<p>Hello, I am currently on my college search and most OOS schools I would like to go too are really expensive so I might be stuck with the University of Arizona (in state). Any comments or thoughts on their engineering program? Any alumni with stories to share? Thanks!</p>
<p>Generally speaking, it is a pretty good school based on reputation. I can’t really comment on some of the other indicators like job placement since I have no first-hand experience with it.</p>
<p>One of my good friends in grad school was a chem major in the honors program there. He had a great time, and wound up having acceptances to a bunch of top 10 grad schools. He’s now doing a post-doc in Switzerland with the top guy in his field.</p>
<p>ASU is a great school, and what you get out of it is entirely up to what you put into it. :)</p>
<p>Also general speaking…</p>
<p>You cannot go wrong with any ABET-accredited Non-CS program from:</p>
<p>Fill-In-The-State State University or
University of Fill-In-The-State</p>
<p>Note: the only reason why I said Non-CS is because ABET is really not needed as much for computer science AND computer science is not always in the engineering school at some schools.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses! I can go to the U of A for pretty cheap since I am in state and have decent stats (4.07 weighted GPA, 29 on ACT). Would anyone recommend ASU over U of A?</p>
<p>I am highly considering Engineering and I am an in state kid who also chose U of A over ASU. Mainly because I prefer the school a lot more (being away from a stalking family, great campus, etc.), even outside of Engineering. I have had plenty of bad experiences at ASU but that’s probably just me. If we are going to listen to the rankings, U of A is slightly behind, but the college is a lot smaller in contrast to ASU which I think is a plus. Some of their programs are better than ASU, like Mining Engineering and “biosystems” (environmental). Not too sure about the other engineering programs. But for the most part they are very similar.</p>
<p>If money is important, pick ASU. They offered me triple the financial aid than U of A.</p>
<p>UA and ASU appear to have similar reputations overall and for engineering (if you are concerned about how that affects campus recruiting, though location also affects campus recruiting), so you may want to choose between them based on:</p>
<ul>
<li>If you have specific engineering interests better covered by one of them (they do not offer exactly the same majors, and the same department may have different subareas they emphasize).</li>
<li>Net price after financial aid and scholarships.</li>
<li>Size: ASU is nearly twice as large as UA; you may want to check whether that gives any advantages, like more course offerings or greater absolute number of high ability students.</li>
<li>Non-academic fit factors.</li>
</ul>
<p>Alright thanks! Can someone explain to me the ABET accrediting system? Does this mean each school labeled a ABET school has the same curriculum? If so, that makes going to OOS schools kinda pointless for the money.</p>
<p>ASU is huge…over 60k kids and certainly it’s sometimes easy to get lost in the shuffle. </p>
<p>I went to grad school there and my middle school kid is there this summer at an engineering and science camp at Fulton school of engineering exploring lots of fields. They have some terrific programs and facilities…but that said, I would steer my own kid (if she doesn’t go OOS) to U of A due to smaller size and not being ten minutes from home. I think where in AZ you are from will be an important factor as to whether or not you get “enough” of a college experience. Both schools are fine academically.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, I am good friends with a former ASU professor who left for greener pastures because they were de-emphasizing at least a fair portion of their engineering departments. Given, it may not affect all of them, but I know that mechanical and aerospace took a hit at the time (2005).</p>
<p>
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<p>ABET sets minimum standards for engineering bachelor’s degree programs in terms of what types of things have to be covered in the curriculum, although a given school may organize the courses differently (so the courses may not map one-to-one between different schools), and may include topics beyond the minimum needed to meet ABET accreditation standards.</p>
<p>ABET accreditation is most important if Professional Engineer licensing is desired (most common for civil engineering), or if you want to take the patent exam. In general, in the older branches of engineering (e.g. chemical, civil, electrical, industrial, materials, mechanical, nuclear), ABET accreditation is expected for any decent engineering bachelor’s degree program. It is considered less of a requirement for such areas as computer science or engineering, bioengineering / biomedical engineering, and engineering science, although many schools that are not “top ___” in the fields will seek ABET accreditation anyway as a means of validation of the quality of the degree program.</p>
<p>You can look up ABET accreditation listings at [ABET</a> -](<a href=“http://www.abet.org%5DABET”>http://www.abet.org) .</p>
<p>Well, I am closest to the U of A (live in Tucson) so I know what the campus is all about. I will most likely live at home if I did go to U of A so maybe ASU will be better for life experiences? All I know is that everyone hates ASU in Tucson. I guess the amount of financial aide each school gives me will influence me also. Right now I’m looking at being an electrical engineer but that may change. Also, thanks for the ABET explanation. So it seems like both will be good then?</p>
<p>Yes. At this point I would decide between the two from non-academic, such as liking the campus or clubs or all that other stuff. Or, you could look at internship offerings. For electrical, ASU might offer better connections to those since Phoenix is the bigger city.</p>
<p>Or, if you would be viewed as a traitor to your hometown ;)</p>
<p>Haha yeah my whole family are die hard U of A fans, I don’t know how well they would take it if I went to ASU… It would be nice to get away from Tucson though! 
Well I’m gonna start looking online at the internships both the colleges offer and what companies they bring to recruit after graduation. Thanks for all the help everyone!</p>
<p>Don’t ever base your college decision on which sports team your family roots for. Base it in which school fits you better, both personally and educationally.</p>
<p>haha I definitely won’t base it on that. That would be the worst way to make an decision ever .</p>
<p>Just think, if you go to ASU then your family gets two teams to root for, too. ;)</p>
<p>Matt, looking at the internship/recruitment offerings is definitely the way to go. I’d be interested to hear what you come up with. Son actually got contacted from one of his applications from an Arizona based company. He had already taken another job, so he politely informed them he was no longer available, but to please consider him in the future. The company did not offer relocation and they wanted to make sure he was aware of this before they even offered him an interview. It was either in the Tempe or Mesa area, so I don’t know which one of those is served by U of A or ASU. But the Arizona area is a good place for engineering, lots of internships posted for major companies there, so I would see which school offers more emphasis on the course of study you’re interested in, ie, aerospace, biomedical, if you want to specialize even further than general electrical or mechanical. BTW, I do know kids from Louisiana that have gone to ASU, because they offered a nice NMF package when they graduated. Thank you for opening my eyes to U of A. I will alert son to look into them for grad school as well. Good luck to you and keep us posted!</p>
<p>Well, I did some research, and while I didn’t find much about the U of A, I found out that ASU has a great relationship with Intel and have many internships available. Also pretty much all the employees at Intel are ASU alumni. I do know that ASU gives internships to many of their own students to help with research, but I’m sure U of A does that too. I still have some digging to do!</p>