Anonymous
04/14/2026 14:43
Subject: Does anyone hate it when people dismiss state flagship universities like UW Madison or UIUC as less prestigious schools?
Anonymous wrote:Schools like UGA, Purdue, UW Madison, and UIUC are extremely hard to get into now. I know people with straight As and 1500+ SAT scores who got denied from these places, even in-state. For engineering, UIUC has a sub 10% acceptance rate. You have to be a top student to get into these state flagships
Well, no. Because I don't consider what other people think. Why do you?
Anonymous
04/14/2026 14:42
Subject: Re:Does anyone hate it when people dismiss state flagship universities like UW Madison or UIUC as less prestigious schools?
I've seen this same sentiment about UW in Seattle on social media. Kids with top grades and test scores are getting rejected OOS and they're shocked because they thought it would be easy.
Anonymous
04/14/2026 14:27
Subject: Does anyone hate it when people dismiss state flagship universities like UW Madison or UIUC as less prestigious schools?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Schools like UGA, Purdue, UW Madison, and UIUC are extremely hard to get into now. I know people with straight As and 1500+ SAT scores who got denied from these places, even in-state. For engineering, UIUC has a sub 10% acceptance rate. You have to be a top student to get into these state flagships
Not true: only for CS.
UW Madison is a great school that’s surprisingly easy to get into. UIUC too, if not CS. UGA is a tier or two below the others.
These schools are not hard to get into except for engineering at Purdue and UIUC, and even then Purdue is easier.
+1. "Not hard to get into" as compared with trying to land a t20. I have an engineering kid at UW–Madison OOS who is having a great time learning/growing but I must admit that the school isn't too hard to get into compared to these crazy single-digit acceptance rate schools.
I think the cutoff happens at T30: there seems to be a cliff at that point — for a normal high stats kid.
What schools are T30? NYU and Wisconsin? USC?
Anonymous
04/14/2026 14:05
Subject: Does anyone hate it when people dismiss state flagship universities like UW Madison or UIUC as less prestigious schools?
I think only parents/middle-age people, especially those not familiar with stem or business education, see state flagships as less prestigious than smaller schools. Several state flagships have expanded extensively over the last 20 years with entire buildings and sections of campus devoted to engineering & CS as well as business. The offerings and resources are extensive and attract top profs and researchers. Students see this as they research online but middle-age people may be unaware of the situation.
Anonymous
04/14/2026 13:22
Subject: Does anyone hate it when people dismiss state flagship universities like UW Madison or UIUC as less prestigious schools?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:MAybe easier to get into than "elite" schools but much harder work once in, and then that is the payoff.
I'd hire a Purdue engineering grad over most other engineering school grads in the top ten, excepting probably MIT, Caltech, Stanford CS (but not meche or cheme) and maybe...Princeton hard core engineering. Though maybe.
The copium comes out.
Not sure what you mean. I didn't go to any of these schools, and went instead to "elite" schools. I teach at an "elite" private school and have a startup. I'd choose to hire from these schools over the school where I work. How is that an emotional shortcoming? Or what are you meaning by "copium" these days, which honestly seems poorly placed here.
Maybe your startup isn’t going anywhere? My kid attends an “elite” school and many professors have startups and it’s common knowledge which professors make terrible startup founders, the startup is kind of floundering and kids avoid, and which are going somewhere and literally almost every kid working at those attends the school.
You sound ridiculous, lol
Not to mention the startups founded by the current students getting VC funding.
Anonymous
04/14/2026 11:25
Subject: Does anyone hate it when people dismiss state flagship universities like UW Madison or UIUC as less prestigious schools?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I think because it’s somewhat major dependent and also people are unaware.
My old neighbor in Bethesda’s kid was studying CS at UIUC when my son was younger. I knew nothing about it and wondered why you would go to college a corn field. Now, my own child is in high school I know about CS and business at UIUC. I am like blown away that my neighbors kid got in. They are crazy successful now.
But most non-CS people don’t know this. Heck, I had a buddy turning down Stanford for UIUC for grad school. Both offered her full funding, but UIUC ranked first in her field then (Stanford also ranked among the top few). Her mom was maddddd, as she lost the bragging rights for being a Stanford parent🤣
CS at UIUC has been a top program for a very long time.
Anonymous
04/14/2026 10:30
Subject: Does anyone hate it when people dismiss state flagship universities like UW Madison or UIUC as less prestigious schools?
Anonymous wrote:I think because it’s somewhat major dependent and also people are unaware.
My old neighbor in Bethesda’s kid was studying CS at UIUC when my son was younger. I knew nothing about it and wondered why you would go to college a corn field. Now, my own child is in high school I know about CS and business at UIUC. I am like blown away that my neighbors kid got in. They are crazy successful now.
CS at UIUC has been a top program for a very long time.
Anonymous
04/14/2026 09:22
Subject: Does anyone hate it when people dismiss state flagship universities like UW Madison or UIUC as less prestigious schools?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Schools like UGA, Purdue, UW Madison, and UIUC are extremely hard to get into now. I know people with straight As and 1500+ SAT scores who got denied from these places, even in-state. For engineering, UIUC has a sub 10% acceptance rate. You have to be a top student to get into these state flagships
Not true: only for CS.
UW Madison is a great school that’s surprisingly easy to get into. UIUC too, if not CS. UGA is a tier or two below the others.
These schools are not hard to get into except for engineering at Purdue and UIUC, and even then Purdue is easier.
+1. "Not hard to get into" as compared with trying to land a t20. I have an engineering kid at UW–Madison OOS who is having a great time learning/growing but I must admit that the school isn't too hard to get into compared to these crazy single-digit acceptance rate schools.
I think the cutoff happens at T30: there seems to be a cliff at that point — for a normal high stats kid.
Anonymous
04/14/2026 09:06
Subject: Does anyone hate it when people dismiss state flagship universities like UW Madison or UIUC as less prestigious schools?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:MAybe easier to get into than "elite" schools but much harder work once in, and then that is the payoff.
I'd hire a Purdue engineering grad over most other engineering school grads in the top ten, excepting probably MIT, Caltech, Stanford CS (but not meche or cheme) and maybe...Princeton hard core engineering. Though maybe.
What role do hire for where you hire majors in CS, MechE (but not at Stanford), and ChemE (but not at Stanford)?
Why not Cornell for CS?
Top ChemE Undergrad USNWR
1. MIT
2. Georgia Tech
3. UC Berkely
6. Stanford
CS
1.MIT
2.CMU
3. UC Berkelly
4. Georgia Tech
7. Cornell
ChemE is #4 at U of Del, by the way. Seems like no one cares about them, and that's too bad.
Anonymous
04/14/2026 09:05
Subject: Does anyone hate it when people dismiss state flagship universities like UW Madison or UIUC as less prestigious schools?
Why does it matter that it is prestigious?
They are amazing engineering/CS institution.
They are amazing engineering/CS institution.
Anonymous
04/14/2026 08:57
Subject: Does anyone hate it when people dismiss state flagship universities like UW Madison or UIUC as less prestigious schools?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:MAybe easier to get into than "elite" schools but much harder work once in, and then that is the payoff.
I'd hire a Purdue engineering grad over most other engineering school grads in the top ten, excepting probably MIT, Caltech, Stanford CS (but not meche or cheme) and maybe...Princeton hard core engineering. Though maybe.
The copium comes out.
Not sure what you mean. I didn't go to any of these schools, and went instead to "elite" schools. I teach at an "elite" private school and have a startup. I'd choose to hire from these schools over the school where I work. How is that an emotional shortcoming? Or what are you meaning by "copium" these days, which honestly seems poorly placed here.
Maybe your startup isn’t going anywhere? My kid attends an “elite” school and many professors have startups and it’s common knowledge which professors make terrible startup founders, the startup is kind of floundering and kids avoid, and which are going somewhere and literally almost every kid working at those attends the school.
Not to mention the startups founded by the current students getting VC funding.
You have gone off the rails. My point is that these schools and many other state flagships have fantastic engineering and CS programs. The reality is that elite private schools either didn't do engineering historically or even closed their engineering programs for a long time. Engineering was the key mission of a lot state flagships - Purdue, GA Tech and their historical continuity and focus on pedagogy has allowed them to continue to lead in these spaces. (To the extent that I use textbooks anymore, those textbooks are mostly written by profs at these flagships. I got a great new one from a U Wisc prof and other classics in my field that immediately come to mind are from Minnesota and Mich profs. Big companies also go to these universities for recruiting much more than elite privates for traditional engineering. I've had many PhD students and my "hiring" judgement is based on having seen the preparation and work ethic instilled by these programs vs elite privates in general and also the knowledge of the curricula where I teach and what my peers are doing. I don't have a comprehensive knowledge of every field, though. Particular judgements are in reality based on the limitations of elite private programs which are often smaller and have more limited class opportunities and busy profs who are generally not putting their energy into undergraduate education. That doesn't translate into the field rankings, as those are based on research.
Those field rankings do have an impact - elite private schools can and do excel at research opportunities for students. That can be great for a PhD. That said, you can definitely do research at these schools too and students should proactively seek out those opportunities because the labs are also great there (See flagships also at the top on these lists as well). A downside of a state flagship is, as you all know, more regional networking, especially if the flagship is far from where you want to live/work later, which might be true for an east coast/DC kid. But it's a great opportunity and could be underrated by many so I think this is a great thread/point for tempering college insanity.
Anonymous
04/14/2026 08:44
Subject: Does anyone hate it when people dismiss state flagship universities like UW Madison or UIUC as less prestigious schools?
Anonymous wrote:The people here are sad prestige chasers so it doesn’t bother me much.
The DMV is overflowing with sad prestige-chasers.
Anonymous
04/14/2026 08:41
Subject: Does anyone hate it when people dismiss state flagship universities like UW Madison or UIUC as less prestigious schools?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:MAybe easier to get into than "elite" schools but much harder work once in, and then that is the payoff.
I'd hire a Purdue engineering grad over most other engineering school grads in the top ten, excepting probably MIT, Caltech, Stanford CS (but not meche or cheme) and maybe...Princeton hard core engineering. Though maybe.
What role do hire for where you hire majors in CS, MechE (but not at Stanford), and ChemE (but not at Stanford)?
Why not Cornell for CS?
Top ChemE Undergrad USNWR
1. MIT
2. Georgia Tech
3. UC Berkely
6. Stanford
CS
1.MIT
2.CMU
3. UC Berkelly
4. Georgia Tech
7. Cornell
None of those are UW, UIUC, UGA, Purdue or other schools which are the subject of this thread.
Anonymous
04/14/2026 08:35
Subject: Does anyone hate it when people dismiss state flagship universities like UW Madison or UIUC as less prestigious schools?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Schools like UGA, Purdue, UW Madison, and UIUC are extremely hard to get into now. I know people with straight As and 1500+ SAT scores who got denied from these places, even in-state. For engineering, UIUC has a sub 10% acceptance rate. You have to be a top student to get into these state flagships
Not true: only for CS.
UW Madison is a great school that’s surprisingly easy to get into. UIUC too, if not CS. UGA is a tier or two below the others.
My DC got into UW-Mad but rejected at UGA. Honestly a lot of it is a crap shoot.
Anonymous
04/14/2026 08:29
Subject: Does anyone hate it when people dismiss state flagship universities like UW Madison or UIUC as less prestigious schools?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:MAybe easier to get into than "elite" schools but much harder work once in, and then that is the payoff.
I'd hire a Purdue engineering grad over most other engineering school grads in the top ten, excepting probably MIT, Caltech, Stanford CS (but not meche or cheme) and maybe...Princeton hard core engineering. Though maybe.
What role do hire for where you hire majors in CS, MechE (but not at Stanford), and ChemE (but not at Stanford)?
Why not Cornell for CS?
Top ChemE Undergrad USNWR
1. MIT
2. Georgia Tech
3. UC Berkely
6. Stanford
CS
1.MIT
2.CMU
3. UC Berkelly
4. Georgia Tech
7. Cornell