For engineering, what is the difference between a top engineering school - Illinois, Purdue; Georgia Tech, MIT - and a flagship or good state school with a good engineering program - Ohio State, Miami Ohio, Michigan State? Does the ‘prestige’ factor matter at all, like it does for, say, law or finance? Will you get a higher quality education at one of the more well known engineering schools? Better job prospects and/or easier time getting into grad school?
I can speak for the workplace. I have been in the electronics engineering field for 35 years. I have, and continue to work with colleagues from the UC schools, Cal State, Stanford, Princeton, Cornell, MIT, Duke, etc. I can honestly tell you that I’ve seen no difference in the abilities or career outcomes between a Cal State graduate and a top tier private college graduate. My BIL went to Cal State and supervises Ivy league graduates at a major national laboratory. The most sophisticated products at my company were designed by UC and Cal State engineers.
The smartest guy I ever met at a workplace graduated from Cleveland State. He used to complete the LA Times crossword puzzle while eating breakfast. Many of the most capable engineers I’ve worked with had no degree at all.
Having said that, I will say that it seems that in CS, if you graduate from a top school you may have a better chance at getting that first job at a prized company. For instance, I know a couple of Berkeley grads who worked for Google right after getting their undergrad degree. In those cases it appeared that the college attended may have helped.
@CourtneyThurston I’m sure you have a great response to this! Please comment on this thread.
For my field of mechanical engineering, no difference. But that is a statement of opportunity, and not a statement that all StateU grads are equally capable as MIT grads. A motivated and hard working student will do great at any school, and in their career.
I’d bet there is a difference in the state flagships and their lesser instate counterparts. However, many flagships, especially in the upper Midwest, are better than most private schools in many fields, including engineering fields. “Top school” does include many public U’s. And CS is NOT computer, or other, engineering- it is a science.
There are some differences and prestige benefits, but they may not be worth going significantly into debt for at the undergraduate level. ABET has essentially standardized the engineering curricula being taught. So as long as you are looking at reputable, accredited schools, worry more about program match (and your “Plan B”), fit, and affordability than reputation.
I can tell you my graduating D had an easier time getting internships and job offers as a Purdue engineer than friends elsewhere. And her engineer friends at Purdue said the name opened doors for them as well. As with most professions once you are in a job what matters most is your resume and your ability/performance - no one cares where you went to school when you are mid-career - but I definitely think when it comes to getting those all-important foot in the door first jobs, the reputation of the engineering program and its network/professional connections makes a huge difference.
H is a Civil Engineer who owns his company at this point. Name matters, but not in the way many assume. For a new hire it helps to be from one of a handful of local engineering schools often including the state’s top engineering school. If one knows where they want to work, look at this Bios of others who work there to get an idea of respected schools. In our area Penn St and Virginia Tech are big. When we lived in FL Georgia Tech also came in along with one of the Florida public schools (exactly which one I don’t recall).
Once you’ve been working, folks look more at what you’ve done. H’s Virginia Tech degree has never hurt him. He’s done projects on 5 continents at this point (missing South America and Antarctica). Top engineering schools are respected around the world, esp with work experience. I’d expect the same from GA Tech, Purdue, etc.
There are often different job opportunities, rather than better or worse across the board. For example, suppose a prospective electrical engineering major has a choice between UCSD, MIT, and Yale. I’ve taken classes at UCSD in my field, and the first thing stood out to me were how they emphasized Qualcomm-tech far more than similar classes that I have taken at Stanford, which is understandable since UCSD and Qualcomm are located practically within walking distance of one another, and Qualcomm was founded by a former UCSD professor (the UCSD school of engineering is named after him). UCSD also has professors with unique connections at Qualcomm, such as consulting and past employment, has opportunities for students to get Qualcomm mentors, etc. /As such, it’s not surprising that LinkedIn shows Qualcomm employs far more UCSD alimni than any other college (SDSU is 2nd). If he wants to work in at Qualcomm or other similar San Diego company after graduating, UCSD is likely to put him in a better position in terms of networking, internship, and recruiting opportunities than MIT. However, if he wants to work in the northeast, MIT is more likely to put him in the better networking/internship/recruiting position.
If he instead chose Yale, then he’d have a far smaller department, with far fewer classes to choose from and likely a smaller average class size in major specific courses. I expect there would be fewer engineering employers attending recruiting events on campus. However, he’d probably have better opportunities for Wall Street banking type jobs, if we was considering that route, rather than being certain he wants to work in engineering.
My DH is an EE, Vice President of an engineering company…and he does hiring. He says…he won’t interview anyone who hasn’t graduated from an ABET accredited program less they have significant and relevant experience related to their work. He is looking for engineers who want to learn. Much of the actual work requires on the job training…so he wants open minded learners.
The name of the undergrad school doesn’t mean much to him.
They hire from some more local engineering programs…and believe me…they are not in the top 50. But they have great and well regarded engineering programs.
I would say most of the upper midwest engineering schools have great programs and most are heavily recruited even MTU waay up in da UP. Within a state you might find one is sightly stronger recruited than another for certain concentrations. Not to pick on MTU but they place more and faster in civil engineering than say MSU or UofM… and Kettering does great getting mechanical engineering grads with automotive companies. Look at the uni and look at where the grads are getting jobs. And finally not all engineering schools have all concentrations so if there is an industry you are interested in check out the engineering concentrations and find one that fits.
I have USC grads sitting within feet of me here at work. Our company is not a household name. USC engineering is ranked #24 for undergrad and #9 for grad according to US News; I went to a school that Elmer Fudd could have attended. It just doesn’t seem to matter in my experience.
In my experience in engineering (graduated 30 years ago from a top ranked regional school - well known in engineering but an absolute mystery to folks outside of the tech world), the only aspects where I’ve seen the school choice matter is to some degree employment for internships and after graduation and personal desire. In the MBA world where I spent the last 20 years in various general management positions, where you got your MBA did seem to matter more.
A general rule of thumb that seems obvious is that regional school are better known within their region vs nationally…so if you are fine staying in the Midwest, Midwest regional schools are just as good a choice as the more nationally known (typically larger) Midwest schools (I would agree ABET accredited is key). It may be harder to get a job on the coasts attending a regional Midwest school; not impossible, just potentially harder. The big schools pull in employers from across the nation as well as regionally.
For some, other factors play a role that are driven by personal choices. My son wanted to attend an engineering school that had name recognition…he’s a top tier student so he only applied to large schools that had highly ranked programs in his desired major.
Graduating from MIT will garner you a LOT BETTER job opportunities then Cal State. I have also hired engineers and been have found the opposite of the previous post. Its common sense, the most talented high school students will be accepted to MIT, that is not true for Cal State, and it suddenly doesn’t reverse upon graduation.
On CC you’ll be as likely to find people that say yes as others that say no, and both will have many years of experience to support their positions. Two things seem reasonable to me. First, top engineering schools are considered top for a reason. They typically have the money and resources to deliver the depth, breadth, and opportunities that other schools simply cannot match. Second, the graduates of these programs benefit from the schools resources, reputation, and networks when they look for their first employers. The degree to which this matters, I think, depends on many factors like what type of engineer (EE, ME, AE, ect) and what type of employment will they be looking for ( a small local company or a national or even a global company).
No information source is perfect, but you can get some information at payscale.com and if you have an idea of what type of future employers are attractive, you can look them up on LinkedIn and sort listed employees by college (while not necessarily 100% accurate, it can give some qualitative info).
Yes, you will get better job opportunities and easier admission to grad school if you go to MIT.
People like to use Google and other big well known computer companies as examples of “[company] hired new grads from [college]”. But Google has large hiring needs and recruiting resources, and is known to recruit widely.
The difference is threefold - firstly the quality of research opportunities and student projects (important for grad school) secondly recruitment - especially for consulting and non-engineering opportunities plus larger firms, and finally the school network. Networking can take place inter and intra company.
Like any major virtually every college will have capable students graduate. However top schools are known to be top schools because of the volume and frequency of capable students that come out of the program.
As an employer, if you are looking for a candidate to design and perform creative work you will have better luck finding one at a top school. If you are looking for one to hold a clipboard or answer calls pretty much any school will do.
As a student, if you are surrounded by better students at top schools you will learn to work more effectively.
This carries over with the school name on their resume.
Schools do matter, even in tech, primarily because the people there, not the brand names. Better schools have higher concentration of more talented students and more professors who are the leaders in their fields. As a result, more rigorous courses can be offered at higher starting levels as the capabilities of their students are more even. Students there are more likely to benefit from unique insights from top academics as interactions between them are easier and more frequent. However, a “better” school could be a poor fit for a given student and “lessor” schools do have their share (but lower concentration) of talented students. Ultimately, whether or not you succeed in your career depends on you, not the school.