI is very well known in the industry, and if you want to work in the East Coast, that is where I would go.
Take a look at how they serve the student body (give them a call if you can). Look at the employment rate after graduation.
Here is WPI’s information:
https://www.wpi.edu/student-experience/career-development/outcomes?utm_source=redirector&utm_medium=gradreport&utm_campaign=short_url
WPI’s Career Development Center was voted #5 in the country by the Princeton’s Review. Here is their web page:
https://www.wpi.edu/offices/career-development-center
I hope it helps.
Can you earn a 3.5 technical and 3.0 overall GPA to stay in the chemical engineering major if you attend Wisconsin?
https://www.engr.wisc.edu/academics/student-services/academic-advising/first-year-undergraduate-students/progression-requirements/
The areas around the WPI campus are not high in crime and the campus is very safe. The following map with WPI campus in the upper center shows reported incidents including "disorderly conduct" from the Worcester Police department for the entire city of about 185,677 (2017) people. The website address at the bottom of this page is very long as it covers the entire city. The orange and blue badge in the middle is the city police department. This reports every incident.
To manage large events, they have also hired some very serious campus security planning management. See https://www.wpi.edu/news/wpi-names-ronald-bashista-director-emergency-management
For city map see https://www.crimereports.com/agency/worcesterma#!/dashboard?incident_types=Assault%2CAssault%20with%20Deadly%20Weapon%2CBreaking%20%26%20Entering%2CDisorder%2CDrugs%2CHomicide%2CKidnapping%2CLiquor%2COther%20Sexual%20Offense%2CProperty%20Crime%2CProperty%20Crime%20Commercial%2CProperty%20Crime%20Residential%2CQuality%20of%20Life%2CRobbery%2CSexual%20Assault%2CSexual%20Offense%2CTheft%2CTheft%20from%20Vehicle%2CTheft%20of%20Vehicle&start_date=2019-01-26&end_date=2019-02-09&days=sunday%2Cmonday%2Ctuesday%2Cwednesday%2Cthursday%2Cfriday%2Csaturday&start_time=0&end_time=23&include_sex_offenders=false&lat=42.271171&lng=-71.798079&zoom=14¤t_tab=list&shapeIds=&position_id=jfwn-iu5d-row-hpx5__rt5t__4fd8&shape_id=72451
You might also check out the job placement AND graduate school placement for WPI as suggested by Mardong above. The largest Universities simply have the most students and very large graduate programs. This does not mean that the quality of their BS programs as measured by actual employment and graduate school placement are not of the same quality. The entire WPI program is solidly grounded in research by very specific program design. It should not be a quick read. It is a comprehensive whole based on required undergraduate research and has been so for fifty years.
Minnesota and Purdue are more diverse student bodies compared to WPI or Madison.
2017 WPI is about 62% white, and less women than you might think. Also WPI has a low % of Asian students only 1.8% , for a technical school in a state, MA with 6% Asian residents, and NJ/NY being heavily Asian American. .
WPI freshman class was 10% Latino, which matches the state of MA demographic for Latino residents.
See page 9
https://www.wpi.edu/sites/default/files/inline-image/Offices/Institutional-Research/2017%20Fact%20Book_3.pdf
U of Wisconsin about 11% URM, (from College Factual-74% white, 4.8% Latino, and 5.9% Asian American which are not included in URM, 10% international students. )
https://news.wisc.edu/meet-the-record-breaking-class-of-2022/
I would say that they are all pretty much peers though quite different in feel. The school I know the least about is WPI. I do believe it is very STEM centric and is close to Boston.
Purdue would probably be the next in terms of the percentage of STEM based students. It would be much larger than WPI and a college town and would probably feel the most isolated as it’s an hour from Indianapolis and 2-3 hours from Chicago. Purdue has a very robust Professional Practice Office which manages their coop program. They offer both 3 and 5 term coop programs. My D graduated with a degree in ChemE from Purdue and did a 5 term coop so I’m most familiar with Purdue. They have also held their COA steady since 2012. Though as has been mentioned it does have a large percentage of international students. She loved it there and is well employed now.
Wisconsin is a very large school with an excellent college town atmosphere. It will be strong in nearly all majors though it will have fewer engineering students than Purdue.
UMTC will be urban. It’s Chem E program is considered it’s strongest engineering program.
I think the best choice is the school you will engage in. Do you want urban or college town? Do you want STEM centric or a campus with a more eclectic student body? I think all would do well for coop opportunities though how they approach them may be different. The only area I don’t think will make a difference the quality of education. It will be great wherever you decide to attend.
Here is the entire WPI dashboard of data. You can select from a wide menu of descriptive options for both graduate and undergraduate. You will notice a particularly high diversity in the graduate programs. See https://www.wpi.edu/offices/institutional-research/data-dashboards
For particulars on the undergraduate program of studies see https://www.wpi.edu/project-based-learning/wpi-plan
For more discussion on the Chemical Engineering department see https://www.wpi.edu/academics/departments/chemical-engineering
Great advice and resources above. We looked at sciences at Wisconsin and know WPI well. Yes, Wisconsin is a very large state flagship, terrific for sciences. Yes, large classes, although less so in engineering, and more teaching assistants, rather than profs teaching sections of larger classes, I believe. Phenomenal research university, which can provide outstanding opportunities, and sometimes that top profs are more focused on research than teaching, but not always, and if you are working in one of these labs, it can be a plus, not a negative. Madison is a nice college town and state capital, with the state capitol (building) near campus.
WPI has a nice campus in a nice suburban area of Worcester, on the edge of downtown. It is very hands-on and project-oriented in general, and students really do an extraordinary number of coops/internships. It is relatively gender balanced for a STEM school. I think the most recent classes have been in the 56-58% male range, if that is important.
UW does have more of a national reputation, though WPI has had an amazing decade or more of success in advancing the institution and attracting top students. It does have very deep business/career ties in the northeast. Wisconsin would be better known if you’re job hunting in LA or Seattle or Chicago or Texas, but WPI students really do great landing tech jobs. Of course, many WPI alums live and work outside the northeast, it’s just that the school ties are deeper in the northeast.
UW, I’m sure, is more highly ranked in world rankings. These are usually heavily based on published research, which really favors large research universities–more research professors, more published research and subsequent citation. Often these world rankings make little sense from a US perspective because many of the smaller schools with the best reputations are ranked very low because the profs have more of a teaching emphasis, and a school has fewer of them. However, world ranking could be a factor in international employment for you, so something to consider.
So there’s not a “right” choice, just maybe a right choice for YOU, where the environment sounds best for you. Again, two truly outstanding schools (and the others are as well).
Good luck!