I’m a high school senior looking into my college options. As my name indicates, I’m from the great state of Wyoming. I’ve been interested in doing some form of engineering for some time but I haven’t made up my mind on which one to say the least. I really love the area I live in and I’m looking for an engineering degree that could maybe keep me in Wyoming/Rockies area. I’m looking into Envormental Engineering, Petroleum Engineering, Chem Engineering, Mechanical and Civil, lastly. As you can see, I’ve got quite a few choices but I’m most interested in the Enviro, Petro, and Chem majors. All are offered at the school I’m interested in (University of Wyo), but do any of you know the most needed engineers in my area and how easy it would be to get a job here? I get the feeling PEs travel quite a bit. Also, I know it’s not a prestigious school, but what are your thoughts on UW’s engineering programs?
Wyoming is one of the best deals in the country, in state or out of state. You could go to another WUE school like Utah or Colorado State, but you’ll pay much more and I’m not sure you’d have a lot more to show for it. This is especially true given your potential majors and your desire to stay in the mountain west.
Wyo, like Utah, has a LOT of school spirit. Laramie isn’t super scenic, but it’s close to Medicine Bow. Weather is nothing new to you.
I’ll give you a little anecdote. First, take this with a grain of salt because it happened a long time ago, but my Dad went to MIT (BS/MS) and my uncle went to Wyo (BS, PhD at Stanford). To this day, my father maintains that my uncle’s education was as good as his. Now there are intangibles with MIT. The student body in engineering will be stronger and opportunities and networking will be a lot stronger. An MIT grad will have much broader job reach than a Wyo grad without a powerhouse graduate degree. For you, it doesn’t matter much, because you want to stay in the region.
Lastly, if you haven’t read about it, Wyoming has the first ABET accredited Energy Systems Engineering program in the Nation. There are only two so far that are. Oregon State is the other. The announcement link is below.
http://www.uwyo.edu/ceas/news/2012_jul_to_dec/120905/
Good luck!
Tyvm for the input. I will definitely look into and research the Energy Systems Engineering . 
My D is also a senior planning on going into engineering and we’ve been searching pretty extensively for good schools since last spring. She’s going into EE (concentrating on renewable energy), so I can’t speak specifically to the fields you’re interested in, but I can tell you what schools we’ve liked. (Also, we live in CO so I understand wanting to stay near the Rockies!)
Her hs has a four-year engineering program and the teachers speak highly of U Wyo. D was very interested in the energy systems program mentioned by @eyemgh. We thought it would be a strong contender but there was a deal-breaker that had nothing to do with the university and wouldn’t be relevant to most students.
We have visited both CU Boulder and CSU. They are both too big for her taste, but are excellent schools. At either one you’ll certainly know you’re still in the Rockies. CSU does have the benefit of being a WUE school if finances are an issue.
Oregon State is a fairly recent addition to the list. They have an energy focus within the EE department. An OSU rep visited D’s hs last week and she was the only one to attend the session so it was like a one-on-one Q&A. She was impressed and will apply there. They aren’t WUE but they aren’t too expensive and offer nice auto merit scholarships for the right stats.
In Washington she’s planning on applying to Gonzaga (perfect size for her taste) and Western Washington U which we’ve heard a lot of good things about. Gonzaga is generous with merit. WWU with WUE is actually cheaper than CU Boulder in-state. We’ll be visiting both of these later this month.
Oregon Tech was on her list. They actually have a renewable energy engineering degree that sounded perfect. Sadly, they came off the list after visiting. D is not terribly picky about “campus beauty”, but the school looked like an office park, and the town was pretty dreary (although the surrounding area is beautiful). I guess it felt like a commuter school.
Good luck to you in finding some nice schools that fit what you’re looking for!
The description of OIT, was probably an understatement. 
WWU doesn’t have any ABET accredited engineering programs.
Unless, I’m missing something, this shows accreditation at WWU for EE, Manufacturing E, Plastics E, and CS.
http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails.aspx?OrganizationID=356&ProgramIDs=
Those are “engineering technology” degrees, which are related but not the same as engineering degrees.
Your best bet is to start researching engineering jobs in your home state. Lots of websites are available. Use the state and type of engineering as the key search criteria…
My guess, Civil (and environmental, which is closely related to Civil) is likely the most common engineering job available in your state. A lot of small engineering firms hire civil engineers. They also get hired for state/federal/city jobs. Do you job search and see what pops up.
Good Luck!
Hey guys, thank you for all the replies! I’ve been reating up a bit, and some say EnviroE isn’t a good major because it can be too specialized, e.g. a civil can do some to the work of an EnvE, but not vice-versa. Would it be better to do Civil and take extra courses in something environmental?Would I have the ability to do civil and then most of Enviro Engineering?
It looks like environmental is just a specialization within Civil at UW anyway. The curriculum will likely be the same for a while. Get your feet wet and then you can decide where to focus.
You’re right. The Environmental link takes you to the Civil Engineering Dept.
There are a pretty good number of good or better engineering schools in the Mountain West area, ranging from relatively small to quite large. I think you’ll find you have many options in the general region, including your home state school and the state schools in most of your neighboring states.
Environmental engineering is usually a specialization within civil engineering departments at the undergraduate level, at least in my experience. If you eventually want to specialize in it more directly, that would be more of a graduate degree option, where it is more common to offer degrees specifically in environmental engineering. You can consider crossing that bridge later, though.
Petroleum engineering will be the most geographically-limiting option. It is offered at a very small number of schools and the jobs are, obviously, located almost exclusively in oil-producing regions, so you will have to come to terms with living in one of those that is currently under active development or in Texas, where many of the major petrochemical companies are based. Chemical, mechanical, and civil engineers are employed all over the place, though.
I think @boneh3ad’s advice that petro can be limiting is sound. Not that I’m advocating Petroleum, but natural gas extraction is pretty big in WY and CO right now.
I’m from MT so I’m in the same boat as you, basically. I want to do aerospace so I am heading OOS for sure. My brother went to the Colorado School of Mines which is probably among the best engineering schools in our area. It is also getting very hard to get into. They get high ratings regarding bang for the buck, I think it’s less expensive than the University of Colorado, too, but my brother had scholarships so I don’t know for sure.
Enviro engineering is a big deal there, as are all of the energy-type engineering fields. Sadly, no aerospace though. Good luck!