College prestige importance or lack thereof for various majors, career paths, and graduate / professional schools

[Catcherinthetoast]

@eyemgh

We spent a day at each Dartmouth and Brown while on an east coast swing visiting a bunch of schools.

Wasn’t this more than a decade ago when you were touring with your kid? These schools have invested significantly since your kid applied, graduated from a college and finished his first few jobs.

Opened in 2017…

Engineering Research Center

Opened in 2019…

1 Euclid Avenue - Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship

Far fewer kids than most state schools with new state of the art facilities. Have you toured since 2012 when your kid was considering schools or are you commenting based on this long since dated experience?

This was your original post back in 2012…

Engineering...does school really matter?

<p>Choosing an engineering program based on objective data is very difficult. The USNWR rankings are really a total sham as 100% of the score is based on "institutional reputation," a self perpetuating metric that tends to keep the top at the top. Forbes rankings are a little better as they at least rely on some objective data, but they rank schools in toto and don't break out engineering. Schools where engineering is a dominant player skew their rankings because of the post graduation earning potential. Conversely, state schools with engineering programs often rank low, not as a testament to the engineering school, but reflecting the fact that engineering may represent a smallish portion of their total grads.</p> <p>So, at the end of the day, short of the elite three, MIT, Cal Tech and Stanford, where connections might carry the day, does it really matter where you go for undergraduate engineering? If it does why and can you back it up?</p> <p>M</p>

Even then in advance and in anticipation of your visits you seem to be trying to justify not paying up for a private. Thrilled it worked out for your kid but please provide historic context and up to date on campus experiences for the benefit of the casual reader, versus biased impressions from 11 years prior.