Is University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign or Georgia Tech considered more prestigious for engineering?

For engineering overall, Georgia Tech is more often seen as having the slightly stronger national prestige, especially among people outside the Midwest. It has a very concentrated identity around engineering and technology, and its name tends to carry immediate recognition in those fields. UIUC is also absolutely viewed as a top-tier engineering school, and in some circles, especially certain technical departments and recruiting pipelines, people see it as right alongside Georgia Tech rather than clearly below it.

Georgia Tech tends to stand out for the student who wants a school whose public image is tightly tied to engineering. When people hear Georgia Tech, they often think first of rigorous STEM, strong industry connections, and a major tech hub location in Atlanta.

UIUC appeals to the student who cares less about headline reputation and more about being at a huge, deeply established engineering powerhouse with broad strength across many fields. Within engineering, employers, grad programs, and faculty know UIUC extremely well, and it has a long-standing reputation for serious technical depth. For someone already inside engineering circles, UIUC can carry just as much weight, even if the average person is a bit more likely to instantly label Georgia Tech as the more prestigious name.

So if your question is purely about broad overall perception, Georgia Tech probably gets the slight nod. If your question is about how respected the two are within engineering itself, the gap is very small, and many people would treat them as peers.