BU vs WPI (Engineering Program and job placement comparison)

<p>I was wondering where does BU stand compared to WPI in terms of their “Engineering Program” and “Job placement”. I know that WPI graduates usually get great jobs (in general) when they graduate, but I was wondering how is the job placement for BU “engineering students”? </p>

<p>How do they compare in terms of their academic rigor/quality(engineering)? </p>

<p>Please help me compare these two schools in order to make my decision.</p>

<p>I’d personally chose BU of wpi because i’m looking to go to grad school and I feel like I don’t fit in at Wpi…Stayed overnight and shadowed a kid and i honestly couldn’t find anyone that i would be friends with.</p>

<p>well BU practices grade deflation which means you might work your ass off every day but only manage a 3.3 but if you work as hard at WPI you could manage a 3.7</p>

<p>that whole thing right there is what could make me not go to BU even though they are giving me almost full ride</p>

<p>Wow, that is kind of a dumb post. BU doesn’t grade deflate. Engineering programs everywhere are known for being tough for grades. I think the lowest GPA averages are at tech schools - notably Georgia Tech - and their graduates do fine. </p>

<p>WPI is basically all engineering. It’s a solid program, much smaller school. It’s in Worcester, which I assume you know is not exactly Boston. Every engineering program has its strengths and weaknesses. BU gets much, much more research funding and you can look at the ASEE profile for both schools and see [url=<a href=“http://profiles.asee.org/profiles/4426/screen/29?school_name=Boston+University]here”>http://profiles.asee.org/profiles/4426/screen/29?school_name=Boston+University]here</a> and [url=<a href=“http://profiles.asee.org/profiles/4349/screen/29?school_name=Worcester+Polytechnic+Institute]here[/url”>http://profiles.asee.org/profiles/4349/screen/29?school_name=Worcester+Polytechnic+Institute]here[/url</a>] how that money goes.</p>

<p>Thanks everyone for your inputs. I am not interested in research at this point. I just want to make sure that I get a job when I graduate so that I will be able to pay off the loans ASAP. I am familiar with MA and I know a lot about Boston. What I would like to know is how does BU’s job placement stand compared to WPI’s? Can anyone provide any info. on that please. Especially current/past engineering students please.</p>

<p>Actually many BU professors do practic grade deflation so don’t tell me that was a dumb post. </p>

<p>Only about 67% of people get a job after BU.</p>

<p>How does grade deflation work? I’m in the Classics department and they just don’t curve the class in some cases (<em>cough</em> Professor Samons <em>cough</em>). You get what you get. But I don’t know about other departments.</p>

<p>WPI just makes people look good because they don’t accept any grade lower than a c and they’ll just get rid of every reccord of you taking the class…you can have a 4.0 by just no reccording every class you did not get an a in if you wanted</p>

<p>^^ Well, I am not asking for grade differences between these two schools and as far as I know Harvard does the same. But can someone give more info on what percentage of BU graduates, from which engineering dept. gets job after they get out? </p>

<p>How does BU graduates job placement stand compared to NEU?</p>

<p>You should not worry about job placement differences between good schools. Those statistics are meaningless and are manipulated - by some schools. To be blunt, there is little good information about who gets jobs and what jobs. Some schools have been caught literally faking the information but most rely on self-reporting surveys from which they then extrapolate. If you do well at a good school, you’ll do fine in the job market, assuming that by the time you graduate the economy is not in the dumps as it is now.</p>

<p>As for grade deflation, this topic has been covered a gazillion times. BU’s grades were rising very quickly at the end of the 90’s so they - like many schools - decided to slow that increase. The average at BU has still risen. People have no understanding of how low grades used to be. There are a handful of schools which have truly inflated grades but BU’s grades are right in the main grouping of schools. Some schools, mostly tech schools, have noticeably lower grades. (Of the liberal arts schools, Princeton stands out for low grades.)</p>

<p>Now some idiots confuse curving with grade deflation. That grade policy is set by college and then by department and then by professor, so some departments grade harder than others, etc. </p>

<p>People then typically point to Harvard’s grades, which are about 3.6 average. They completely miss the point that this doesn’t really matter for grad school. Law school, med school, etc. rely on test scores plus gpa. Kids who get into Harvard or Yale, where grades are high, also score higher on the tests. That means they get into top schools more; the system is biased toward high test scores, not toward high grades. If you do well at any reputable school and if you can score well, you can get into a top graduate school. If you can score middling well, you get into the next tier, etc. </p>

<p>As for jobs, the main factor is where the school is located and the economy in that region. Outside that region, the name recognition matters much less - except of course for a handful of schools and that is overblown because, bluntly, if you are in the South then employers will know that Northwestern is a good school but they won’t automatically think you’re a fantastic hire that’s more brilliant than a Georgia grad. BTW, the main determinant of how much money you make is where you live because your job in your field pays a certain level in each region. You’ll make more coming out of a school in the Northeast because personal income is higher. (So is the cost of living.)</p>