Barrett Honors College or University of Minnesota

Colleges and Universities A-Z Arizona State University
1

After much thought and consideration, I have finally narrowed down my college choices to the Barrett Honors College at Arizona State and the University of Minnesota. I am going to major in chemical engineering. I know that instantly most people are going to say that I should go to University of Minnesota but I am really torn down the middle with these two.

I visited Barrett and really enjoyed my time there. You can’t argue with the amazing whether all winter long, although it does get pretty hot in the summers (but I will probably be back in Alaska during that time anyways), the dorms and dining hall are amazing, there are beautiful girls all over campus, the engineering department seems like it has a lot of good things going for it, it has lively sports teams, and with such a small one mile by one mile campus accompanied by the honors living area it should be really easy to make friends. However, I am worried about how easy it will be to land a great job at graduation. When looking at what companies recruited from Arizona State a lot of them seemed to be local. I am currently working at ConocoPhillips Alaska as a high school intern and really like the corporate environment there. I ideally would like to land a high-paying job and be able to move up the corporate ladder in a successful company and become a wealthy and successful individual. I am not sure if Barrett would provide this opportunity or not so input on that would be greatly appreciated.

I hope to visit the University of Minnesota at the end of March. From what I have read about it and heard from other people that attend school there is that it is a very large and spread out campus and that many people have had a hard time making friends there. Also, the school spirit seems to be lacking towards their sports and I just feel that overall the social scene is relatively low. I do know however, that the University of Minnesota has an outstanding chemical engineering department that is ranked third in the nation right below MIT and Cal Tech, but there are also many liberal education requirements that I would be forced to take. The weather is also brutally cold in the winter, and I probably wont be there in the summer when the weather gets nice again. There are however, like fourteen Fortune 500 companies in Minneapolis that would probably be good employment opportunities that would help with my desire to become a successful and wealthy engineer.

Both of these schools cost relatively the same amount. Arizona State offered me a $13,000 scholarship and I applied for more within the school, and the University of Minnesota granted me in-state costs. I am also in the process of applying for scholarships within private organizations.

So basically, Arizona seems to have more of a social life with good opportunities within the Honors College, and the University of Minnesota seems to have little to offer socially but fantastic employment opportunities with an Ivy League level education. Should I go with Barrett Honors College at Arizona State, or the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities?

2

Having gone through interviews after graduating from ASU in the early 90s with a business degree, I can tell you of my experience although it may be dated. ASU attracts many Fortune 500 companies that recruit and hire for positions all over the country and world. I believe one of the strengths of ASU are the numerous internships and job fairs available. The Career Center is great and if you already have a idea of what you want to do or where you want to live, the career center and your Barrett adviser will help you realize it. Mining, Gas, and Big Pharma companies all recruit at ASU along with other Fortune 500 companies. I don’t see you having any trouble achieving your goals as long as you work hard and keep your “eye on the prize”. There are a lot of distractions in Tempe…the weather, the social life, the food…stay focused and you’ll do great. I enjoyed my time in Tempe and miss the desert especially during this harsh winter in New England. Good luck.

3

You have a great options in front of you. Congrats there. I will share my D experience, it may help you. BTW, she is a HS senior now.

  1. ASU offered here a full tuition scholarship and possibly more coming. Barrett and WP Carey School of Business have good rankings (WP Carey is 29 in the country). Double major in Marketing and Economics is quite straightforward since both are inside WP Carey. There is a Nobel Prize winner teacher in Economics for honor students. Can you imagine a letter of recommendation from him?
  2. Univ of Texas Austin. McCombs School of Business is 3 in the country on Marketing. No scholarship offered but we are in-state. No honors offered. Economics is in a different School (Liberal Arts).

Based on Rankings only option 2 will be the chosen one.

Based on a more deeper analysis, ones more formal ones such as Price to Quality Ratio, Return on Investment, etc and others more subjective such as social life, weather, dorms comfort, infrastructure, etc, we decided to choose option 1.
No doubts about it.

Hope this helps.