<p>Hi, I live in Southern California and was recently admitted to the University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Rose-Hulman, which are excellent schools for undergrad mechanical engineering/electrical engineering. According to US News and Reports, they are among the best in the nation (Top 10). Now my question to others and people who have graduated and earned jobs, do these schools actually offer much greater programs that will help you in the future of jobs and careers compared to other schools, such as UCLA or UCSD? My question is due to the fact that I am considering the price differential of In State Public vs Out of State. Price of tuition isn't an issue for my family, but I still would like to save money. </p>
<p>Both UCLA and UCSD are great schools, but their engineering programs aren't has highly ranked as say Michigan, Illinois, Georgia Tech, MIT, Stanford etc but does it matter? Are they that so inferior to the "Top 10" ranked schools that it would actually put me at a disadvantage in the "Real World" if I were to choose UCLA or UCSD? Or is it a mere bragging right to say that you went to a top tier school? I'm not making a comparison between one of these schools and say, a horrible college, as both LA and SD are good schools.</p>
<p>I have considered it, and applied, but its more of a reach for me, I believe. Also, to be honest, I prefer LA and SD over Berkeley since my family went to Berkeley and I hated the area. Just personal preference</p>
<p>It depends. If you are comparing Top 10 to Top 200, then yes it does matter. If you are comparing Top 10 to say, Top 50, then it really only helps your chances at pursuing a job/graduate school. This doesn’t necessarily hold true for those pursuing things other than engineering after an engineering undergrad degree (e.g. finance, medicine, law). This has been discussed way too much on these boards though.</p>
<p>It can’t hurt to go to a top ten engineering school. That said if you don’t really see yourself as an engineer/business/finance down the line then it really doesn’t matter too much. (the latter two seem to draw a lot of engineering majors, and are probably recruited heavily at top engineering schools)</p>
<p>@gstein, thanks for reply I tried searching but couldn’t really find a thread.</p>
<p>@Senior0991, I see myself as an engineer down the line.
However, my question is that do you think it is worth it to pay extra and go to a top 10 engineering school rather than going to a good, top 50 school. Like would the top 10 school be that much more beneficial.</p>
<p>Take two engineering grads who JUST graduated: One from Georgia Tech and another from University of Delaware. Even IF an employer decided to pay the GT grad more money, that engineer would probably make no more than $10,000 more initially.</p>
<p>As both engineering gain more experience, where their received their degrees will matter less.</p>
How about safety? Considering money isn’t an issue for your parents will they still pick-up the tab for tuition if you want to go to a top 10 engineering school that doesn’t meet their definition of “safe”? If not then the discussion is moot…you’ll go where your parents are willing to pay.</p>
<p>I think that MIT/Stanford will help a lot, not so much with Georgia Tech/Michigan/Illinois. As has been stated before, actual engineering firms will pay all of their employees about the same amount and they are not particularly prestige conscious. They’ll probably choose the Georgia Tech graduate over a graduate from a lower ranked school, but really any student from a decent program should be fine. I think that you should go to UCLA and save your money. </p>
<p>On the other hand, non-engineering firms that hire engineering undergraduates will want students from the top schools, not the top ranked engineering programs. So MIT and Stanford will be recruited by these companies, for the most part the top publics will not.</p>