<p>I'm currently an entering California high school senior and I've already been accepted into Iowa State University for materials engineering. The school is better than either of the UCs I could commute to and would cost the same (30k annually) as any other UC I'd have to dorm at.
My question is:
Am I more likely to be employed after graduation in Iowa if I attend ISU or in California if I attend a UC? UCs are overcrowded as is California in general, so I would think that my chances of employment are greater in Iowa/Midwest if I go to ISU, but I really am not too sure. Thoughts on this?</p>
<p>Some useful statistics- unemployment rate in California is 10.8%, and in Iowa is 5.1%</p>
<p>The question, though, is whether the UCs you could room at are better than ISU for engineering. Certainly UCs like UCB, UCLA, and UCSD would have stronger academic programs than ISU.</p>
<p>Furthermore, those unemployment rates are misleading because you don’t know whether that applies to engineering jobs. Maybe there are not as many engineering jobs in Iowa as there are in CA. Maybe there are.</p>
<p>Furthermore, if you were so concerned about the unemployment rate in a state, you could always move to Iowa if you wanted to. Keep in mind that many UCs are nationally recognized (not all, though).</p>
<p>I definitely agree with you that UCB, UCLA, UCSD, & UCD all have better academic programs, but my concern is that I wouldn’t have as many opportunities at a UC for hands on experience (working in labs, internships, research, etc.) because of the mass competition. In the long run, a degree from a decent school plus good experience is better than a degree from a top-notch school with little to no experience.</p>
<p>Why would there be trouble with internships? It’s the university that’s crowded, not necessarily the surrounding cities. I think that while ISU might have less competition, Iowa would also have fewer internships. The UCs might have more competition, but have correspondingly greater quantities of opportunities. Furthermore, given a choice between UCB and ISU, many employers might pick UCB over ISU, even if the UCB grad has slightly less experience. For other UCs, the line is blurred.</p>
<p>In the long run, your college and what you did over the summer in your college years is irrelevant; the only thing relevant is your intelligence, your work ethic, and your own ambition.</p>
<p>ISU is one of the largest undergrad engineering schools in the nation (larger than any UC, but smaller than CalPoly) so I’m not sure how you figure that there is less mass competition.</p>
<p>So noimagination, you think that there is less competition at a UC for engineering than at ISU? Also, would this imply that the curriculum is more difficult at ISU?</p>
None of the above. No engineering degree is easy, no engineering degree is impossible either. You aren’t going to game the system so there’s no sense in trying.</p>
<p>What you should do is visit the schools you are considering and try to decide what environment will suit you best.</p>
<p>Makes sense. The list of job recruiters is really long, so it seems like an ideal undergraduate school, at least compared to the UC system. You know that Berkeley’s employment rate for my major (Materials E) after undergrad is only 28%? And only like 20% go on to grad school. Seems a bit sketchy to go there because you question if you will be employed. But then again, that’s everywhere, just some places more than others.</p>
I wouldn’t read too much from that datapoint. You can potentially get an excellent education and gainful employment from either ISU or UCB. You don’t have enough information to conclude much more than that.</p>
<p>As mentioned in an earlier thread, UCB’s stats are only so low because they take the survey really early. The rest of the graduating class doesn’t have a job lined up right out of school and they have to do a bit of searching. Don’t read too much into it.</p>