Help! Texas A&M or University of Michigan, Ann Arbor(Chemical Engineering)

[poojat_chem]

I have received admits from both of these for MS in Chemical Engineering. Each has its pros or cons. Texas has much lesser tuition but Michigan is ranked higher.  Does anyone have any insights to share? Any ideas which program is better recognized/will be more useful professionally?

Edited April 6, 2015 by poojat_chem

[doomination]

what are your interests? A&M recently picked up one of Princeton's most prominent professors (Floudas).

[Dawnbreaker]

What is your area of interest/preference? As doomination alluded, TAMU picked up not just one, but 3 GIANTS in the field of Process Systems Engineering. (Floudas, Pistikoupolos, Kravaris). As such, I would say TAMU is the 3rd best Systems Engineering program in the world, only next to CMU and Wisconsin-Madison. 

 

If you are interested in Systems, then TAMU is the easy choice, and its miles ahead. Also, Systems directly translates into industry appointments (you are the guy who'll be making corporations tons of money) mostly in areas like process optimization, scheduling, advanced process control, fault detection and isolation, control loop performance monitoring etc. 

 

I am not aware of other areas in ChemE, but as far as PSE is concerned the choice is obvious (TAMU). I would say related areas will also feed off the strength of PSE (energy technology, catalysis etc.). 

[poojat_chem]

I am interested in Reaction Engineering, Catalysis and Nanotech. Not so much in PSE that's why not choosing CMU although I have got an admit from there.

[Dawnbreaker]

I don't know much about reaction engineering, but I think CMU is quite strong in catalysis. You might want to consider that option too. Among the three, I would say CMU is the best option - both in terms of overall reputation, and the place (which is also very important IMO, Pittsburgh is a great city). Though I don't have any concrete record of this, CMU's placement record is next to none. If you are interested in industrial job, I don't think there are very many programs better than CMU.

[poojat_chem]

Yes I have heard the same about CMU. Any idea how UMichand TAMU's placements?