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So the difference in starting salary between UM and OSU is only $4,002, with OSU at $62,537.
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Those differences are not because a person is an OSU grad or a UM grad. the company that hires a UM grad for $67k per year would pay the grad of ANOTHER school the same…whether that grad is from MSU, Purdue, Iowa St, etc. The company isn’t bumping up the UM grad’s salary. That is why this stuff is misleading.
Salaries are regional. The same company with a division in X city will pay more than they’re paying in Y city…simply because of cost of living and nearby competition. Division X is not paying more because they hire a number of grads from a particular univ.
Hiring managers, who aren’t hung up on their own alma maters, are hiring the person…not the school.
Here’s a link to the OSU career outcomes page. They report percentages only and no actual numbers, but it indicates the results are based on graduates with known outcomes and indicates that was 80% of graduates. Most schools wait to survey their graduates at 3-6 months after graduation. There isn’t an exact survey date listed on this report, but based on the fact that they haven’t yet published data for the 2014 graduating class, I suspect they are giving ample time to in order to be able to report the best results possible. https://ecs.osu.edu/sites/ecs.osu.edu/files/uploads/2012-2013careeroutcomes.pdf
OSU also posts a 100 page report listing lots of enrollment data and other info. The last 3 pages contain salary info and the same placement info. There are actual numbers of students reporting for the salary info but not for the placement info. https://engineering.osu.edu/sites/engineering.osu.edu/files/uploads/uess2013.pdf
I didn’t see a report by engineering major for University of Dayton, but in a general placement posting, they reported 95% placement for all majors within the College of Engineering. UD includes those who are involved in 'service activities" in the same category as “employed” though. They didn’t define what they meant by that. If it refers to significant service such as Peace Corp, that’s fine. If it includes students who are unemployed but who volunteer at a soup kitchen a couple hours a week, then I’d call “foul!” Further research would be needed.
Again, key point is, when choosing a college, carefully research the placement rates (both employment and grad school) for the intended major. Seems like that should be the number one factor in any ranking process!
I wish we could actually compare OSU to other schools, but that can’t be done with the data here. We need to be able to compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges. In this case, we need to compare OSU aerospace engineering graduates to other AE grads (not, for example, simply to graduates of the school of engineering). Aerospace and chemical engineering are among the more volatile engineering careers, and are particularly tricky to compare to other engineering disciplines.
In my opinion, I would say to go with what you feel is the best fit for you. I myself am looking into several colleges, OSU included. I really wanted to go OOS, but I feel so drawn to OSU (not to mention the bonus of being in-state!). You want to go with whatever school has the AE program that is the best in YOUR opinion. Money-wise, I would say to just compare each school very carefully. It would be awful to pay a lot for a school that you aren’t sure you love. Make sure you really feel good about it; and contemplate what the effects of paying a certain amount will have on you in the future. You could always start off at OSU, and then transfer to another school as a graduate. That way, you’ll have more time to figure out any money-related issues. Good luck to you!
^For undergrad, yes. They are both large flagship public universities with top-notch faculty… but classes in most majors will be huge for at least the first two years… Oh wait, you were trying to bait me because you thought that since I went to Berkeley, I would get all indignant. Nice try.
Graduate programs at Berkeley are on par with HYPSM… but for undergrad, I honestly don’t think there are significant differences among the top flagship publics (Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, Michigan, UVA, UNCCH, Wisconsin, Illinois, Washington, Ohio State… and others… not meant to be an exhaustive list)… certainly not enough to justify anyone turning down in-state for one for OOS for any of the other.
Sorry, but I disagree. Berkely is a definite tier up from Ohio State. I don’t disagree that it makes sense to spend significantly more to attend Cal or Michigan over tOSU, but there is definitely a difference in overall quality.
I strongly agree with harvardandberkeley. While Cal’s grad programs are among the best in the world, the undergraduates I see coming out of Cal are indistinguishable from the ones I see coming out of Michigan, Ohio State, and other state flagships.
I do not agree that OSU is indistinguishable from Michigan, but I definitely agree that no university (including Michigan) is $30k/year better than OSU. Unless Landes’ parents are very wealthy, OSU is definitely his best bet.
Michigan is certainly not $128,000 more significant, which is how much more the OP would have to pay to attend Michigan instead of Ohio State. That really should end the discussion.