<p>I currently go to a top 20 school and honestly as long as you go to a reputable school you should be fine. From what I see, the only major that school reputation may get you the job is business. Top school usually have better job fairs and such. But if you go to school in a big city they will have the same job fairs to the public. Just make the best of your college experience no matter where you go</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>That’s a naive way of thinking…</p>
<p>I am sure we can all agree that future engineers should avoid party schools like west virginia.
It really says a lot about a schools environment and the students who attend it if its in the top 20 in a top party schools list.</p>
<p>^ Why? Are you required to party if others do?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>and </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>We are getting to something on which my son has an issue or at least a question mark: partying, specifically, at UIUC, a highly ranked ENG school where he might be able to get in and money would be do-able (he is from IL). But this question might extend to other schools that also have a rep for partying, Purdue, UM - Big 10 schools, and any others with this rep, AND which also have the rep for good ENG schools.</p>
<p>My son told me that he wanted to go to a school where he would not be considered some sort of freakish pariah (my words; he might have said ‘marginalized’) if he would want to spend his time at the lib or in his room studying vs going out to party. So, no, there is obviously not a requirement to go out and do this, but his fear is that if the overall culture at the school is to party (first), then there might be some sort of ‘tide’ ‘forcing’ this on the person; or, alternatively, the person might have to exercise some sort of undue amt of force to repel this tide, to use some physics 
. </p>
<p>I am sure this works out ok at these schools, especially ones with good reps in ENG, but this is his fear.</p>
<p>I suggest some of you read over the concepts of “Supply & Demand”. In certain areas of engineering and computer science, it doesn’t matter if your degree is from West Virginia University…</p>
<p>If that employer needs someone who knows Java or Information Assurance or Oracle/SQL Server…that is all that they care about.</p>
<p>U Washington is a very good school for engineering. Top 20 caliber though I believe it’s ranked a little under the top 20. </p>
<p>Ranked 28th, according to USNWR 2010. I believe this was based on “Peer Assessment”.</p>
<p>roderick, if your son goes to a school of any size at all, he will find plenty of people to hang out with. I went to UT-Austin, a school known for partying. I had friends I studied with, and others I went out with. I wanted to make good grades, so I studied hard. I frankly didn’t care what anyone thought about it! My dorm was mostly sorority girls, but I had quite a few friends there, Greek or not.</p>
<p>Your son needs to go in with the resolve that he will work hard, and he’ll be fine.</p>
<p>Ha, I just recalled that when my future husband met me in grad school, he was worried about me because he thought I partied too much! He was surprised when I made all As, lol.</p>
<p>^^
How do you people do it?! Party and still get good grades lol. I must know the secret!</p>
<p>^^ Picking your (biological) parents well. cf, eg, Ozzie Osbourn.
<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost;
<p>Using that part school criterion, I guess no one should ever go to Berkeley. Great school but impossible to do anything but party.</p>
<p>Choking on sarcasm yet?</p>
<p>alchemist, I worked REALLY hard in high school, so I was well-prepared. I also tried to budget my time carefully. When I needed to, I could study very intensely, then I still had time for fun stuff.</p>
<p>I went to a top 5 engineering school and most of my colleagues went to top 25 to top 10. Of the ones that have the same degree as me - my course work was a little more rigorous. Not much but enough where they were surprised that I was required to take an extra course or the depth we went into something. There is definitely a marginal gap between good engineering schools and elite engineering schools. You’ll also have a generally brighter/smarter student body at an elite school since they are more selective.</p>
<p>vblick, out of curiousity - and I know the info might not be as fresh as today - was there a significant party culture at your top 5 ENG school? And if so, did you find this at all difficult to navigate through while also hitting good grades?</p>
<p>and bone, similar question to you as an alum of UIUC.</p>
<p>And I hear bone’s point about UCB (for example) - that partying is just about the only thing that one does and can do at that school :). Is the point here that the schools that are good in ENG are also <em>big enough</em> to have many different cultures going on, and an uber studious student will gravitate naturally to his or her appropriate culture, sort of ‘birds of a feather will flock together’? The gal from Texas suggested as much, too.</p>
<p>I am voicing my son’s concerns as a rising HS sr - who also has worked hard in HS, and who does nt want a roommate or a dorm floor partying all the time. He tends to be a quieter type, keeps reasonable hours since he has tendencies for migraines if he does nt get enough sleep or if he over does it.</p>
<p>I partied HARD in college. I am pretty sure my undergrad GPA was greatly affected because of it. At the same time, I “kept an ear to the street” and pretty much knew because of supply and demand, I would be OK as far as post-graduation employment.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not really. I went to Georgia Tech which is generally know as (and is predominately) an engineering school. So most students were usually studying around the clock. The dorms were quiet and most kids didn’t have time to or even wanted to party it up. Of course there were parties and the fraternities (GT has a small greek scene anyway) but the temptation to get involved because so many people were doing it just wasn’t there. </p>
<p>A friend of mine went to the University of Maryland at College Park which is a great engineering school and all around school. He would tell me how hard it was to avoid the temptation of going out because he was the only one out of his friends that was doing engineering. He didn’t have as much time to go out and get crazy as often as his friends who were liberal arts majors etc. </p>
<p>At the end of the day it’s mind over matter. You have to have the dedication.</p>
<p>There was absolutely a significant party culture at UIUC. It was definitely hard seeing so many people let loose on a Thursday night while I had to study, but it wasn’t that difficult to exercise a little will power. I is a large school so, as mentioned before, if you aren’t a partier it isn’t terribly difficult to fine likeminded people. I didn’t find it difficult to only go out once a week and find other people to do the same.</p>
<p>For me, the much bigger time sink was the fact that I went to every football and basketball game in m 4 years except for two of them.</p>
<p>Honestly, the big schools are so diverse that you can waste time doing almost anything or study as much as you want and you can probably find someone to do it with either way.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Come on, although engineers spend a lot of time working they are by no means working around the clock, or if they are they are really inefficient. People can still do engineering school work, research, work a part time job, and party if they want to.</p>
<p>^^ I’ll vouch for having time to do engineering major, CS minor, music minor, part time job, tour guide, and party at GT 
LOVE IT!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I think my son’s concern might be that he would be perceived as ‘wierdo’, the proverbial nail sticking out, at a college with a significant party culture. He probably wd be more comfortable not partying. </p>
<p>WHat top 10 ENG schools are in the list of top 20 party schools?</p>
<p>[Top</a> American Party Schools 2010-2011: Princeton Review Rankings](<a href=“http://news.suite101.com/article.cfm/top-american-party-schools-2010-2011-princeton-review-rankings-a265882]Top”>http://news.suite101.com/article.cfm/top-american-party-schools-2010-2011-princeton-review-rankings-a265882)</p>