<p>I'm a high school senior from Las Vegas and I've applied and only plan to apply to three schools: UNLV, UNR and SDSU. I had a short visit to UNLV's Engineering Colleges and got to talk to a few students but no presentation or talks with professors and no other personal knowledge on Reno or San Diego. Does anyone have anything they can say about the engineering programs at these schools? If it matters, I've applied for Civil Engineering at all three. Thanks!</p>
<p>I know a lot about UNLV. Which field of engineering are you interested in?</p>
<p>Civil Engineering is the fun one. It seems the kids at this school are always partying and having a good time. Everyone also joins this club ASCE which is nothing more than a club intended to look good on a resume. Other than that, they have a few presentation talks, parties, a seminar on how to use a CAD program, parties, a charity, parties, Concrete Canoe, and more parties. They also boast, saying that 7 students a year or something like that get internships and jobs right out of college, but when I asked them what jobs, they said drafting jobs. Honestly, if you work your butt off to get a 4-year university degree just to become a drafter, then I feel you wasted your money because you could’ve got the same job after getting a 2 year degree at CSN. Academics wise, idk if Civil Engineering is just easier overall or if the Civil classes at UNLV are just cake, but very few seem to fail a course or two. Two of the Engineering Student Counselors have Masters degrees in Civil Engineering from UNLV and PE licenses, yet they told me they decided to just work at UNLV and be a counselor. All in all, Civil Engineering at UNLV is very very fun and the classes seem easier. However, because of these positives, they graduate what IMO thinks is wayyyy too many engineering and thus makes it difficult in Las Vegas to find a civil engineering job, hence why they take up drafting jobs. </p>
<p>Mechanical engineering seems to be more legit at UNLV. Although they don’t have national competitions like Civil does with the Concrete Canoe, you can join SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers). ME classes are a little bit harder because I’ve talked to some of these guys and they seem to fail on average 1-2 classes. Internships and jobs wise, I know one ME who graduated and went to HP, one who’s now working at Tesla Motoring, one guy went to General Electric, and another guy is working for an oil company in Texas. So, right off the bat, getting a ME degree at UNLV will more than likely get you a real engineering job unlike Civil.</p>
<p>Electrical engineering at UNLV is very bad, but I think that is just Electrical Engineering in general. EE is a little harder to grasp because the science of electricity is not something you can see or feel, unlike a lever for an ME or a bridge for a CE. EE labs at UNLV are copied from top-tier universities. The program is very poor in teaching hardware, circuits, and programming because most of the professors are very math based and try to avoid those subjects. Because of this, you get only 3 circuits classes, Power as an optional class, but you’re required to take 5 signals classes. Seriously, FIVE SIGNALS CLASSES!?!?!?!? Also, the Dean of Engineering (whom by the way is corrupt and can’t be fired because he’s tenured) tends to hire very bad professors from universities that nobody wants such as Dr. Schill and Dr. Sun. These two guys should be nowhere near academics! The one true light at the end of the tunnel with the EE program at UNLV is Dr. Jacob Baker. He is a superstar in the Electronics world and he has many high connections to people at Texas Instruments, Linear Technology, etc. He wrote the world famous CMOS Design book too! Honestly, if you ever go to UNLV and study EE, take a class with Dr. Jacob Baker regardless of what he teaches! Other than that, EE classes at UNLV are kind of hard, with students failing probably on average 3-5 classes. </p>
<p>Entertainment Engineering is a funky degree offered at UNLV which falls under the Howard Hughes College of Engineering. It’ll help you get a job with Vegas shows, but outside the city, idk what you’d really do with it.</p>
<p>All in all, if you go to UNLV, I suggest you either study ME or EE (EE if you take all Dr. Baker classes). And as said before, the Dean of Engineering is corrupt because he hired professors with expensive research grants and automatically made them tenured so he wouldn’t lose the money. He’s also accused of falsifying Senior Design Competition results to make his projects win and get more press coverage from the Las Vegas media.</p>
<p>Given the choice, I’d stay away from UNLV. The Dean here cares only about money and it reflects badly on his choice of engineering professors, which in turn, reflects on how bad you will learn at this school. I’m not saying it’s hopeless, but this place is a classical example of students being used as pawns for the benefit of the rich man.</p>
<p>If you want to stay in Nevada and use the Millennium Scholarship, I would go to UNR. Their Dean of Engineering, Emmanuel Maragakis seems to be a very nice and very honest guy. I’ve spoken with him before when I was fishing around for universities and he definitely sounds like he cares for the students, which in turn, helps trickle down to the great success of their engineering program and benefits YOU.</p>
<p>Damn Peterhax! Thanks for being so informative! I’m deadset on Civl a Engineering btw, focus in Structural and Transportation. UNLV Engineering’s Dean came and visited my school today to present to anyone who signed up and wanted to listen and it was very informative. I don’t know any questions that come up to mind so quickly but I’ll get back to you Peter! Thanks a lot again! Anyone else for any of the three schools?</p>