Colleges- need advice

[Gandalf511]

Hey, I'm looking at a few different colleges and was wondering if anyone had any advice on which one to go to. First off, I'm thinking of majoring in EE and I live in Texas,

UT - Austin
U Illinois - Urbana Champaigne (sp)
Berkeley
U Chicago
Duke

Anyone have any info on AP credit given and NMS scholarships. Stuff like that. Thanks

 

[Poncherelli]

check the link on collegeboard.com for info on colleges and look under scores or soemthing to find all the AP info and whatnot.

 

[GoldenBear]

<< UT - Austin >>

Best school in Texas, and a hell of a public school, great engineering program, and a HUGE student body--largest college in America I believe, with nearly 40,000 undergrads alone.

<< Berkeley >>

Most &quot;prestiguous&quot; public school in the country, and one of the most all around, tremendous business and engineering schools. Campus is great, but the city around it isn't quite as. Expect HUGE classrooms, lots of competition, lots of radical type people. The quality of education is hard to beat, but be ready to face some tough conditions outside the classroom. But it is basically the &quot;real world&quot; out there, and should exhibit you to such conditions. However San Fran and other locations is only a train ride away as well. It's nearly impossible be admitted from out of state though, as nearly 90% of their undergrads are from in state.

<< U Chicago >>

Another prestigious school, and also has a great campus but not so great off campus. Very tough to get in as well, but does offer a tremendous &quot;all around&quot; education, and is most famous I think for economics. And in Chicago, you'll find plenty to do. It's a private school so expect to get lots of loans if you don't want to be in deep debt.

<< Duke >>

Duke has great natural science and engineering programs, but is often overshadowed by their basketball team. Great looking campus, and not a bad choice either.

I've never heard of that Illinois school though, but you can find info on it at USNews..

 

[Gandalf511]

U Illinois - Urbana Champaigne is the 3rd best EE school in the nation. i've also got enough AP credit there to complete my degree in 3 years. however it's not quite as prestigious and is at least 1.5 hours from major city.

 

[GoldenBear]

<< i've also got enough AP credit there to complete my degree in 3 years. >>

I really doubt that if you're going into EE

While with other majors you typically start off your upper division/technical classes in your junior year, and sometimes sophomore year, most EE people start as early as their freshman year.

 

[RSVandy]

Aren't the rankings (like for the EE rankings) for the GRADUATE schools of those colleges?

 

[GoldenBear]

<< Aren't the rankings (like for the EE rankings) for the GRADUATE schools of those colleges? >>

There's a section for undergrad and for grad. However they are obtained through professors at other schools who participate in surveys so undergrad rankings may reflect what the professors think of grad schools, but then again a university with a good grad more often than not (not *always*) has an undergrad program equally as strong.

 

[chrissyo4]

Im not any help as to the other colleges, but I do attend UT Austin. So maybe I can shed some light from experience... tuition is mighty reasonable at UT (that is if tuition is a factor)... if you want some info about EE at UT , talk to heat23... on a lighter note, UT is the largest population wise in the nation! The &quot;college life&quot; is great - parties, big greek system (if your into that), nice campus, friendly and diverse people, etc... one of the bad things about Austin is the traffic and cost of living. Something like 90% live off campus.. so its tough to find housing and muy expensive! But anyways, thats my two cents!

 

[Mapidus]

Stay in Texas, go to UT, and save a ton of money. Also, if your going to spend money on a private school for an EE, Duke and UChicago are not the best choices.

 

[Mapidus]

<< << i've also got enough AP credit there to complete my degree in 3 years. >>

I really doubt that if you're going into EE

While with other majors you typically start off your upper division/technical classes in your junior year, and sometimes sophomore year, most EE people start as early as their freshman year. >>



Actually it is very possible since in the first two years in an EE program people have to take their Math(4+ semesters), Physics(3 semesters), Chem(1 semester) and Liberal Arts electives(18+ credits). With AP credit you might be able to skip Chem, 2 semsesters each of math and physics and the majority of the liberal arts electives. That can easily add up to 10+ classes which will cover 1 year worth of credit. I know of many people who did EE in 3 years(about 137-150 credits), some even EE &amp; CS in 3 years(170+ credits). Most people I know who had little AP credit did EE in 3.5-4 years.

 

[slanginhard]

U of chicago doesnt even have an engineering program

 

[Urinal Mint]

You might also check out UTDallas... since Texas Instruments pumps millions of dollars into their EE program, it might be worthwhile.

But, out of that list, I stick with UT Austin (toga! toga!) and have a ball in the Live Music Capital.

BTW, I went to Texas A&amp;M (Mechanical Engr) and our EE program is OK, but not spectacular... stick to the in-state large public university and you won't go wrong.

 

[Sybren]

Don't forget Duke is rated in the top 10 in Princeton's review

Just had to throw that in since my brother is starting there in about 3 weeks

 

[bigbootydaddy]

UT here I come, T minus 24 days


UT booty

 

[NivekC4]

UT is a great school. I've been there for 2 years and I love it so far

*I'm CS by the way...but some of my friends are in EE and they say it's a lot of work*

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

Remember that U of I at Urbana-Champagne has a lot of research organizations associated to the the fact that there is one of five National Centers for Supercomputing Applications. Lots of cool stuff there for you to get resume fodder and p/t work on.

 

[bigd480]

UT will give you full tuition if you're a NMS (you just have to keep a 3.25 first year and 3.0 after)

They also give credits for APs, CLEPs, and even SAT2s - I'm graduating a semester early and with a semester extra in hours cuz of that...

If you have any more questions let me know - I go to UT and work for the College of Engineering

 

[Gandalf511]

Thanks for all the info. A bit of clarification: By the U Illinois standards I should have either 30 or 44 hours of AP credit going into college, so that will take care of most of my electives and core regular education classes leaving me about 91 hours to complete. I can't find much info on the other colleges. I looked at Chicago and can't find any engineering stuff, so they're dropping on my list. My current thinking is UT is cheap and pretty good, especially if i can get into honors. Illinois is better regarded in EE but is a bit far away and a little more costly. Plus i can't find any scholarship info. anyway, thanks for the info and opinions on the different universities.

 

[PsychoAndy]

DAYUM, all y'all know what you're gonna be doing...I'm a junior, i dont know what i want to be, and dunno what i should be doing in the next 2 years...

 

[BruinGuy]

<< i've also got enough AP credit there to complete my degree in 3 years. >>



Well you see, I thought along a similar vein when I graduated HS. I thought that with 40 units under my belt that I would graduate sooner, but at the very least, here at UCLA, it is something like 160 quarter units to graduate. I figured I had more then a year done, epspecially since I had taken tests such as Chem AP and Calculus to name a few. So there was some hope that I would get credit for them to apply to some of my classes. Well I was wrong, for Electicial engineers, it takes something like ~195 units to graduate, and with all my units I am just about 1.5 quarters (half a year) ahead in what I actually should be taking, though I am planning on using some of that slack, because they expect me to take 3 straight quarters of 17-18 units a piece, with at least one lab per quarter, during my junior year. And that is a little too much for me. So I would warn you, not to get your hopes up too high about graduating in 3 years. It is unlikely at best.

 

[Jfur]

<<

<< Aren't the rankings (like for the EE rankings) for the GRADUATE schools of those colleges? >>

There's a section for undergrad and for grad. However they are obtained through professors at other schools who participate in surveys so undergrad rankings may reflect what the professors think of grad schools, but then again a university with a good grad more often than not (not *always*) has an undergrad program equally as strong. >>



I'd say it's a little less often than one might imagine.. Make sure the rsources for undergrads are there -- faculty time, labs, etc. There are MANY, MANY instances where ug and grad do not match.

btw, instead of trying to rush in 3, take a little more time and do a few internships, publications, etc.

 

[CichliSuite]

Go to a nice liberal arts school. It doesn't have any engineering whatsoever, but you'll realize that you really hated engineering anyway.

Just kidding. Good luck!