#Cooper Union vs Umich

396 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

wooden tundra
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Cooper Union or umich for undergraduate engineering? The cost to go to Umich is 15k per year and free for Cooper Union.

proven beacon
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Ngl umich for 15k a year is kinda a steal

wooden tundra
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Yeah but it’s a huge school

proven beacon
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I mean you didn't give us much info to work with

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If you like smaller schools, then go to cooper union

fickle elm
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Michigan

shrewd hemlock
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Go to Cooper

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My guy

vast spoke
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Do not go to cooper

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Go to UMich

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15k per year for UMich is really good and it is a far better school

frank palm
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^

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i mean umich has better name recognition, more flexibility, more endowment, better alumni network, more research... better in almost every aspect

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not sure in what world you pick cooper

little iris
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and what your goals are

little iris
frank palm
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cooper is not exactly an LAC either though is it?

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not super sure what it is

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in terms of categorization

little iris
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like make school

frank palm
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oh pretty interesting

little iris
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people pick cooper because it's unique

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not for ranking

frank palm
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like a reed type school

little iris
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im not familiar with reed but yeah a unique/specialty school

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very artsy and creative

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and only offers engineering and art

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the people who apply there usually find something interesting about the program

frank palm
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eng and art

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what a strange combination

wooden tundra
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Yeah it’s a niche school. All the suggestions I have gotten were split in the middle. That’s why I am having trouble deciding.

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Cooper is a hit or miss in terms of reputation/job search. Those who recognize the college think highly of it but for those who don’t it’s just a normal institution.

vast spoke
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UMich trust me on this one

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unless you really really don't like big schools

wooden tundra
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There is a saying that you can make a big school feel small but I am not sure but how close I am able to get with the professors/ faculty

vast spoke
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but do you suffer socially in large spaces

wooden tundra
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I’m in the middle

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Also the medium salary for most engineering jobs are around 70k per year. Is 15k per year worth it?

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I also understand 15k is not too bad considering I am oos

vast spoke
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imo

shrewd hemlock
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Lol shut up

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Cooper is way better than UMich and I’ll tell you exactly why

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At UMich you’re just a number. At cooper the proffs actually care and teach you how to be an engineer.

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Cooper is a teaching school that graduates engineers that know how to do shit. It’s not like those big engineering schools with huge lecture halls that make u self study

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Small class sizes = the proffs actually know you and they grade your tests and what not

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You can’t go wrong in NYC

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and you’re not paying anything

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So it’s a dub

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U Mich on the other hand, you got massive lecture hall classes for the first two years where you prolly not gonna learn shit from the professor, you’re just gonna be buried in books all day and teaching yourself the courses

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Small schools are objectively better for engineering

frank palm
shrewd hemlock
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It’s a proven fact

frank palm
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lmao

shrewd hemlock
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Yeah but they were dissing cooper

shrewd hemlock
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Thomas Edison even studied at cooper

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Look at the alumni too

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We smart asf

frank palm
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shrug sure

shrewd hemlock
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Abe Lincoln gave a famous speech at cooper

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What ur school do?

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Jackshit

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That’s right

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Cuz we’re better

frank palm
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i'm not sure why you're being so hostile

frank palm
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but i'm not here to start some random internet argument

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if you wanna waste your time and be mad go ahead

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lol

shrewd hemlock
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Depending on your goals research doesn’t matter esp if you wanna work in the industry

frank palm
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umich also is one of the ffang targets

shrewd hemlock
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Most engineers wanna start working

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Unless u want academia research don’t matter

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Also cooper has undergraduate research

frank palm
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it's also a top 10 engineering school lol

shrewd hemlock
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I’m sure it’s far better too cuz the proffs here all insanely smart

fickle elm
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Michigan brand name is so much better. The college experience is also much better. D1 sports, parties, college town

frank palm
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^

shrewd hemlock
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Brand name

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What about real skills

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The College you went to only matters to your first employer

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The rest don’t care

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Where u went

frank palm
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i'm just gonna ignore this dude

shrewd hemlock
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That’s the truth

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Especially for engineering

frank palm
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the second he started being rude to me

shrewd hemlock
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I was never rude

frank palm
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you could have list your pros and cons like a normal person

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instead of discarding everyone else's opinion lol

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but sure

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whatever helps you sleep at night

shrewd hemlock
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You bozos bring up ranking and prestige like it matters. You can go to Harvard and still be a Bozo lmao. Have fun in debt 💸

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Save money young padawan

frank palm
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dunno what is wrong with you lmao

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we were all having a chill convo before you came along

shrewd hemlock
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Alright, cry about it then

frank palm
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nobody's "crying about it" lol

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you're the only angry person in this chat

shrewd hemlock
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you went all sensitive for no reason. That’s what’s wrong with this generation

frank palm
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"that's what's wrong with this generation"

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here we go lol

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preach grandpa

shrewd hemlock
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Lmaooo. The thing is my “hostilities” were just jokes not meant to be taken literal.

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You’re just angry for no rzn

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It’s not like U Mich is a bad school you can’t go wrong with either imo

frank palm
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and yes these "jokes" are very funny

shrewd hemlock
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Wow so saying jackshit makes me angry. What else am I missing here?

frank palm
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maybe the fact that

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no one else except for you

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are talking like this?

shrewd hemlock
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Okay?

frank palm
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i'll teach you a new concept here

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"social awareness"

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just because you say stuff like that to your friends and they find it funny

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doesn't mean other people assume the same

shrewd hemlock
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Welcome to the internet 🤷‍♂️. No one cares about your feelings

frank palm
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hope you gain some 👍

shrewd hemlock
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Nor do I care

frank palm
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for someone who preaches real skills, you sure lack basic respect and conversation manners

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lol

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but again, whatever works for you in life

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i guess

shrewd hemlock
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It’s funny cuz I never disrespected anyone but okay 👍

proven beacon
shrewd hemlock
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How

proven beacon
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Your first line was "lol shut up"

shrewd hemlock
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That’s not rude

proven beacon
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By most people's standards, that is

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You don't tell people to shut up

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That's not nice

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Look, the worst thing you can do in argument is to act like an asshole because it completely ruins your credibility

shrewd hemlock
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There was never an argument here

proven beacon
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You are trying to say that cooper union is better

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That is your argument

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I'm not talking about a fight type argument

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I'm talking about you trying to convince someone of something

shrewd hemlock
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I might have came if as rude but read the chat logs, you can clearly see that the dude was more interested in calling out my “rudeness” than what I was acc saying

proven beacon
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But since you acted rude initially, people will find it hard to say copper union is better

shrewd hemlock
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Maybe tell them not to get so sensitive fr no rzn

shrewd hemlock
proven beacon
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Or you could say things nicely

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It's not hard to act nice

shrewd hemlock
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My points were all better than what everyone else was

proven beacon
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But you ruined your own credibility

shrewd hemlock
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I wasn’t being not nice

proven beacon
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And people can see that

proven beacon
shrewd hemlock
proven beacon
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Telling someone to shut up

shrewd hemlock
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Aight so what did I say

proven beacon
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Is definitely not nice

shrewd hemlock
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I said lol at first

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So it’s clearly a jk

proven beacon
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That doesn't make it better you know

shrewd hemlock
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It does acc

proven beacon
shrewd hemlock
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I mean it was playful banter

proven beacon
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Every school has it's merits

shrewd hemlock
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ESP since idk what school they went to

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They were saying that UMich was way better so I had to shut them up with facts

proven beacon
shrewd hemlock
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Instead of just their opinions

proven beacon
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It would've been better if you just stated the facts then

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Don't need to start with lol shut up

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It makes it harder to read into what you want to say

vast spoke
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And you will be able to reach out to and connect with the professor anyways

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as long as you make an effort

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I'm not even at UMich and all the professors there i've met have been very willing to talk about their research

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Not disputing that Cooper Union is good, but to say that UMich is horrible is very false

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And he's also going into engineering

shrewd hemlock
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Also I never said UMich was horrible

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I just said that OP should recognize the value of a small and personalized education

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Also Cooper has a lot of resources for undergraduate research. And the fact is, since you’re gonna know your professors on a first name basis and they know you on a name basis, it’s impossible to miss out on it.

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It’s basically the biggest pro of a small school

vast spoke
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I think though at 15k a year it's really impossible to take CU over umich

vast spoke
shrewd hemlock
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You don’t know OPs situation

vast spoke
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Reed is awesome for that

vast spoke
shrewd hemlock
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15k is a car, and UMich could raise that price in the subsequent years

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Yk colleges don’t guarentee tuition rates for instance all my college financial packages say that the fees are projected to increase in further years

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NYC > Anne Arbor

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Also since it’s free you can’t go wrong with CU dawg

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If u live in NY ur acc chilling

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Based be honest though, the other dude was ovvereacting to me comments in this thread..

vast spoke
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wait who

shrewd hemlock
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The other dude

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Suoppurt

vast spoke
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the OP?

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oh

shrewd hemlock
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No

vast spoke
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i didn't see

little iris
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many public schools guarantee tuition rates stay flat

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every UC has guaranteed lock-in rates

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USC on the other hand, has a COA of 85k currently, 91k this fall, and 96-97k next fall

shrewd hemlock
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Exactly, that's also another factor to look at OP. I'm not sure whether UMich guarentees flat tuition, but that's also a factor in ur decision

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Cooper however is free for all 4 years

little iris
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afaik tuition is 23k/year now

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idk if OP got merit or fin aid

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if fin aid, you would want to check the strength of each school's aid

shrewd hemlock
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Lol

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Any debt is a liability

wooden tundra
shrewd hemlock
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that's not true

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there were independent classrooms and Labs specifically

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For instance, there was a PCB lab

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Embedded systems

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ICE lab

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And then private classrooms with blackboard + projectors

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I highly recc you tour the school

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Civil engineering had a nice bridge lab

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And concrete mixing place

wooden tundra
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Okay got it. Thank you. I will look more into it

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Also is it possible to work on other projects that might not pertain to my major. For example, if I found a certain project at the Mechanical department interesting, will I be able to work on that?

shrewd hemlock
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Yes

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You can take classes at all three schools

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Architecture or Art

shrewd hemlock
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like the Motorsports, Truss building thingy

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it's insane

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they do good work there

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Befoer you make a decision though, it's mandatory for you to take a tour

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Idk when the next ones are, but if you haven't visited and seen the labs + facillities yourself, you will never know

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It's definitely an engineering specialized school. if u work hard, you will become an insanely skilled engineer.

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The thing with big schools is that, it's harder to become an insanely skilled engineer when most of your courses require self teaching.

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Proffs at Cooper know you by first name basis. You know everyon ethere. it's a small school. Depending on your preferences, that can be good or bad. i say that's really good

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Everyone there is really smart

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for instance, theres a sophomore there who has an internship at TESLA

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he's a second year EE

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SECOND YEAR!!!

wooden tundra
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I missed out on the admitted house. You got any pictures? I also heard the school is hard where people have to transfer major or take a break

shrewd hemlock
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sure

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I think it'd be best for me to DM you

wooden tundra
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Yeah

shrewd hemlock
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I'm not sure about transferring, But I wouldn't reccomend you come here if you want to transfer. The major options are limited

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It's only art, architecture, and Eng

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Don't come to engineering school unless you're deadset on becoming an engineer.

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It's super difficult

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Like the kids there said

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It's extremely difficult

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course rigor wise

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The proffs are there to help, but for instance the math classes aren't seeing how well you can memorize the derivative of Arctan, they're seeing if oyu can solve complex word problems analytically using calc concepts

wooden tundra
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Yeah they emphasized a lot about that during the admitted student speech

wooden tundra
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Their architecture and art programs are stronger but their engineering is still strong. But I feel like there isn’t enough research, opportunity or resources available at Cooper. I would need to reach out to different institutions and find a path for myself

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When doing my college search, I had a difficult time writing about cooper. As a small school, I do under their limitations. At U-M, their resources are just way better. More research, extracurricular. The level at which they are conducting these things are just different. Cooper doesn’t have the funding to provide to professors to do their own independent labs/research. Most of their labs are used to teach the course.

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Maybe I am not doing my research well enough but that I what I have seen

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I heard about this but I believe that is more tailored to the professors.

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Not the students

shrewd hemlock
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@wooden tundra I need some help too

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I’m stuck between UIUC, Purdue, and Cooper

cosmic sorrel
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@shrewd hemlock What are you looking for in a school?

shrewd hemlock
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I want to become the best electrical engineer I can be

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@cosmic sorrel

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That’s it

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Idc about anything else

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I want to be useful to an employer

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I want to be creative

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And I want to build

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Learn how to be an engineer

cosmic sorrel
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It sounds like you're looking for academic rigor then, is that right?

shrewd hemlock
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I really want to be taught

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I don’t want to teach myself everything

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Call it laziness but I want an undergrad EDUCATION

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what I’m paying for

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That’s why I like cooper

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But UIUC and Purdue

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Their prestige cannot be

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Overlooked

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So I’m so confused

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They feed into top engineering firms

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That’s why they’re good

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Cooper is only known in NYC really

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My friend told me (he goes to UCLA) that big engineering schools, you have to teach 99% of the stuff to yourself

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In quotes

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I’m ngl

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I don’t want that

cosmic sorrel
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Cooper is more of a teaching college because they only offer up to master's, whereas UIUC and Purdue are large research universities

shrewd hemlock
cosmic sorrel
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UIUC requires 128 credit hours to graduate, Purdue requires 124, and Cooper requires 135

shrewd hemlock
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And renewable energy

shrewd hemlock
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In that way

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But

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I’m willing to put in the work

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What did you think of the Cooper grade?

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Grads*

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Please be honest

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I’m really lost

shrewd hemlock
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Thank you

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Do you find a Cooper degree valuable?

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Like if u see cooper, do you get good vibez or is it just a school?

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Compared to say, UIUC and Purdue?

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Where u an Oliner

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Were

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Oh wow okay

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My destiny was state university

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The only reason I have these options is cuz of the Army

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Yeah

cosmic sorrel
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It was the best performance I've seen in an interview

shrewd hemlock
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I appreciate your help so much Spreacher. Thank you so much I really mean it

cosmic sorrel
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She dropped out like sophomore year

shrewd hemlock
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Bru

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Really

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Damn

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I mean did she go to another school?

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Or like

cosmic sorrel
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No, she dropped out to work at Google

shrewd hemlock
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Wow okay

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I mean that’s a feat in its own

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Does google hire EEs?

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That’s like a dream for me too

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I didn’t know google recruited sophomores

cosmic sorrel
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Yes, Google hires all eng majors for SWEs

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She was civil engineering major before she dropped out

shrewd hemlock
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Damn okay

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Wtf

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I'm not that smart

cosmic sorrel
# shrewd hemlock I didn’t know google recruited sophomores

This individual had a decent resume as I recall. She had full time work experience prior to joining Google at a corporate AI research lab. But again, a lot of candidates applying to Google come from good companies such as Meta, Apple, Microsoft, etc. so it's not a rare thing. It was her coding skills that were special, something you can't tell just by looking at resume.

shrewd hemlock
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But she's an inspiration

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I really just wanna be a good engineer

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I wanna make big contributions

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I think I'll be able to achieve that through Cooper

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I hope the sacrifice in the army is worth it

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Otherwise it was Stony Brook for me

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I still have May 1st

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Go to Purdue, Uiuc, or Cooper and serve 4 years active duty, or go to SBU

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And with SBU no military

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tough choice

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I think i'll do the military

wooden tundra
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@cosmic sorrel Comparing between U-M and cooper, which one of these should I choose. Also, for job search which school is better. I am not sure if you have interviewed U-M students

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Also I feel like more people are going to small LAC type schools for engineering. I know a guy that goes to JHU for aero space.

cosmic sorrel
wooden tundra
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Is getting a masters worth it?

cosmic sorrel
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The people who decide to go to LAC type schools are the privileged kids who want to signal to other upper class people

wooden tundra
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I personally don’t think I would go up to a phD level

cosmic sorrel
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Cause if you have bachelor's you only get 1 chance per year to win H-1B lottery but if you have master's you get 2 chances

wooden tundra
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Wow I didn’t know that. Visa matters

cosmic sorrel
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Some companies give you a small bonus if you have a master's but it's only like $10k when the total compensation is $200k+

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But there are not really any jobs that require a master's

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It's just a bonus

wooden tundra
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Cause the average engineering job caps of around 100k.

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Any suggestions on how to be successful in the tech industry? Now thinking about it, research work can be a plus but is it really

cosmic sorrel
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I chose Harvey Mudd over CMU even though CMU is the bigger name

wooden tundra
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For cs?

cosmic sorrel
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I did engineering at Harvey Mudd

wooden tundra
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Yeah I have to get over this prestige stuff.

cosmic sorrel
wooden tundra
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I mean when I used CMU and UMich it said Umich even thoug CMU is better

cosmic sorrel
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It could be because U Mich is cheaper than CMU and they couldn't afford to attend or didn't want to pay

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Not everyone gets the same finaid package so you have to account for that too

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If I have to pay in-state tuition for U Mich I'd choose U Mich. But if OOS tuition I'd choose CMU.

wooden tundra
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I will be deeply considering between these school. But if you were in my position which one would choose. U-M: 16k per year before loan and work study. Cooper is free

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I just want to see what you will think

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Cause you have been through this and have seen the process

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I am out of state for U-M

cosmic sorrel
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When is the deadline to commit? I will probably have to think a bit

wooden tundra
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May 1st

cosmic sorrel
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I'll give you answer by next Tues

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Does that work?

wooden tundra
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Thank you so much! I trust your opinion completely

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Probably commit

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To what u pick. I am too indecisive

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Actually that might be too much pressure. But thank you so much for your insights!

vast spoke
cosmic sorrel
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@wooden tundra what kind of engineering will you study?

wooden tundra
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Civil engineering. But can change at U-M.

shrewd hemlock
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Jerry you can change at CU too

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But you can just change to another branch of engineering

proven beacon
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So most colleges you need to put work outside

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So far at uiuc, I've only been in one class that needed me to self teach, but they had videos and textbooks online that you had to use to learn

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Its a remnant of covid times

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But otherwise, my other classes have profs that teach, so I wouldn't worry about it too much

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And UIUC has great prospects for engineers