<p>How does the engingeering school at UofA compare to the engineering schools at other colleges such as the University of Texas? I’m thinking about chemical engineering specifically.</p>
<p>My son is a ChemE major at Bama. He’s pre-med, so his goal may be different from yours. </p>
<p>I don’t know anything about UT’s ChemE so I can’t compare. Bama’s ChemE program is a very good size. Have you visited? If not, you should. Dr. Clark is a good person to talk to in the ChemE dept.</p>
<p>ChemE is housed in one of the new bldgs of the Science and Engineering Complex. It’s in this bldg: <a href=“http://eng.ua.edu/buildings/sec/[/url]”>http://eng.ua.edu/buildings/sec/</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://che.eng.ua.edu/[/url]”>http://che.eng.ua.edu/</a></p>
<p>m2ck: Dr. Clark actually “retired” from the department last year. He is now at Oklahoma State.</p>
<p>We have spoken with many currently working Engineers, have heard time and time again that Alabama has a respected program, that as long as the boy applies himself, does well, he’ll be very employable with a Bama Engineering degree</p>
<p>For objective data, you can compare any college’s eng’g program by viewing the online profiles from the ASEE website: [ASEE.org</a> - ASEE - Publications - College Profiles - Search the Profiles](<a href=“http://profiles.asee.org/]ASEE.org”>http://profiles.asee.org/)
Once you’ve entered the year (step 1) and college name (step 2), look along the left hand side of the website for the “undergraduate” section. Look especially at “new applicants” info as well as “enrollments by class”. You can practically view #s of bums on seats, year after year.
This link is also helpful for an overview of the entire engineering field: <a href=“Page not found”>ASEE.org; .
For giggles, compare 2000 UA data with 2011 UA data. The growth in eng’g at UA has been impressive.</p>
<p>My H has been very impressed by the Bama eng’g grads that they’ve hired.</p>
<p>aeromom - I like the link. It’s very interesting seeing the breakdown for each degree and class.</p>
<p>This shows growth in number of UA engineering students. Most schools have grown their engineering enrollment–it’s a popular major these days. How does this indicate quality of UA engineering?</p>
<p>Just to be pedantic, I said the growth was impressive and nothing about quality. I have no idea how UA eng’g compares to other eng’g programs, quality-wise, other than my S’s experience w/ aero-space eng’g, which if people are interested in they can PM me. The links I posted are to a series of objective data. You can draw your own conclusions. </p>
<p>MIT fulltime undergrad #s grew 3.2% from 2000 to 2011; Purdue’s grew 20%; Georgia Tech’s grew 49%; UA’s grew 121%. Yes, UA started w/ a smaller base to begin with (about 67% of MIT’s #s in 2000, but UA now has 44% more eng’g undergrad students than MIT)… These are completely different schools - to compare their programs quality-wise based on bums of seats would be silly. I still like to marvel at the growth rates, tho. For what it is worth.</p>
<p>Aeromom: Thank you for the links. My younger D is interested in Aerospace engineering and Mechanical engineering. I told her that you would answer questions for her in a PM. I will see if she comes up with a few. It is very nice of you to offer to do so.</p>
<p>Certainly, growth alone doesn’t demonstrate quality. </p>
<p>However, Bama’s growth does suggest improvement in quality because:</p>
<p>1) New state of the art facilities were built. Bama has more than doubled it’s STEM academic space.</p>
<p>2) At a time when other univs weren’t able to hire, Bama has been able to hire. That has allowed Bama to be more “picky” about who they hire. For Bama, it’s been a “buyer’s market” in terms of getting profs. </p>
<p>3) The scholarships have improved the academic strength of the eng’g students.</p>
<p>Thanks y’all for your responses. And yes I know that UA’s engineering program has drastically increased in size in the past decade. However, how does the quality of their program compare to other universities? Including research opportunities and respect of a UA engineering degree from future employers.</p>
<p>No, I graduated from Alabama and can’t find a job… just kidding. This popped up in a google search and just thought I would reply. Most everyone I know was able to get jobs and we graduated during the height of the recession. Things are getting better, but remember, the first job is ALWAYS the toughest to get. you have to convince a company to take a risk on your and train you. Make sure you’re proactive in school,(doing more than just making good grades, clubs/ jobs count) and proactive in your job search. Don’t just sit waiting for a company to come find you. </p>
<p>Some things to remember, US NEWS does not rank undergraduate engineering programs. The rankings you see are for graduate schools and have nothing to do with your undergraduate major. Many people do not realize this and try to link the two. But its almost the same as trying to include Alabama’s Law school with its undergraduate Political Science program. Graduate schools have to do with research of the graduate students. Dont get me wrong, you can help with those if you want to get involved, but its not really important to your undergraduate degree.</p>
<p>The truth is most engineering programs are the same if they are Abet accredited. Most “employers” realize that. The courses required for accreditation are so strict that there isnt much deviation from it. The important thing when picking a school is to make sure it is abet accredited. I “” employers because Engineers are not picking your Resume out of a stack. Human Resources is handing them Resumes. H.R. has no idea what engineering rankings are and could care less. Is your program abet accredited, then you can pass go, what else is on your resume? Most of Alabama programs are abet accredited, but regardless when picking any engineering school you need to make sure the program you want to study is accredited as many will say their school is accredited, but you need to look at individual programs. </p>
<p>The growth of the engineering program has less to do with scholarships and more to do with President Whits goal to increase the student body. The campus jumped from 23000 when i arrived on campus in 2004. I believe it is over 30,000 now. Scholarships help obviously, but we were getting scholarship students from texas/ georgia in other programs long before they decided to focus on the engineering department. I was wondering what this would do to the schools ranking, but the schools ranking has actually increased over that time. </p>
<p>Make sure you co-op or intern or get involved in one of the programs like Baja or Formula one so you have something to talk about in an interview. No employer wants to talk to you about theory and coursework for an entire interview. Work experience greatly overshadows name of the school.</p>
<p>Bama had great professors when I got there. Highly sought after who chose Alabama because of the research opportunities. The ME and Aerospace programs had sound rooms/ Engine rooms/ and a wind room. And this was before they built the new buildings. </p>
<p>Word of advice. The first job you get out of college is more important than where you went to school or even the GPA you earned, so only apply for jobs in the field of engineering you want to be your career. Not saying itd be impossible to switch it just makes it that much more difficult to change your career choice wants its chosen. (that being Field/ Sales/ or Design Engineering for the mechanical side) </p>
<p>The thing about an Alabama degree, with as great as the football program is, it has great national recognition. The school (undergraduate) is a top 100 University so noone will laugh at your education. Is Alabama, MIT? no, but most people arent comparing Alabama to MIT. As far as rankings are concerned. 5 years ago I had friends pass up full rides to Alabama’s Law school (then ranked in the high thirties) for schools ranked in the top 20 where they had to pay their own way. Alabama’s law school just ranked 21. My friends who went to Alabama has jobs and so do my friends who went to others schools. But my friends who to other schools have a lot more debt and about the same salaries. Rankings can change. This is kind of how I rank schools based on those rankings. If you check the points, there are not many percentage points on the top schools.</p>
<p>1-20
12-50
30-100</p>
<p>Good luck on your futures.</p>
<p>Fantastic post…one of the best on here by a country mile. Thank you for taking the time to update the wary about what really matters in this field. Agree 100%!</p>
<p>^^ would you be kind enough to elaborate on the exact jobs you and your friends got?</p>
<p>Sure, The jobs vary. Many people jumped on the field engineer jobs with the Oil Industry. Because they Pay the most right out of school; however, you’re required to do a lot more as in work on rigs/ on call 24/7. etc… I had no desire to do this and didnt apply for any of those which meant I had to work harder for a job. They also hire a lot of people. I can say I have friends who got jobs working for the federal government and state and of course the Military boys got commissioned. I also have friends who work for Boeing/ Samsung/ Austal/ Cummins/ GE/Halliburton/ NASA/Honda of course Southern Company and other smaller lesser known companies. Are you going to go work on wall street? No, but you have an Engineering degree, so of course you aren’t. I dont know that I have a friend that works at Mercedes, but many who intern’d or co-oped there. The thing about tuscaloosa, is its great when you’re there, but most are ready to leave when graduation comes since it takes most of us Engineers more than 4 years so not many are lining up for those jobs at Mercedes to stick around. </p>
<p>The thing many people need to remember is Employers want a diverse work force. I ended up grabbing a Design job. They’re tougher to grab than the field engineer or sales jobs, but worth the wait in my opinion. If you go into sales engineering, you limit your future prospects essentially you become a salesman with technical knowledge.</p>
<p>I will say that I wouldnt get a degree in Aerospace unless you just REALLY want to work for NASA. An ME degree can get you there, but you really limit yourself on job prospects with an Aerospace degree. Aerospace is essentially the same as Mechanical with the exception of about 4 classes. If you meet an aerospace guy they’ll swear up and down this isnt true, but if you ask any mechanical guy they’ll confirm it. And at the end of the day, the Mechanical degree is viewed as more diverse and general, thus more job prospects.</p>
<p>I only know a few Chemical Engineers, but they all seem to be rather successful. A lot of chemical engineers seem to only go that route as a fall back incase they cant get into medical school. Or at least thats been my experience. My chemical friends work for BASF, and GE.</p>
<p>I also dont think I’d want to be an Electrical Engineer. I cant really speak for the success of the graduates there as I only know one and she works for the air force, but that profession is much more easily outsourced in the long run in my opinion. Then add the computer science majors/ information systems. I just think the field is overrun with talent. I also cant speak for the Universities education on it. I prefer to stick with the core engineering majors where you can get licensed and become a “professional” for more job security in the long run.</p>
<p>The few people who I know had trouble finding jobs only had their GPA to ride on, no work experience. Alabama stresses Co-oping and internships for a reason. They also didn’t want to move too far from their home town or only looked for a job for a month before turning to Grad school. I’ve seen people say if you have a degree from Alabama you can only get a job in the southeast. Most people who attend Alabama are from the southeast and want to live near their families. It was rare I met someone at Alabama not from Alabama/ Lousiana/ Texas/ or Georgia. That said. I don’t know anyone who wanted a job outside the Southeast they couldn’t get one. States including Texas/ Seattle/ Connecticut/ Ohio places in the northeast Think about it like this. Companies want a diverse workforce. Diverse means a lot more than race/ gender. It means where you come from. etc. If a company see’s a lot of resume’s for jobs in Boston from people from Boston and one from Alabama. As long as they’re willing to pay relocation and you state you’re willing to relocate, chances are your resume will stick out in their mind.</p>
<p>Bamagrad09, thanks so much for writing. I have actually copied it and sent it both to my CS son at Alabama and to my college mechanical engineering student at another school…I think you had some great advice for them about their future jobs and opportunities.</p>
<p>I am also sending a thank you your way. My son is an aerospace major at Bama and I appreciate the advice. I’ll be addressing some of your comments when he gets home this summer. So far, no summer internships or meaningful work.</p>
<p>hokiefan…what year is your son? Did he apply to any REUs?</p>
<p>He is finishing up his second year, but techincally a junior. He did applied to an REU and internships that were nation wide. Rejected on the REU, no nibbles on the internships. I keep telling him to just keep moving forward and finish the semester with strong grades.</p>
<ul>
<li>meant to say technically.</li>
</ul>