<p>@mom45 – I’m an alumnus (Eng. ’83), S is a junior Eng. major at Marquette. He was accepted to UW Madison, his first choice, but decided on Marquette after visiting both schools. His decision came down to: 1) Size (did not feel comfortable with the huge campus), 2) Merit aid by Marquette made it less expensive than UW (we are OOS), 3) As with most State schools you are not enrolled in the engineering program and you must apply to enter the program after sophomore year (they inform you that if you keep a 2.5 GPA it is a 90% acceptance rate). As beastman said Marquette makes more emphasis on placing students in co-op programs than UW. But UW Madison has a very good engineering department so your S should be fine at either school. Do not know about U of MN. What engineering major is he considering?</p>