phugoidmode

I did 3 years at UIUC before transferring to Georgia Tech and finishing my BS in Aerospace Engineering.
Cornell obviously has much better name recognition but within the engineering community UIUC is much better regarded. If your daughter isn't sure she wants to do Engineering i would recommend she go to Cornell since it also offers excellent programs in the sciences and humanities. If she is sure she wants to do Electrical Engineering I HIGHLY recommend UIUC. It is generally considered the top public school in ECE (yes, slightly better than Berkeley). The rankings don't always reflect this. UIUC was #2 for a long time but now has slightly slipped to #4. Admission is extremely competetive especially for grad school. Plenty of my junior friends who studied ECE at UIUC ended up going to Stanford and MIT for grad school. because they did not get in UIUC. The acceptance rate hovers around 10%. You can't go wrong with Illinois ECE.