Does engineering school matter?

<p>My son wants to major in engineering, mechanical most likely. We live in Missouri. Of course we are thinking about Urbana Champaign, or Purdue, but what about Mizzou? I know of several engineers that have graduated from there. The program is not as well known, but does it really matter? Thanks in advance. He would love Mizzou but wants a good program. He has a 31 ACT and 4.9 GPA.</p>

<p>It really depends on what sort of goals he has afterward. Mizzou is certainly not a spectacular engineering school, but it does have a decent regional recruiting footprint, so have your son look at the sorts of companies recruiting engineers at their career fair. If any of those companies are in line with what he wants to do then it will probably be okay. I know that St. Louis companies and Kansas City companies recruit a decent number of Missouri engineers. You won’t seem them as much out in places like silicon valley or Southern California or other big tech sectors like you would the Purdue or UIUC grads, so it is really simply about goals. Keep in mind also that after you land your first job, what you do at that job matters a lot more than the name of the school on your degree most of the time.</p>

<p>That said, Mizzou isn’t even the top public engineering school in Missouri. Unless he just absolutely detests Rolla, then Missouri S&T is worth a look as well. It is a very good program. Of course, I recognize that Rolla isn’t for everyone (I wouldn’t be particularly interested in it, for example), but the school is good and I know just as many people who loved it there as I do who didn’t, so at least look into it.</p>

<p>I know several Missouri S&T (aero engineering) grads where I work (Southern California). In fact, S&T is recruited from quite often here. </p>

<p>I don’t know any Mizzou grads personally, but I would imagine their engineering programs are, at the very least, ABET accredited. That being said, choosing a school with a strong program in his field of interest would be preferable. </p>

<p>And I agree with boneh3ad about S&T not being for everyone. A friend (and coworker) of mine went there and absolutely hated his college experience (his reasons were: very little to do off campus, small town, and rather ugly surroundings). Based on what I have heard so far from various people, S&T is a mixed bag in terms of the college experience, but their engineering programs are solid.</p>

<p>What import do you place on costs? With an ACT of 31, he’ll be eligible for Bright Flight. The award changes yearly based on the state budget, but is currently estimated at $2,000 per semester, automatic, and renewable for 10 semesters. </p>

<p>Total expense for engineers, in state, at both Mizzou and S&T, will be roughly $100k. Bright Flight will drop that to $80k.</p>

<p>UIUC will be $200k.</p>

<p>A third option would be to consider private schools that are generous with Merit Aid. How far away from home is he willing to go? What other interests does he have?</p>

<p>In the final analysis, no matter where he goes, his success will be riding on his shoulders. What he does with his time will be far more important than where he goes.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

<p>Why in the world would he goto Mizzou ? Missouri University of Science and Technology is a much better choice academically.</p>

<p>You’ve OBVIOUSLY only read about these schools and never been in either Columbia or Rolla, let alone set foot on either campus. Once you do, then you’ll understand “why in the world” someone wanting to study engineering as an undergrad might have a preference for Mizzou over Rolla.</p>

<p>If finances are a concern, another school to look at is Bama.</p>

<p>With roughly the same stats (31ACT, around 4.3W) as an Indiana resident, my S was accepted into Purdue’s engineering program, but not into their honor’s program and was not given ANY merit aid and most of their merit awards don’t put much of a dent in OOS tutition anyway. (If costs aren’t a concern, it is a great school for engineering). I’ve also heard that UIUC isn’t very generous with OOS merit aid, but after a VERY disorganized tour and my S not being impressed with the campus, he didn’t even choose to apply.</p>

<p>However with those stats at Bama you will be automatically accepted into their honor’s program, get full tutition, and get $2500/year from the school of engineering that can be applied to room&board or other expenses (unless they make changes to their current automatic scholarships). Was able to get S through first year with no loans, he was able to travel to Ecuador with an honor’s class, and is now working an internship after his first year. Not to mention they did just spend $250,000,000 on an all new engineering building with all new labs. Definitely not the top rated program out there, but for less than $10,000/year, I think I’m getting my money’s worth.</p>

<p>Or, if he wants a small school, there’s always Rose(-Hulman). (Currently the top ranked engineering school without a PhD program.)</p>

<p>After the aid package we received, the total cost was going to be less than $10,000 more per year than the cost of Purdue for IS tutition, so would most likely be VERY competitive with OOS costs.</p>

<p>(It was just far too close to home for my S since it’s only about 40 miles from our house)</p>

<p>Let me just point out that honors programs mean practically nothing to your eventual chances at employment or graduate school. Alabama may be a fantastic deal and have decent engineering recruiting in the southeast, but a degree from Purdue is going to still carry much more weight nationally than a degree with honors from Alabama. At a university, a far better use of your time than honors is to sink that extra effort into getting some leadership experience, performing undergraduate research, joining a field-related club (e.g. Formula SAE or ACM), etc. Those are much better resume/application builders.</p>

<p>All that said, I go back to my oft-repeated stance that none of that matters if the student’s career goals line up well with the opportunities typically available to graduates of a given school (as evident through on-campus recruiting and graduate school admissions). I Alabama offers all the opportunities you want, then by all means go for it. Just go into it well-informed. The last thing you want to do is make a decision solely on cost of attendance and then have to wait 5 years or more to actually land the job you wanted in the first place because your school is overlooked by those types of companies.</p>

<p>But with the accessibility of the internet in this day and age, it’s really not overly difficult to find jobs where you want, despite the school you go to.</p>

<p>A lot of businesses don’t recruit at Bama, but there are several on a more national scale that do (and there’s also the fact that Huntsville is now ranked one of the most high tech cities in the nation).</p>

<p>But although my S lives in Indiana and is enrolled at Bama, he was able to locate and obtain an internship in the Chicago area after his freshman year (and that experience on his resume will make finding an internship next year all that much easier). (Internship was located on the internet with NO personal connections and was not arranged through the school (although they do have a great co-op program, they don’t have many internships available)). And although I believe my S is pretty AWESOME, his resume isn’t more impressive than MANY, MANY others his age, so I have to assume that MANY, MANY others would be capable of the same. </p>

<p>I know of several other students that were also able to obtain internships in the areas they live (some with multiple offers, after their freshman year).</p>

<p>But of course that isn’t jsut based on the school he attends, but on how he performed there (4.0 GPA first semester), the recommendations he recieved, his volunteer/community service involvement, the organizations he is involved with (he is member of ASCE), etc.</p>

<p>Agreed that honor’s doesn’t matter significatly on a resume, but it comes with some nice perks - early registration, smaller class sizes, increased leadership opportunities through mentoring courses, and AMAZING honor’s dorms.</p>

<p>If you’re willing to work on building your resume, in this day and age, personally I don’t believe the locale of your school is all that limiting on where you can obtain employment.</p>

<p>Maybe it may be better to ask some mechanical engineers or those who are familar with the mechanical engineering profession. The specific profession can play a role if the school matters.</p>

<p>If this was Computer Science, your answer would be “no” as there are more jobs than grads to fill them. Employers cannot be as picky when the talent is scarce.</p>

<p>My S is in Civ-E (which isn’t the most in-demand field right now), but he was still able to get his internship in an area not located near his school. We hand-picked the region where we were looking for internships as he is staying for free with relatives for the summer. If we had wanted to incur cost of living there were MANY Civ-E internships available especially for city/state governments and energy companies. My S would like to intern for a design firm, but although his experience this summer was with a city government, it is professional, experience in his field on his resume, which should make finding an internship at a design firm easier before he graduates. Having different experiences and working in different regions, will make it easier for him to decide what he wants to do after he graduates or if there are limited options will make him more open to relocating to where he needs to at that time.</p>

<p>As for Mech-E. My S was waivering between Civ-E and Mech-E (he really still is). My father is a CFO in a small business in the west-Chicago suburbs. He STRONGLY encouraged my S to switch to Mech-E and said that there is an extreme demand for Mech-Es right now and when they attempt to locate a PE in Mech-E to work on a short-term project, they often have to wait for more than a year to locate a qualified person, so if you have a PE in Mech-E, you can ‘name your own price’ (at least in that region).</p>

<p>Is there an area of engineering where the talent isn’t scarce? How about in 4-5 years when more of the boomers actually get around to retiring?</p>

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<p>Which still doesn’t really help if that company has a negative opinion of a given school. Unless a company has a positive opinion of a given school, then it is going to be harder to get jobs there and applicants coming from their target schools are generally going to get preferential treatment in hiring, fair or not. So yes, the “less prestigious” schools can certainly get jobs at other places other than the companies recruiting there, but it will be a more uphill battle. Also note, of course, that after that first job, it is going to matter more what experience is on your resume than what school is on there, so the first job is sort of an equalizer in this regard.</p>

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<p>That is a very good point. Depending on the school, there are sometimes perks that come along with the honors program, and early registration is especially nice. That is case-by-case though, and it seems a lot of people on here more often choose the honors program because they are continuing that high school mentality on into college, which is simply not a good way to go into it. It sounds like your case is not like that.</p>

<p>The priority registration for Alabama honors students is a perk that cannot be overstated. Honors students, even freshmen, register before the other 80% of the school. Shutouts and 8am classes (unless you want) are rare.</p>

<p>Thanks everyone for your opinions - many good points that we considered. I know several of you mentioned Missouri S&T. I graduated from S&T with a Computer Science Degree (i’m said student’s mom). Although I enjoyed my time in Rolla, if I had it to do over again i’d have gone to Mizzou (my husband graduated from there with the same degree as me). S&T is just a depressing school. Our son did get into UIUC and Purdue, but in the end decided upon Mizzou. He has a wide variety of interests, and feels he will put more of himself into his school if he enjoys his surroundings. He was automatically accepted into the Honors College, which will help with getting smaller class sizes. He does want to work in the St. Louis area if possible (some of you mentioned name brand of school on the coasts, etc.), he does not want to leave the midwest. Thank again - really appreciate hearing everyone’s thoughts!</p>