Help me decide where to go for college

Hello, I have been getting acceptance letters from various colleges, and I have narrowed down the list to 2 colleges. These two are Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and Western New England University. It is probably beneficial to know that I am majoring in mechanical engineering.

Both of these schools cost almost the same for tuition, which makes the decision harder. Obviously, being on GRM means I love cars, and WNEU is in the town that the first car was made. But, Edwardsville is about 20 minutes away from a town I have visited that I absolutely love (Alton, IL). SIUE is also in my home state, which is pretty awesome, but I also feel like the opportunity to live in Massachusetts would be great (I am bad at socializing and I feel that being in a place where I don't know anyone with a dense population would help me open up).

If anyone has any input that would be great. My dad (The_Jed) said that posting on here would be beneficial to get advice from some other people with common interests.

Congratulations on the acceptances! That's awesome news, and it's great to be starting with choices. Great choice of major as well (from another ME). 

There are a few things I would really consider that will potentially help you for the start of your career as well, as you get through college. 

1. Scholarship or grant availability is huge. Tied in with this, cost of living/safety around the schools can make a real difference in how it feels to be there. 

2. Does either school have extra-curriculars that you see yourself being excited about? How many people go to each school/what is the chance you could find something brand new while you're there?

3. Is one school or another closer to quite a bit of industry that you could look to Intern or Co-Op at while you are at school? My wife and I (both engineers) did our work experiences out of state from our colleges. It was great, but it also meant missing out on some of the on-campus time we could have had if there were more local internships we were excited about.

Extra-curriculars /passion in what you can talk about and previous work experience will be key as you look to get into a career after graduation, so it wouldn't hurt to be thinking about that now! There are a lot of other considerations and I'm sure others will chime in with more, but these were what came to mind. If you are interested in more specific discussions or anything please feel free to reach out. I doubt I can help much, but my wife and I both went through engineering school and came out (~7 years ago) of it into some measure of "success."

Only good choices in front of you, and congratulations again.

I assume the tuition is less if you're already a resident of the state. Considering the cost of college, that would be a big factor for me. 
 

Since you already know what you want to study, see if you can arrange to speak with the department chairs at each school or a professor in each of the programs you're interested in. Prepare questions on the programs and facilities so that you can really get an idea of what they have to offer, the more specific the better; they will have limited time, so stay focused on the program rather than the overall school experience. You should come away from that with more clarity on the academic side. For the social side, you need to visit both if you haven't already, leaving enough time to really explore the area around the school as well as the campus. Ideally, you want to do as much as you can in advance to figure out which is the better fit for you.

I wasn't familiar with either school's location so for others who don't know either...
1. NE Metro St. Louis on the Illinois side
2. Springfield, MA

Purdue is up that way as well and is an excellent engineering school.  My wife went there.

SIUE. Why? In state tuition, it's Engineering school has a good reputation (at least in Chicago and the St. Louis area), they have Waffle House, and going home is a 2-3 hour drive instead of a $300 plane ticket. 

As a kid your age, I was pretty much determined to get away from home.  Now, as a parent, I love the idea of my kids being close to home.

So, from your perspective, perhaps getting away has its appeal.  Forces a degree of independence.  Of course, relative strength of each school's program and your post-graduation job prospects should probably be the primary criteria for selection.

The_Lily said:

Hello, I have been getting acceptance letters from various colleges, and I have narrowed down the list to 2 colleges. These two are Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and Western New England University. It is probably beneficial to know that I am majoring in mechanical engineering. [snip]

Big decision-nice job reaching out for advice. 

Somewhat unrelated-have you considered taking a gap year? It was one of the most beneficial decisions I made when I was in college, and the research is finally catching up:

(From: https://www.gapyearassociation.org/data-benefits/)

It doesn't have to be expensive-I worked in Florida and Hawaii for mine and came back with about as much money as I left with.

I'm near WNEU (~35 minutes South-East, across the CT line).  It's got a fine reputation around here, and I love the New England area, but don't move here just to socialize :)  Join clubs wherever you end up!  There's no better way to meet people than to see them repeatedly over the course of a semester.   We do have great tracks over here if that matters to you, with pretty good car culture.  WNEU is only ~30ish minutes from Palmer, 1 from Thompson, 1:30 from Lime Rock, etc.

As others have mentioned, this is a cost-benefit analysis, which is one of the main things Engineers have to grapple with.   Make sure you're looking at the total cost of ownership such as travel back and forth, etc.   If you have any dream jobs (i.e., SpaceX, Ford, etc., etc.), I'd try to reach out to their HR departments and see if either college would weigh better.  I know that it's no guarantee by any means, but it's good info to go into the weighted matrix.  

One other thing to do, especially since you're looking to be an ME and since you're a car person, presumably like to min-max the builds, is to look through the course work for any adjacent degrees.  You may be able to pick up a minor or three for the cost of just a few classes.   This is especially valuable if you want something like, say, an ME with a minor in mechanization, manufacturing, electrical, etc.

Best of luck! 

One thing I would ask both schools- if they regularly see graduates go to big schools for grad school. Not to suggest you will go, or want to, but to have it as an option in 4-5 years. Unfortunately, what school you go to does matter for job opportunities. 

1988RedT2 said:

As a kid your age, I was pretty much determined to get away from home.  Now, as a parent, I love the idea of my kids being close to home.

So, from your perspective, perhaps getting away has its appeal.  Forces a degree of independence.  Of course, relative strength of each school's program and your post-graduation job prospects should probably be the primary criteria for selection.

To be clear here, SIUE is 150 miles or so from home. Still very much the same general region and culturally nearly identical (outside of Edwardsville basically being a suburb of St. Louis vs. her being from a small rural town), but if "away from home" means away from parents and your hometown, SIUE fills that part of it. 
 

FWIW Lily, I went to Illinois State University, lived in Peoria, and have a very good friend who grew up down the road from Edwardsville in Troy. So I'm familiar with the general area. 

Springfield MA is one of the least nice city's in MA. Big opioid problems. No money really being invested there. The armpit of MA. Second to maybe Brockton MA. Do not recommend. 

A few general thoughts, considering I'm not familiar with either school.

1. If you don't have a full scholarship, consider the long term effects of the costs. Paying off huge student loans hinders future options & financial success/potential. Starting at a community college for a couple years and transferring can help with cost control, especially if you can stay at home or with family. Think of your education as an investment in your future and what is the return on your investment (ROI)?

2. For getting the first job out of school (and some once you get established, but less so in most cases) or getting into grad school, where you got your BS degree can be a big helping hand. So consider how well regarded is the school you select? ROI again.

3. Pick a full on engineering program and not an engineering technology program if you can. It will make a difference in your future opportunities. ROI again.

4. Pick one with an active student engineering society that participates in student competitions. You will benefit greatly from participating and get some semi-practical experience as well as have fun and make great friends. It also looks good on a resume.

4. Make sure the things you want to do in your limited spare time are available nearby. Not 2 hours away or further. You're going to be an engineering student not a business major (sorry if I offend anyone with that). If you can't live without going to a skatepark or mountain bike trails weekly, that needs to be on campus or very close. You will get busy with class work, extracurricular activities, etc. and it will be a struggle to find time to travel for non academic activities. Also, it is likely that as you progress through college you will go home less frequently and for shorter time periods (sorry to your parents, but you will develop your own life & friends), so being able to easily access the things you enjoy from campus will help you have a balanced life.

5. Even if you never plan to become a licensed engineer, take the FE exam while you are in school ( usually senior year, so this is very early advice). It's one day and $100-$200 cost. Most schools have a very high pass rate for students (85% or higher). Once you're out of school the pass rate drops to something like 25%. I personally know dozens of people who decided to take it at some point after graduating and none passed it in less than 2 attempts with most taking at least 3 tries before passing. Even as a ME there will be some jobs that you can't get if you aren't a PE.

Edit: went to the NCEES website & current cost for the FE exam is $225.

I would not go to Massachusetts expecting socializing to be easier, regardless of density. That being said, each and every college has their own student experience and culture. Admissions departments will tell you whatever you want to hear about culture, so you should do what you can to talk to current students about the parts of the student experience you care about.

(For what it's worth, I graduated from Northeastern in Boston ~5 years ago.)

Since you're posting here, cars are probably of interest.  I didn't search, but does either have a FSAE team/program?  

Back in the day SIU was THE party school in Illinois. Also it's a state school.

Go there.

Yes, SIU at Carbondale was a well known party school back in the day. I grew up in the Metro East area and my wife and I went to SIUE back in the dark ages. I would recommend my alma mater because it is in state and because the school has developed some really good programs.

In reply to The_Lily :

Western New England is not exactly an engineering powerhouse from my limited knowledge. (MA resident)  They have been more of a liberal arts college historically and may be trying to broaden their curriculum with engineering programs.  If they are offering reduced tuition please make sure to get it in writing and to read all of the conditions fully.  I know from my son's experience applying to different graduate programs in 2019 that some of the offers (UVA and UGA if I'm remembering correctly) initially looked great but once we dug into the details the "good" number was only guaranteed for the first year.

If you have your heart set on going to school in Massachusetts and are interested in engineering may I suggest you also consider Mass Maritime Academy?  I'm biased (where I went to school) but they offer several engineering related majors along with the more traditional marine engineering / marine transportation degrees. All have practical applications and reward "hands on" types of people. The school is consistently rated near the top of all schools in the country in terms of value of education vs cost and job opportunities on graduation.  Good luck in whatever you choose!

One will have significantly more winter than the other.

dean1484 said:

Springfield MA is one of the least nice city's in MA. Big opioid problems. No money really being invested there. The armpit of MA. Second to maybe Brockton MA. Do not recommend. 

I'm not sure that is 100% accurate. There are definitely some areas to avoid, but when I was there it appeared there were definite improvements being made. I'm currently in central Mass, but still go out to visit and keep in touch with friends from the area  

I would also not consider WNEU to be in Springfield proper. Its actually almost in Wilbraham and was more suburban than urban. 

I graduated from there when is was still WNEC (1997) with a BS in bioengineering. So while they changed from college to university, engineering is not something new. 

I had several friends that were MEs that ended up in aerospace at P&W, HS, and other prominent companies in the Windsor locks/hartford area right out of college. They also had an FSAE team at the time, but I haven't followed to see if it's still active.

I've done everything from biomechanical research, tech support (sw and hw), applications engineering (sensors and load cells), orthopedic implants, surgical robotics, plastic part design, biopsy devices and medical lasers after graduating from there, so I don't think it is necessarily going to limit future options.

I'm not sure how much things have changed, but when I was there the classes were small (<30 student), so professors knew who you were by name and were available for office hours. There is one I still keep in touch with 25 years after graduating.

There's lots of good info in the previous posts, and make sure you pick the schools based on how it will help you reach your goals for the future. 

The social aspect is present at all schools and living on campus will provide plenty of opportunity to build a circle of friends. Schools that have a broader offering of degree types (engineering, sciences, liberal arts, etc) will provide more potential opportunities to explore subject of interest outside engineering as electives and meet people in non technical disciplines. 

In reply to mtn :

The tallest building between Chicago and St. Louis is a residence hall at Illinois State University plus they have a kick ass marching band - the big red marching machine.

PLUS you can join the marching band without being a music major which is not the case at other schools. 

I would look at schools that offer the best internship or co-op experiences with the types of companies you want to work for.  The internship/work study/co-op experience is the most important one you'll get out of college, IMHO.

In reply to Datsun240ZGuy :

Watterson towers. I lived there for 2 of the best years of my life.