<p>Based on what you mentioned about tuition in Illinois I am assuming that though you live in Illinois, you cannot qualify for in-state tuition and your mention of $34K indicates you are likely an international because that is close to the annual tuition for an international in engineering at UIUC. If my assumption is correct then you are way off on the difference in cost between the two. That UIUC number is just tuition and does not include fees, room and board, and book costs and thus you need to add another $11K or even more to to get your estimated total costs. That $29K Minnesota cost is an estimated entire cost including tuition, fees, room and board, and books. The Minnesota tuition for OOS is actually about $18K a year. In other words, the actual cost difference between the universities can be over $16K a year.</p>
<p>If my assumption is correct, you thus have a significant cost incentive to go to Minn rather than Ill and that could be the deciding factor if your preference right now is Minn. My personal bias would vote for Ill but Minn is a top notch university and well regarded in engineering and with that kind of cost difference it is hard to justify Ill if you like Minn.</p>