| A professor told me this about public school engineering vs. private school engineering. You'll find that some of the highest ranked engineering schools are public schools - Umich, UIUC, Berkeley, Georgia Tech, etc. But the rankings are done in a way that doesn't necessarily reflect where you will get the best education.
At UIUC, the ranking is very high because the curriculum is very rigorous - in fact, it is basically a gauntlet - if you manage to survive, then congrats, you pass. The gauntlet is difficult enough that anyone who manages to pass is a pretty good engineer. Unfortunately, due to the sheer size of the program, you're usually left to fend for yourself and it's far more competitive.
At a school like Northwestern, you get a great support group, your professors are extremely accessible, and usually majors are small enough that you will get to know most of the people in your major and form some pretty good study group bonds - which effectively negates the competitive feeling.
Also, you should consider grad school placement. I read that out of a class of 272 CS majors from Berkeley, only 1 made it to MIT for graduate school. My friend just graduated from UIUC as a ChemE, and he was one of only 5 kids in his entire major to go to a good school for graduate school (he went to Stanford). On the other hand, Materials Science here at NU usually only has 20 kids per year, and last year we sent 5 to MIT, and the rest into industry or other great schools. It's the experience that counts, and at NU, your experience and your education will be excellent, and (in my humble opinion) probably better than a public school's. | 
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