Should Illinois have a second flagship university? (Chicago, Carbondale: school, living)

[Liledgy]

Originally Posted by Maintainschaos

UIUC (not UIC or UIS) is definitely neck-and-neck with Wisconsin as the second-best public school in the Midwest (with Michigan being the obvious leader). As far as public universities in the country go, Illinois is one of the best overall in the same league as GA Tech and UCSD, with programs in engineering (across a wide swath of sub disciplines), comp sci, chemistry, physics, psychology, library sciences etc. being in the top echelon in the U.S. I mean, it’s not Stanford, but it’s a pretty elite public university.

Don’t forget accounting.

[damba]

Originally Posted by personone

Not to disagree with you, but from an outsider’s perspective (someone unfamiliar with the Big Ten, outside of Michigan), from an academic standpoint, outside of Northwestern and Michigan, I am unaware of the academic differences between Wisconsin and Illinois (or many of the other Big Ten schools). That isn’t to say that Wisconsin isn’t a better academic school than Illinois; just that, based on national reputation, I don’t think it is that much better to the degree that people, outside of maybe the Big Ten region, would know that.

If I had to guess (and I could be wrong), from the national perspective/reputation, after Michigan and Northwestern, most of the Big Ten schools are probably viewed pretty similarly when it comes to academics (i.e. I don’t think Wisconsin stands out from the pack on a national-level like Northwestern and Michigan do).

Oh my.

There has historically been a very strong academic pipeline from the east coast to UW-Madison. Everyone would move mountains practically to do research or teach at Madison. Especially if Michigan did not pan out.

The former WI governor Walker has seriously tarnished that situation with attacks/funding cuts to higher education.

[personone]

Originally Posted by Jon998877

I think its NW by a decent margin over Michigan, then Illinois and Wisconsin.... then it seems like a closter of schools about equal (OSU, Purdue, Iowa, Indiana etc)… then at the back is Nebraska

I won’t argue that Northwestern isn’t ranked higher than Michigan, although I don’t know how you define “by a decent margin.” My point is, outside of NW and Michigan (clearly more elite than the rest), most people would lump the rest of the Big Ten together academically (regardless of what the official rankings are).

[Jon998877]

Originally Posted by personone

I won’t argue that Northwestern isn’t ranked higher than Michigan, although I don’t know how you define “by a decent margin.” My point is, outside of NW and Michigan (clearly more elite than the rest), most people would lump the rest of the Big Ten together academically (regardless of what the official rankings are).

At the high school I am at, that's not the case.. I see the kids that do not get accepted into Illinois and Michigan are going to places such as Iowa, Indiana and Purdue as their back up school..

I also think you are overthinking Michigan, over the last few years we have had two kids get into Michigan after they failed to get into U of I...

[damba]

Originally Posted by Jon998877

At the high school I am at, that's not the case.. I see the kids that do not get accepted into Illinois and Michigan are going to places such as Iowa, Indiana and Purdue as their back up school..

Indiana and Purdue are closer to home from where I believe you said you lived. Iowa will cost less too.

I also think you are overthinking Michigan, over the last few years we have had two kids get into Michigan after they failed to get into U of I...

Not at all. Your example does not really say much.

[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by Jon998877

For years U of I has blocked ISU from adding an engineering schools, but with ISU now being the states #2 school, something has happened and they are in the planning stages of adding engineering.. Seems like this will hurt NIU even more..

Well, it probably wouldn't hurt for Illinois to have more public research universities with engineering schools. There's quite a bit of demand for decent to great engineers, especially in regards to software programming, and so having a large number of them makes sense.

I'm not doubting you at all, but do you have links to U of I blocking ISU from adding an engineering school and the current planning for an engineering school at ISU?

[damba]

Originally Posted by OyCrumbler

Well, it probably wouldn't hurt for Illinois to have more public research universities with engineering schools. There's quite a bit of demand for decent to great engineers, especially in regards to software programming, and so having a large number of them makes sense.

I'm not doubting you at all, but do you have links to U of I blocking ISU from adding an engineering school and the current planning for an engineering school at ISU?

It doesn’t surprise me that the powers that be would not want to fund a full fledged engineering program with our current budget and existing programs elsewhere.

Crain’s mentioned it last year, btw.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/arti...eering-program

[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by damba

It doesn’t surprise me that the powers that be would not want to fund a full fledged engineering program with our current budget and existing programs elsewhere.

Crain’s mentioned it last year, btw.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/arti...eering-program

Nice. I think it's overall a great idea. A lot of students need to stay somewhat close to their families for various reasons during college and there's no major engineering program in central Illinois whether public or private schools. ISU is also close to an Amtrak stop so students could come in and out from a broad swath of Illinois pretty easily, so interviews and conferences in Chicago or St. Louis are possible for them while still in school. STEMs jobs, especially the applied and non-theoretical sort, are having a surge and are likely to do so for years to come and the US in general, including Illinois, needs to be able to educate and train more people for such. This probably should have been done years ago.

[Jon998877]

Originally Posted by OyCrumbler

Well, it probably wouldn't hurt for Illinois to have more public research universities with engineering schools. There's quite a bit of demand for decent to great engineers, especially in regards to software programming, and so having a large number of them makes sense.

I'm not doubting you at all, but do you have links to U of I blocking ISU from adding an engineering school and the current planning for an engineering school at ISU?

I do not, other than I do some work with ILCTE, which is ISU heavy when it comes to those that run it, including within their STEM area..

[Jon998877]

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/arti...eering-program