Hello, I am a highschool senior at a northeastern ohio highschool. I would like to pursue aerospace engineering (preferrably aeronautical) at college and I have been having some trouble with my college decision! First, for some background on me as a student, i had a 30 ACT (which i was very dissapointed with) and my highest SAT was 690 CR 690 MATH 570 ENGLISH. I am one of the too students at my school and I have taken the highest math and science courses at my highschool and my weighted cum gpa is a 4.1 weighted on what i believe is a 4.5 scale. I have exceptional extra curriculars in environmental stewardship and have won approximately $80,000 for my school as a part of a team i helped found.
Now onto the fun college stuff! So I have been accepted into Purdue and Ohio State engineering programs. While I was deferred for normal decision at the University of Michigan Engineering. After some research I have found that I have gotten the “best” of the deferral letters from Michigan. Now the cost aspect, Purdue will cost me approx $40k a year, Ohio State $18k (with scholarship) and the University of Michigan $50k (assuming I get in). Although I do come from a upper middle class family I would like to pay for my college myself so cost is an enormous concern for me. I absolutely loved the University of Michigan, the program, the campus and everything else. However, I would be in the bottom 25% of engineers and the cost is quite enormous. Purdue I am feeling mixed about, i like the top engineering program they have, but I dont like the campus that much or the environment, let alone the cost a year. The Ohio State University is a school I feel could be right, however I am concerned about the program. I like the cost and the school is very special to my family and me. I would be in the top 75% of engineers there.
However, I would like to work at Boeing or Lockheed Martin or another top company that is working on awesome things when I get out of college and this is where my debate really starts. Purdue and the University of Michigan are two schools with great engineering program rankings, while the Ohio State is 19th in my major. I truly worry that I will be put at a disadvantage for going to Ohio State when trying to get a job at these prestigious companies. The cost of these other schools also concerns me and I fear that maybe I will be “paying expensive out of state tuition for the same degree” as my father says. Also, as I visited Purdue/Michigan I asked them why I should pay them each double what I would for their degree that I could get at Ohio State and they couldn’t tell me why other than pointing to the rankings. So I was wondering what you awesome people think? Is the ranking worth the money? Does it mean anything at all? Will going to Ohio State put me at an disadvantage in the job market? Should I go to a school where I will be in the bottom tier or one where I will be in the too tier?
19th is good, not bad. There are something like 2000 colleges in America, and about 700 engineering schools.
Ohio State is an outstanding engineering school. True, Michigan is better (but not twice as good), yet is probably not more likely to get you a better job nor higher salary than OSU. If you have a hard time going to work for Boeing or Lockheed upon graduation, then use the money you saved at OSU to get a masters at Michigan, Purdue, or Georgia Tech. That will cost you less than getting a bachelors at any of them. I wager you won’t need that master’s, though. Boeing and Lockheed almost certainly recruit at OSU.
P.S. People who actually pay attention to rankings know that almost all rankings are garbage.
lol…no company is going to pooh pooh Ohio State. Those rankings mean nothing to employers. Nobody picks the UMich grad over an OSU grad because of the school name.
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I would like to pay for my college myself so cost is an enormous concern for me.
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and where would you get the money? YOU can only borrow $5,500 as a frosh.
Your dad is RIGHT…don’t pay more for the same degree.
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Will going to Ohio State put me at an disadvantage in the job market?
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lol…no…not unless the employer is the founder of Nike
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However, I would like to work at Boeing or Lockheed Martin or another top company that is working on awesome things when I get out of college and this is where my debate really starts. P
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You could go to school at CSULB or UAH or 100+ other schools and Boeing and LM would still hire you.
Using LinkedIn, I can select all of the OSU alumni (that are registered in LinkedIn), and sort by those that work in “engineering”. Below is a list of the top 16 employers.
IBM=174
GE Aviation=164
Intel Corporation=144
JPMorgan Chase & Co.=142
Boeing=122
Microsoft=119
General Motors=118
Nationwide Insurance=99
Ford Motor Company=87
Alcatel-Lucent=85
Lockheed Martin=84
American Electric Power=76
Honda of America Mfg., Inc=.76
Cisco=75
Procter & Gamble=74
Northrop Grumman Corporation=73
The top locations for Boeing:
Greater Seattle Area=56 (of course)
Greater St. Louis Area=12
Greater Los Angeles Area=9
Charleston, South Carolina Area=7
Columbus, Ohio Area=6
Orange County, California Area=5
Washington D.C. Metro Area=4
Some of the OSU grads are fairly senior folks at Boeing, so they seem to be doing just fine.
Engineering is one of those disciplines that does not care that much about rankings. I agree with all those above. With the cost difference between OSU and Michigan, it makes little sense to attend Michigan given your academic and career interests.
You’re saving $88,000 with Ohio State. That’s a pretty large “bird in the hand”.
You’re giving up unsubstantiated, theoretical career benefits with Purdue and Michigan. That’s a pretty clear “two in the bush”.
Take the bird, @Landes. Make your grandfather proud.
Also, keep in mind that most engineering students take about 5 years to graduate, not the normal 4 years. So, your total cost to attend Purdue or Michigan is an extra $110,000 and $160,000 respectively, compared to OSU. Neither one is even close to being worth that extra cost.
“Those rankings mean nothing to employers. Nobody picks the UMich grad over an OSU grad because of the school name.”
Complete and total nonsense. While I do agree that the money differential is not worth it to attend Michigan over Ohio State for engineering, there is no way that “nobody” would take into consideration that Michigan is a stronger program.
"Those rankings mean nothing to employers. Nobody picks the UMich grad over an OSU grad because of the school name."
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Complete and total nonsense. While I do agree that the money differential is not worth it to attend Michigan over Ohio State for engineering, there is no way that “nobody” would take into consideration that Michigan is a stronger program.
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Ok…nobody except an idiot would pick the Umich grad over the OSU solely because of the school name. Intelligent people hire the PERSON, not their school.
I guess there are quite a few, “idiots” in this world mom. My point is that where you attend school sometimes actually does matter. To say it never does is pretty naive.
“Ok…nobody except an idiot would pick the Umich grad over the OSU solely because of the school name. Intelligent people hire the PERSON, not their school.”
Nobody from a school that recruits Michigan and not OSU will hire the OSU grad if they never talk to him/her. Many top companies recruit Michigan COE (and Ross and LSA for that matter), that don’t recruit at OSU. If a tree falls in the forest …
This would be more believable if you would name some of those companies. Leave out Ross. It is irrelevant to this thread.
I would suggest that for every company that recruits at Michigan but not OSU, there is one which does the opposite (recruits OSU, but not Michigan). Plus, such companies are a small, perhaps inconsequential, minority.
Finally, just because a company does not recruit at a particular campus does not mean that they do not hire students from that school. Most graduating seniors do not get their jobs via campus recruiting, although many obviously do. Except for extremely specialized jobs, almost all companies will hire graduates from any college.
