DD25 is planning to study industrial engineering and trying to decide between UW-Madison, Purdue and Ohio State. She’s not on CC, so posting on her behalf. Seeking different points of view to help her make an informed decisions.
We are OOO (SoCal) for all. COA is 68K for UW-Madison, 48K for Purdue and 35K for Ohio (with merit). We can pay the OOO tuition, but lower cost is obviously better.
She wants to do an MBA following IE, and work in the tech or health sector. Therefore research strength of a college is not a major deciding factor. Strong networking, internship opportunities are very important. She is seeking a work/life balance, willing to put in the hard work, but also wants to enjoy the college experience. She enjoys the urban vibe.
She is also waitlisted at UMich (COA: ~85K). That would have been her top choice since she is really into automotive technology, and Michigan has nice opportunities in that area. But we know that getting off the WL is highly unlikely and as parents we find it hard to justify the OOO price tag.
My daughter considered all three schools when creating her college list. The only one of the three she applied to was Purdue (and went). Of course Purdue is the only non urban campus of the three and that sounds important your daughter.
Purdue’s IE program is extremely well regarded. I don’t give much weight to rankings but they are #2. in terms of networking, internships and coop opportunities, Purdue can’t be beat.
Happy to answer any Purdue specific questions if they are in the running. If “urban vibe” is a priority, Purdue would be safe to cross off the list.
IE is not a competitive entry major at Purdue. I believe the engineering index is only a 3.0 but I don’t recall anyone not getting into IE, regardless of GPA.
Any of the three but cheaper is better because outcomes will be similar.
And the autos hire from across the board - northern and southern schools (most plants and new plants are mainly in the south) but none of these (inc Michigan) are the auto engineering schools.
One gets an mba later in life - after working a few years. So that’s not needed in this discussion.
Today kids find their own internships by and large. There are many OEMs with plants but also many many suppliers. She will apply to all of them.
Where she goes won’t matter. Go to the school she likes best.
I’m an auto guy (sales) but my son an engineer. He interned at a southern plant - they had Alabama, Auburn, UAH, Ga Tech, Ole Miss, UTK, LSU, Miss State, Tenn Tech and more.
Get on campus. Join ecoCAR or Formula SAE.
But pick the right school for her fit wise. Finance is a part of fit.
Btw my son now does manuf engineering engineering (process) in aero - as he says mainly industrial and he’s a MechE so different majors can cross over.
Yes, we visited Madison and Purdue in March. She really liked Madison. She thought Purdue was better than she expected, but she didn’t love it. The campus is beautiful, but nothing much outside the campus.
I’m a former Buckeye, so I know the OSU campus. We are signed up for the Buckeye Bound event on 4/11, but we are still debating whether we should take that trip.
You can’t beat 35K for Ohio Stat. We went to Eng tour there and the tour guides talk about getting multiple internships throughout their time there. Eng students there seem to have work/life balance your daughter is looking for. Columbus has the urban vibe too. Finally, 3.2 GPA in Purdue may be hard to achieve… Good Luck.
I personally think that college towns tend to be their own lovely bubble with many aspects of urban living that folks find attractive. But if she visited Purdue and wasn’t that enthused about W. Lafayette, then that certainly does not stand well in its favor. In that respect, Wisconsin and Ohio State seem better-suited.
This is an honest question, as I really don’t know the answer. But how are tOSU grads received at automotive companies that are based in Michigan? It may be because I live with a die-hard Michigan fan, but he’s not the only one from MI I’ve heard say, “My two favorite teams are Michigan and anyone playing Ohio State.” And there’s the old Woody Hayes tale of running out of gas and pushing his vehicle into Ohio so as not to give MI a single nickel of his money. So it’s not a super big consideration, but it might be worth investigating. And there are plenty of jobs in automotive technology that are outside of MI, and this may not necessarily be worth over $30k/year for your family.