<p>Right now, I am in a dead end position in a Pre-med Program/Life Science Program at a canadian university (U of T). I hate it and I want to change fields. I am good at Math and Science, but I am O K at Physics (I can understand it mostly, but really tough Mechanics and Magnetism are tough, and would make my life miserable). If all goes well, I will get into one (or more) of the following Engineering Programs in the States:</p>
<p>Safeties/Matches:
Indus E @ Ohio SU - C
Civil E @ Penn SU - UP
Civil E or Biomed E @ Drexel
Indus E @ Temple</p>
<p>Reaches:
Indus E @ University of Southern California
Civil E @ Northwestern</p>
<p>Haven't Applied To yet, but considering:
UT Austin
Texas A&M</p>
<p>Which of the above would be the best experience? I know engineering makes life tough for undergrads (and I am willing to work hard), but at which (of the above) would I not have to suffer as much as others?</p>
<p>Which of the above has the best job prospects - I mean the graduates get reasonable job offers as soon as they graduate?</p>
<p>Which would be the best value for money as I am going to be taking a lot of loans to make it through?</p>
<p>Which has good reputation and a good MBA/M.S. in engineering program?</p>
<p>I want to get a decent job offer if I chose to enter the work field after UG or if i Decide to go higher, go to a good MBA/MS Program.</p>
<p>Well you have many schools from the Mid-West and then you have USC and two Texas schools. First, I’d figure out where you want to attend school/where you see yourself working after school. Cali and TX have very different climates and even potentially different lifestyles than PA/OH/IL. Also, the strength of the degree you get (even from the strong programs as you’ve listed) is going to vary depending on where you are pursuing a job at.</p>
<p>Actually most of the Schools I thought were in the Eastern Regions, except Texas and USC. I am very flexible where I work, I would preferably like to go where Job market is best, which I guess is poor any where due to the Economy. Climate doesn’t matter, but I picked Texas/Cali because I am assuming they have far better Temperatures than Canada and the Eastern Board (tired of Shoveling Snow). </p>
<p>gstein: Also, the strength of the degree you get (even from the strong programs as you’ve listed) is going to vary depending on where you are pursuing a job at.</p>
<p>Are you considering civil engineering because you think there won’t be mechanics in it…? You may end up bitterly disappointed. You don’t have to end up specializing in something mechanics-heavy if you’re going to be a civil engineer, but you’ll have to take some advanced mechanical physics courses, and if you really think it would make your life miserable, you might want to look through civil engineering curricula before you start applying.</p>
<p>Texas A&M and UT-Austin have two of the top civil engineering programs in the nation, so you’re not going to be able to get out of taking some tough courses at either of those. But yes, there’s no snow at either of those places.</p>
<p>Other folks will have to answer about the other fields/programs, as I’m not familiar with them.</p>
<p>Thanks, I will definitely look into the curriculum.
Actually I am good at Mechanics. Advanced Rotational Dynamics…Collisions, and stuff are challenging I guess. I am willing to persevere through, though.</p>
<p>I am assuming you go to one of the Universities in Texas. How are the average GPAs in engineering? Drop out rates?</p>
<p>For example, a degree from Drexel or Temple is not going to mean as much in the state of Texas as a degree from A&M or UT. Degrees are often regionally affected.</p>
<p>aibarr went to Rice undergrad but I’m sure she could answer questions about either UT or A&M. I am an AeroE at A&M, so anything A&M related I’d be more than willing to answer. My original post was just an attempt at trying to get you to visualize where you see yourself in 5 years.</p>
figure out which school will transfer the majority of your classes and how long it would take to graduate. This should be a factor. For instance at USC they do not give you much more than elective credit for your AP classes.
Also, find the drop out rate from engineering at all the aschools you are applying to. Many of the state schools in Calif have up to 50% of engineering students change the major after a year or two. You do not want to go through this again if you like engineering but not the program
You will be out of state so should consider the cost at the state schools versus a private and the size of the classes. Many of the state schools have huge classes for the first 2-3 years and the privates smaller ones. Since you are going to be paying a lot as both an out of state student and at a private school, go for the one with the smaller classes.</p>
<p>Beaten like a rug! Thanks, gstein. Yeah, most of my coworkers are A&M or UT grads and we’ve compared curricula. I’m not sure about GPAs. I think most of us around here had pretty high GPAs so we’d be a rather skewed sample size. I know nothing about dropout rates, though sometimes it’s hard to tell whether or not people are dropping out of the engineering programs because with a lot of programs, you don’t have to declare your major until after most of the people who drop out have already been blitzed by the intro courses.</p>
<p>I would have applied to Rice, but by the time I got my other Apps in, it was past deadline.
I will definitely consider Purdue, Futureholds. </p>
<p>I am leaning towards the public ones, as their tuition costs are quite a bit lower, and I am assuming I would be in a higher percentile in a Public vs. Private institution. </p>
<p>I am switching from Pre-Med/Life Sci to Engineering. I don’t want to have to do another switch…that’ll kill me :P.</p>
<p>gstein: How is the average GPA for example in your field in A&M? Do you have Co-op chances/internships (a reason why I am leaning towards Drexel)? Do many people dropout in first year?</p>
<p>Civil and industrial are two VERY DIFFERENT fields. Industrial engineering in different school has different emphasis. Make sure you do enough research. At Northwestern, it’s called industrial engineering and management science, suggesting a balance in the two areas.</p>
<p>I’d say Penn St/Texas are the best buy.</p>
<p>Among the schools you are considering, Penn St and Northwestern are the only ones that have top-5 industrial enginereing program (graduate ranking). Yet, you opt to pick civil for those two schools. </p>
<p>Civil engineering companies tend to recruit locally and are not really that picky about which schools you graduate from. </p>
<p>For industrial engineers that look for business/engineering management, Northwestern has the best rep. Penn St also has a very highly ranked program so it should have a pretty good rep too.</p>
<p>As is biomedical, which he’s looking at applying to for Drexel.</p>
<p>OP, I really get the feeling that you’re trying to choose a program that’s as different as you can find from where you currently are because you don’t like the situation that you’re currently in, and I’m concerned that you’re going to end up not liking where you’re going, either. Do you mind telling us what draws you to industrial, civil, and biomedical engineering? We’ve got people around here from all three fields and maybe we can help answer your questions and narrow things down a bit so that you can end up in a field that you actually want to be in.</p>
<p>lowendnewbie: I am not in Engineering as in my OP. Their engineering program is good, I know. But a) I want to move from Toronto b) it works students to the bone, and U of T doesn’t have a great vibe in general. I did apply to Waterloo as well, but since this is primarily an American forum, I am asking for advice on the others.</p>
<p>aibarr/Sam Lee: I applied for Civil at Drexel, I thought I applied for Biomed, but I did apply for Civil. I applied for Civil because that is the area of Engineering where I am sort of interested in - structural design and also transportation engineering. Another reason why I applied to Civil (and also Indus) is because they are a little less rigorous then (imo) hardcore engineering fields such as Engineering Science/Physics, Chemical E, Mechanical E, and to a lesser extent Electrical. I would apply to Electrical because I am good at that stuff too, but it has a heavy Computer aspect, which I am so-so at.
IndusE seems like a good option because it is diverse I guess, has a bit more of the management of engineering involved too. It is also relatively “easier”, I am assuming. </p>
<p>I am more interested in Civil, but I am a bit afraid of the workload and the level of difficulty, so I am assuming IndusE is easier. Plus I have some friends who are in Industrial Engineering, who say I am more suited for that field.</p>
<p>Penn St and Northwestern, darn I should have applied for Indus I guess over Civil, but I didn’t really research heavily, as I have been busy. Would it be easy to transfer? How is Civil in these universities?</p>
<p>DS loves UToronto, lots to do and lots cheap eats, easy to get around. He has lived in Oregon, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Bangalore, Berlin. Toronto is best. </p>
<p>If you want engineering, then you will work very hard.</p>
<p>I have been in Toronto for like 15 years, I know it pretty well. It’s a great city and all, but I still want to move to the States for a bit (somewhere warm too).
Might move back to Toronto if I do move to the States. </p>
<p>UToronto is a huge uni in a huge city. I’d like something a bit smaller.
I know Engineering is hard, but the benefits seem to come sooner, no?</p>
<p>I think Civil Engineering has the best shot right now. I had a reunion with people from my alma mater and some are holding top positions at Cal Tran. They told me they are digging out old projects that were put away because of lack of funding now that Obama is going to be president.</p>
<p>Yeah haha I read many of your posts in this section as I admire your knowledge/experience.</p>
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<p>Avg. GPA will vary between years, I’d say it’s probably around a 2.6 for your first two years as many people are experiencing tough weed-out classes. I currently have a 3.3 as a second semester soph., and that was pretty challenging for me to obtain. Class size is pretty good for such a large university… biggest engineering related intro class I’ve had is Chem with maybe 300 people (and that was because there was only one prof teaching it that semester)… Physics 1 and 2 maybe ~115 for lecture (although generally 25-50% of that will show up b/c of difficulty) ~15 for lab… My upper level classes as an AeroE have about 40 in each. Not many people dropout after the first year, many may dropout of engineering or get kicked out because of low GPA… but not dropout of the school. And opportunities for co-ops and internships are pretty astounding. Just this last semester (first semester soph) I’ve interviewed on-campus with both Lockheed-Martin and Continental Airlines for a spot as an intern. The semesterly engineering career fair here is amazing… sooo many opportunities with with big name and small name companies just at your feet. That’s pretty much a wrap-up, any real specific questions I didn’t cover feel free to PM me.</p>
Yeah, most of my coworkers are A&M or UT grads and we’ve compared curricula. I’m not sure about GPAs. I think most of us around here had pretty high GPAs so we’d be a rather skewed sample size. I know nothing about dropout rates, though sometimes it’s hard to tell whether or not people are dropping out of the engineering programs because with a lot of programs, you don’t have to declare your major until after most of the people who drop out have already been blitzed by the intro courses.</p>