<p>I am a rising Junior in High School. I am headed to Engineering school. My current GPA is 3.8. I am preparing to take ACT in the fall. While I am confident in my academic abilities, I have a terrible time with high stakes testing. I am concerned about how well I will do in ACT. Anyways, does reputation of college matter for Engineering graduates? If were to say go to University of Arizona or Texas A&M, would I be at clear disadvantage in the job market as opposed to graduating from MIT, Georgia Tech, etc? Thanks.</p>
<p>I should have added more to the original post. Perhaps, the job prospects depend on what I major in? At this time, I have no idea. My dad says Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology seem like interesting fields with good prospects in future.</p>
<p>Prestige is always going to matter…but in different ways than you think. Arizona and A&M are both great programs and as long as you have a good GPA, you would have no problem getting a good job when graduating from there. PLENTY of companies come to those schools. You don’t need to go to MIT for companies to recruit you. This last career fair my school, NCSU, had well over 300 companies there looking for students.</p>
<p>The answer is more complicated than a simple yes or no. All things equal, yes, there is an advantage to graduating from the top name schools. Also when one looks at the data out there, the average salaries right after graduation and even some years into the field, are higher for the top schools. There is a lot more recruitment and alumni action overall at the top schools. So, yes, in looking at those stats, there is an advantage to going to those schools over the less selective ones.</p>
<p>But, those who are at the top of class, the ones who could have gotten into say MIT but went to Uof A for a free ride, those grads tend to do every bit as well as their peers who chose to go to MIT. My close friend who had to weigh in on this with DD who was going into engineering, when looking back at his time in the field as a MIT grad with masters in Engineering, had to come to the conclusion that when it came to the point in time when he was working with a select group of those who were considered the best in a large company, those who went to whatever the school was, community college followed by a tech school that has little name recoginition, stood out. The material taught was not different enough that anyone who sought a master’s in engineering (rare for US students these days) was handicapped coming for XIT vs MIT. The cream did rise to the top and that is what the studies show.</p>
<p>However, the study is based on those kid who were actually accepted at MIT and such schools (for fields other engineering as well) and picked other less selective venues. If you are not MIT material from the get go, well, clear there is that chance that you aren’t among that grouping quality wise anyway and if you could get accepted through some back door, you aren’t going to be in that select group despite going there.</p>
<p>My view of it is:</p>
<p>Every school has a ceiling, for entry level jobs. Better schools have higher ceilings. If you’re not going to exceed the ceiling in school A, there’s no use in going to a school more prestigious than school B. So for a lot of people, even if they got into MIT, there’s not much point in going there instead of Michigan or UIUC or wherever, because they’re below the [still very high] ceiling of Michigan or UIUC. Between two schools where the ceiling is above your potential, you’re not going to end up better off coming out of one than the other, the prestige no longer matters. </p>
<p>You need to learn more about the schools than their reputation. Once you know more, you may not even want to apply to MIT or Ga Tech. My son didn’t apply to either and he had the resume to include them on his list.</p>
<p>Look at your academic and non-academic desires for your college years and then form a list of schools that you’d be happy with. Then decide between the ones you’re admitted to based on the intangibles and cost of attendance after merit and financial aid.</p>
<p>Yes, by all means investigate thoroughly. Some “top” engineering schools do not even have a Materials Science or Materials Engineering Department. Some schools provide significant course work (electives) and research in Nanotechnology; some don’t.</p>
<p>Prestige will matter, to certain degree, but in your situation, unless that 3.8 is unweighted, your G.P.A. is on the low end of the typical applicant of the schools you mentioned. You would need a near perfect ACT or SAT score to be considered.</p>
<p>Anyway, its true, top school graduates make more money etc, but that’s co-relation not causation. High aptitude, working hard, buckling down, etc… are the skills that allowed them to enter a top school do well in it and ultimately the same reasons why they go into a top company and do well. </p>
<p>However if you have those traits from the beginning, then you should do well in any school. It’s like this: Companies know school choices have an economic factor to it, so your school won’t make or break you perse. If you graduate from a top from an A- school you can fare better than graduate from an above average from an A school. Do you your best, and you should see the fruits of your labor. </p>
<p>That said you shouldn’t just go to any school and do well. At the minimum you should go to a school which is ABET accredited. Thats the highest accreditation a school can have and that’s what employers look for. You should be able to find a job.</p>
<p>As for does major affect job prospects? Inevitably yes like any other major. Material sciences more so than nanotech is more useful. synthesizing materials have been practice for a long time already and it proven to work. Nanotech can do well theorhetically, but the industry is still too new to get a good job at the moment. That said you could luck up and be a pioneer which could secure a legacy and lots of money, but its also a higher risk</p>
<p>Geography is another big reason why salaries vary quite a bit. In reality, starting salary is not a great indicator of school quality. As an example, a mediocre school in the NYC area may have a higher starting salary than, say Purdue, just because its graduates tend to stay in that high cost of living area and so the high regional salaries are over-represented. This is in addition to the other issues ninjex mentioned.</p>
<p>@ninjex, my GPA is unwieghted. I have one B and most of the rest are either A or A-. I didn’t know that I would need a perfect ACT to go to Univ. of Arizona or Texas A&M.</p>
<p>I believe the ACT comment was meant for MIT.</p>
<p>You need high scores but not necessarily perfect scores to get into MIT or any of the other top engineering schools. SAT and ACT scores are more like a gate for those schools. You need a high enough score to demonstrate that you can do the work, then after that they are looking at the student as a whole. What did you do with the opportunities presented to you? Do you always strive to challenge yourself? And so forth. Many an applicant with perfect scores has been passed over for someone with lower scores. Look over the posts in the MIT area of CC, especially Chris’ posts.</p>
<p>@199844 </p>
<p>Ah sorry. I meant Mit and Georgia Tech. However, since the gpa is unweighted you actually have a good shot. </p>
<p>For University of Arizona, A basic search reveals the avg freshman scores a 25 on the act and Gpa of 3.5 weighted. You are a strong applicant so far.</p>
<p>Texas is a 27 act score and weighted gpa 3.99. Again, gpa wise you are good. </p>
<p>I used college data dot com as my sources. </p>
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<p>Be careful. You are looking at the average scores for overall entering freshmen at these universities. For engineering specifically, [url=<a href=“http://www.engineering.arizona.edu/future/freshmen-admissions]Arizona[/url”>http://www.engineering.arizona.edu/future/freshmen-admissions]Arizona[/url</a>] has an average ACT of 27 and a 3.7 unweighted GPA. Admittedly, that still isn’t all that high of a bar, but it is higher than the university as a whole. Texas A&M (not the same as Texas) does not have that information published that I can find this morning, but is likely closer to 30 depending on the specific department.</p>
<p>Both Arizona and Texas A&M have automatic admission criteria, so if you meet them, you are admitted. But you have to check on the costs, especially if you are out-of-state. Also, check if there are any specific divisional requirements for engineering.</p>
<p>Arizona: Arizona resident who is in the top 25% of high school class at a regionally accredited high school and has no course work deficiencies. <a href=“First Year Application Deadlines | University of Arizona Admissions”>http://admissions.arizona.edu/freshmen/admissions-decisions</a></p>
<p>Texas A&M: with required high school course work completed, top 10% as a Texas resident, or top 25% with SAT CR+M >= 1300 (with each section >= 600) or ACT >= 30 (with math and English each >= 27). <a href=“http://admissions.tamu.edu/freshman/admitted”>http://admissions.tamu.edu/freshman/admitted</a></p>
<p>Texas A&M is a good school.</p>
<p>"You need high scores but not necessarily perfect scores to get into MIT or any of the other top engineering schools. " - Very true. But even perfect SAT won’t guarantee admission. Applicants should be aware that fewer than 10% are accepted… and the process is cumbersome (many essays, MIT-specific teacher recommendation form). Just think carefully before investing time </p>
<p>DS had great qualifications… I though perhaps even slightly higher than average for MIT… so I l expected his odds of acceptance were… well, probably about 15%. We let apply anyway because at the time MIT was tops on his list. </p>
<p>PS - If possible, visit MIT during the school year and arrange to go to classes. DS adored it at our July visit, but with school in session in Feb… not so much. </p>
<p>You definitely should visit, my daughter did not like Boston at all, it was too small for her, while Boston is favorite city for many students. However, MIT is awesome. It’s good to do a summer program there to know if you like the place or not.</p>
<p>We had a retired aerospace engineer who hired other engineers visit during a career day at my school once, and he said that MIT grads he hired would generally get $10k more in their starting salary (and this guy talked about how everyone used to use slide rules, so that may be more after inflation), but after that it was up to how hard people worked. He also seemed to indicate that while going to a prestigious school gave you an advantage, they were happy just to have someone who put themselves through the misery of any engineering program. He specifically mentioned that while you want to go to a top school if you want to major in humanities, there are plenty of great engineering schools that have attainable admission.</p>
<p>But it was clear a few times that he hasn’t been hiring in a long time, and it’s probably much tougher to get an engineering job today than it was back in his day. Having research experience on your resume definitely won’t hurt, and some schools make getting research experience easier than others. Also, check out university ratings for specifically engineering; if your scores don’t come out as high as you wanted, there are tops engineering schools that don’t require super high test scores, like Purdue, Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. But like the guy said, most engineering programs are just fine. Whatever you choose, good luck!</p>
<p>PS - You might learn a lot during your junior year that will lead to a higher ACT score. I had a friend who took the SAT during the fall of her junior year and got a 1600, then retook it during the summer after junior year and was in the high 1900s. Just something to keep in mind if you aren’t satisfied with your initial scores.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. I am NOT shooting for MIT, et al. I am not Ivy material and happy with it. I am however shooting for lower level schools and U of A and Texas A&M are just two schools I mentioned as examples. I am hoping practicing ACT for almost a year would result in a reasonable score in the 25 - 30 range. I stink at these tests and hoping for the best. My GPA will not be a problem.</p>