<p>I am going to attend cornell engineering this fall as a freshman, but I have a few questions about grad school.</p>
<li><p>do most undergrad engineering students go to grad school (let it be business or engineering)? Is it very helpful in landing a job?</p></li>
<li><p>I hope to come back to california after cornell. Will cornell undergrad help me get connections for jobs in california? </p></li>
<li><p>Will I be better off going to UCLA for undergrad in terms of landing a well paying job in california?</p></li>
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<li>Nationally, most engineering students do not go on for any graduate studies. I don't know the percentages, but I'd guess only about 20% go to grad school. Of course some schools have a much higher percentage of students who go on to graduate school. </li>
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<p>Is it helpful in landing a job? It depends on the job you are looking for. Your odds of getting a job won't improve all that dramatically (odds are excellent with just a B.S. degree) but you will likely have some better opportunities.</p>
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<li><p>Cornell is a quality school, but it isn't exactly that close to California. Though I'm sure there will be connections.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes, I'd say that UCLA would be better in terms of landing a job in Cali. There will be a lot more connections, a lot more local companies that will visit and a lot more job openings you will hear about there.</p></li>
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<p>With regard to your third question, I think it'll take a bit more elbow grease, but you won't have a problem getting a job in California coming out of Cornell...</p>
<p>Masters degrees help more in some disciplines than in others, and ditto what Dr R was saying about having better opportunities open to you than if you didn't go to grad school.</p>
<p>cornell won't give me a better chance of getting a job and yet i'm willing to fly there to freeze me ass off, pay thousands of dollars more every year (compared to UCLA), and live thousands of miles away from friends and family in LA. </p>
<p>Cornell's a great school that will give you excellent options, Columbia and North Face make incredibly warm jackets, and coming from Cornell, so long as you're willing to do a little research and send your resume out to Cali companies, then you'll get a great job once you graduate. It's expensive to fly cross-country, so most of the people recruiting at Cornell are going to be from the east coast. Doesn't mean that Cali companies are going to necessarily accept someone from UCLA over Cornell, it just means that they don't get as many Cornell applicants for their jobs.</p>
<p>Go there in the fall! Try it out. Cornell's a great place, and I've got several friends who went there and absolutely adored it! Worst comes to worst, you can always transfer back to UCLA, but I think you'll really like Cornell.</p>
<p>I would choose UCLA over Cornell for engineering, simply because UCLA has an outstanding program for thousands of dollars less and has nicer weather.</p>