Hey, I’m a international student, and I’m going to America in 2015 Fall.
I was accepted by U of Rochester and U of Illinois in champaign, economics.
I want to get a double degree of Math or statistics. Here are some questions I have.
- Which university has more internship programs? They both locate far from cities, U of R is near to New York City and U of I is near to Chicago
- U of R is harder to get a good GPA, I'm afraid it will influence my application of Graduate, but the quality of courses in U of R is higher than U of I, which is more important?
Thanks for answering!
- Which university has a better Network of contacts?
I can’t answer all of your questions, but just to address the internship opportunities, I agree that Urbana and Rochester as cities won’t have much to offer, so if that is really important to you be aware that Rochester is NOT near New York City, unless you consider 5 and a half hours close by. Urbana is better at 2 hours away from Chicago. I hope that cleared some things up. Up-state New York is a lot bigger than most people think 
“Quality of courses” is very close to saying, “Quality of the university.” I would choose the higher quality and trust that your effort will mostly determine the level of your GPA. The University of Rochester is of course in a city. I’m not sure why you couldn’t do an internship in Rochester itself. That’s something you should at least look into if you are weighing that factor heavily. Beyond that, URochester’s student body has decent national representation. This may help create some of the network of contacts you are looking for.
URochester econ is very good. Not that UIUC econ is bad, but they really punch above their weight in terms of turning out econ grads who go on to become famous.
I assume that cost isn’t an issue?
Also, haven’t the acceptance deadlines past?
yeah the cost of them doesn’t vary a lot. I’m a transfer student so the deadline is later than usual.