Civil Eng. Urbana-Champaign VS Texas Austin

[idsp]

Hi,

 

I've been accepted to UIUC and UT Austin, which according to USNews are ranked #1 and #5 respectively. Both programs look great to me, but I don't know much more about these places (im an international student). The only thing I know is that kind of hate cold (come from a southern country). However, don't know if going to UIUC, top school in the country, will make a great difference in my future career... Also, Austin seems very interested in having me there.

 

Thanks. 

[JPeterman]

I did my undergraduate at UT.  The first thing to know is that as far as I know, they are both fantastic programs, and seem to be highly respected in the field.  Congratulations on getting accepted!

 

From what I can tell, they are really pretty similar in prestige within the profession (UIUC might honestly be a bit higher when you look at things nationally, but I can't tell a clear-cut difference).  I'd ignore rankings as a way to compare them (they're both "Top Tier") and look at the specifics of the programs and locations.  If warm weather is important to you, do NOT go to Illinois.  If you want to stay in the United States and work in industry, then location might be more relevant.  UT Austin obviously has strong ties to companies in the region, and I'd assume Illinois is similar.  I'm currently living in Austin, and I'll just say that it's a fantastic city.  Friendly, not too gigantic but still very much a city, young and growing, and fun. 

 

I have a lot of nice things to say about UT Austin, but I'm very biased.  The program is huge, structural engineering is very practical, with good facilities and great professors.  The volume and quality of the research is good.  Transportation engineering has a lot of really interesting work with network modeling and complicated cost analyses.  Materials does a lot of interesting work with concrete, and a bunch of work with asphalt that I know nothing about.

 

What part of Civil Engineering are you focusing on?  Any particular professors in mind?  Is funding similar at each location?

[idsp]

Thank you so much!

 

I am focusing on Construction Engineering and Project Management and I'd say James T. O'Connor would be a good thesis supervisor. I got a full scholarship from my home country so did not apply for funding. Regardless of the weather (which is an obvious win for Austin), I think UT's program is more appealing than UIUC's (the former seems to be more focused on management techniques, whereas the latter seems to be more focused on field methods, which I'm not so passionate about). I feel UT is the right choice, but the fact that UIUC is #1 in the country (UT is #5) inevitably makes me doubt... specially considering I'd like to work in industry and that could be anywhere... Deep inside I think I know what to do though...

 

Thanks again!