<p>I shared your question on the FB page for freshman parents. Here are some of the responses:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>My DH is a Data Network Engineer with AT&T in Atlanta. Multiple CS and tech positions available. And then there’s Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. Also a huge employer of tech jobs. </p></li>
<li><p>My DS is a freshman at Alabama and a cs major. He loves this school! As a freshman he was accepted into the emerging scholars program and gets to do research in his major as a freshman which I believe is pretty rare. Where else is he going to get this experience??? We are so glad he decided to apply here!!</p></li>
<li><p>Quick reply: the Engineering and CS programs at UA are excellent. Opportunities abound with faculty who care. We were and are impressed all the way from CA. DS could have attended a much higher ranked UC - with the hundreds of other students in all the classes he would have had to try and get into. Most taught by TAs and not Profs. NO thank you.</p></li>
<li><p>Impressed all the way from Michigan. DD is Engineering major and opportunities are unbelievable!</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Please try to visit and see for yourself! It is an awesome school with so many opportunities for these students! You may also send an e-mail to the career center and ask them what companies regularly recruit at UA for the CS students.</p>
<p>The number of students in the COE can be a bit misleading (or a lot, as in some cases students may not commit to a college until they are juniors; some colleges have a significant amount of co-ops, etc.). Throughput I think is a better measure of a COE’s ability to graduate engineers…</p>
<p>UA: Degree and number awarded in award in 2013
Undergraduate: 354 (208 in 1998; based on an enrollment of 1,448)
Masters: 101
Ph.D.: 34</p>
<p>Compared to Auburn
Undergraduate: 548 (559 in 1998)
Masters: 179
Ph.D. : 62</p>
<p>@Gator88NE Quoting partial data is also misleading since you provide only the number of degrees awarded in 2013.</p>
<p>Assuming that the 2013 engineering class comes out of the 2009 freshman engineering majors which is big assumption since some kids may take 5 or 6 years to graduate and doesn’t take into consideration transfer students and students who change to engineering. But given all of that.</p>
<p>Auburn graduated in 2013 548 out of 1113 freshman engineering majors in 2009 for 49.2% of freshman class.
Alabama graduated in 2013 354 out of 695 freshman engineering majors in 2009 for 50.9% of freshman class.</p>
<p>Clearly Auburn awarded more engineering degrees because it had more freshman engineering majors in 2009 but at Alabama a higher percentage of incoming freshman graduate with engineering degrees.</p>
<p>This Fall Auburn enrolled 1297 freshman engineering students and Alabama 1372 freshman engineering students. If the percentage graduation rate holds for this year, Alabama will produce 699 engineering grads in 2018 and Auburn will produce 638. </p>
<p>But given that the average ACT score for Alabama engineering students this fall has increased to a record 29.2 the yield for freshman engineering students graduating with an engineering degree in 2018 will probably go up resulting in an Alabama engineering grads of over 700+ in 2018.</p>
<p>@Atlanta68 Thanks for the clarification, I used the latest data available. If mean freshman ACT for engineering majors in fall 2014 is even higher then the engineering graduation rate yield should be a bit higher. In any event, the point of my post was that yield is a better indicator than just total number of engineering degrees awarded by a college. But it seems that at least in Alabama, UA will have higher yield and absolute number of engineering grads very soon compared to AU.</p>
<p>Which would be why I included the link to the data, and allowed others (such as yourself) to reach their own findings.</p>
<p>Perhaps a better example of why I think COE enrollment is misleading, would be using UF. UF had 642 freshman in 2009, but graduated over 1,000 undergrads in 2013.</p>
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<p>Where do you come up with 695 freshman in 2009? Sticking with the ASEE data, UA had 860, so that would come out as 41.2%.Then again, I wouldn’t put too much weight on extrapolation yield using enrollment data and ACT scores. Enrollment data isn’t an apples to apples comparison, and a host of other factors can also impact yield. </p>
<p>I only mentioned Auburn, because most know that Auburn has the Engineering rep. For UA to be about to surpass Auburn in Engineering enrollment, is a big change. </p>
<p>I don’t know how meaningful frosh eng’g numbers are. There is so much weeding going on. I know that now that the avg ACT has risen significant will have an impact, but when schools don’t require acceptance into the program, you’re going to have a number get weeded out quickly.</p>
<p>I remember my son’s frosh year. 3 of his suitemates were eng’g. Only he and one other graduated as engineers. The other became a CPA and one got his degree in econ. </p>
<p>@mom2collegekids Your observation is very true, there is a great deal of weeding out of engineering because it is hard. But a yield rate of about 50% of freshman who enroll in the COE graduating with an engineering degree is quite impressive, nonetheless. If there is a 50% engineering degree attainment rate, the frosh numbers are meaningful because half will obtain an engineering degree. </p>
<p>The UA 2014 enrollment stats have COE with 4771 students and 1372 new first time undergraduates (first time eng undergrad growth of 26.1% over 2012, with increase of 284 students; 13.2% increase over 2013 with 160 additional students). My DD is one of those freshmen (class of 2018)</p>
<p>^^ Re weeding out: not all engineering students who drop/switch do so because it was hard or difficult. Many switch out of engineering because they simply find they do not like it. </p>
<p>True! Just like premeds…some get weeded out for grades, some get weeded out for interest. My older son quickly realized that he loved math more than eng’g. </p>
<p>@aeromom Yes you are correct that some freshman engineering students switch out because they find that engineering is not for them, but most switch out because it is a difficult major and their college GPA suffers from taking such difficult courses. The number of students who change from engineering to other majors is much greater than those who change from other majors to engineering. </p>
<p>If you look at the student profile at any university, you will find that the highest average high school grades and SAT/ACT scores will usually belong to those in the College of Engineering. This is no coincidence.</p>
<p>One issue that I’ve noticed with the many incoming premed and eng’g majors is that many have not heard of very many careers. They know that engineering is a well-paid profession, same with medicine, so many select that path as incoming frosh…especially if they had been good students in HS.</p>
<p>Then they get hit with the brick wall of Principals of Bio I&II, Gen Chem i&II, and Calc&II. If their HS science/math instruction/foundation was weak, then that can reveal itself quite quickly. If the first semester doesn’t weed them out, then the second semester or Ochem as sophs will do so.</p>
<p>It’s in the student’s best interest to weed these kids ASAP. No one wants someone getting to junior year and then having to change gears. </p>
<p>By the way, I find it amusing that your first impulse is want to “knock people upside the head” when you learn about a viewpoint that you don’t like, but it probably comes across as being overly confrontational to most people…</p>
<p>In any event, the view that attrition out of STEM/engineering is inevitable is being challenged by some engineering schools. Tufts and UMBC are leaders in this area, but now there are a number of schools achieving much better results than in the past. Performance in this area tends to be a function of and an indicator of the culture of the engineering school as well as availability of support services and curriculum design. Unfortunately, the curriculum innovations are not included as a part of ABET certification.</p>
<p>Since the opportunity cost of switching out of an engineering major and into liberal arts major can be quite high, this is an important number to consider when evaluating engineering programs. </p>
<p>You made a claim that simply isn’t true; it’s not just something I “didn’t like”: " A Computer Science/Computer Engineering degree can lead to a lucrative career - particularly in California or the Northeast. It is less likely to in Alabama. "</p>