Hi. I am a sophomore at a community college in Illinois studying mechanical engineering. I was planning on going to University of Illinois for college in the fall but after visiting the campus, it doesnt really fit my style. I was considering University of Washington due to the fact that it is located in the beautiful city of Seattle and is also ranked pretty high up in engineering. They both are great engineering schools but I was wondering how easy would it be to get a job in engineering after graduating from UDub vs UofI? Thanks!
Pretty much the same companies recruit from both. One thing to seriously consider is the cost. Cost of attendance at UW for OOS students is $48K/year. https://admit.washington.edu/Paying/Cost#freshmen-transfer Can your family afford that? While UIUC is not a real bargain, it is $18K less/year. http://admissions.illinois.edu/cost/tuition.html
UIUC is better for engineering. You can work in Seattle later
I doubt that there’s a big difference between the undergraduate engineering education you’d get at either UW or UIUC. I’ve worked with lots of engineering grads from various universities, and there’s practically no correlation between where they went to school and how good they are at engineering.
Both schools are very well regarded for engineering. Each will probably place better in their own geographic area, but both do have national reach for job placement, especially for the graduates with the best grades. UIUC will be a lot cheaper for you instate than UW would be, which probably trumps everything. It certainly wouldn’t make sense to take on an extra $60k in loans to attend UW over UIUC. Still, you could apply to both, see where you get accepted and what the costs would be, and then you would have an actual decision to make. For now, the only decision is where to apply, and those deadlines are probably fast approaching.
Same here. I can’t count the number of times I’ve worked with grads from lower level state schools who were more intelligent, easier to work with, and all-around better employees. Not saying that this is always the case, but rather you can still get excellent quality from seemingly lower quality schools.
As for the topic at hand, UW and UIUC are both fine schools. The differences in opportunities are virtually non-existent with the right level of motivation.
As a UW grad, I have to tell you that opportunities are what you make of them. The UW is a fine school and I am very proud, but to get a good job, you need to make sure that you get experience. Internships are the key. Look at who has a better internship program. Other thing, not many Chemical Engineering jobs in Seattle, there are few chemical industries. I think the Chicago/St. Louis area has more.
@simba9, @fractalmstr, so there is no difference whether someone graduates from say Georgia Tech or Drexel or Rutgers? Thx.
Of course there’s a difference. For example, different companies focus their efforts on different schools. The companies recruiting at Drexel are likely quite different from those at Georgia Tech.
I personally cannot imagine that if you are currently at a community college in Illinois, and then accepted into UIUC engineering as a transfer, you wouldn’t take advantage of that opportunity. Though we don’t know for certain, it’s likely you now have Illinois residency.
Just because you like the Washington campus better doesn’t really seem to reconcile with asking about the career / hiring prospects, vs. tens of thousands in OOS premium. Money is clearly a concern, and UIUC is outstanding. Washington probably is close behind, but … yes, I’d suggest waiting until after college.
I say the opportunities depend on what you make out of college and your experience as others have said. I know UW is participating in the 16-selected-school 4-year EcoCAR3 competition. It will really give you a big leg up if you’re interested in the automotive field.
Not in the sense that any of those schools inevitably produce better engineering graduates than the others. It’s more about how much effort you put into your studies, rather than the school you went to.
It’s more than just effort. Effort is a big part of it but some schools offer built-in advantages over other schools. Whether or not a student actually takes advantage of those is another story entirely and ties into effort.
Acting like all engineering programs are equivalent and that effort is the only factor is not honest.
Without knowing where they went to school, my experience has been that I have been very impressed with graduates of certain universities. MIT, Cornell, and Stanford engineers tend to be very good. I have also worked with some very good engineers from Gonzaga, FWIW.
There seems to be a difference (to me) of rote, trial & error vs. first-principles approach. It depends on the job, as well. If it is to “get it done” and understand conceptually how to make something work; that is a different job than developing a robust architecture.
Not quite… There are, of course, differences between every engineering program in terms of program strengths, specialty areas for research, etc. The point I was trying to make was that, when all is said and done, a student from a decent or better state school can still get a job at a company that may generally target “higher level” schools. That person may need to jump through some additional hoops and do a little more impressing in order to get that job, but regardless, the opportunity still exists in most cases.
There are certainly some companies that hire exclusively from “higher level” schools, but they are a very small minority.
TL:DR - Find schools with strengths in your area of interest. Next, take a look at what type/caliber of companies recruit from those schools to give you a rough indication of how companies view those schools (again though, this doesn’t mean you can’t get a job with these companies if you graduate from a school that is not in their recruitment circle). Lastly, look at affordability and all-around fit (can you see yourself there for 4 years? will the winter weather drive you up the wall? student culture?).
Pretty sure I didn’t say either of those. The point I was trying to make was that going to a particular engineering school doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll come out a better engineer than if you’d gone to another engineering school. Yeah, it’s probably true that someone who has an engineering degree from Stanford will have more opportunities than someone with an engineering degree from Bowling Green, but it’s not inevitable. I live near Stanford, and know plenty of Stanford engineers who work for engineers from less-reputable universities.
There’s no way someone can confidently predict whether Washington, Illinois, Georgia Tech, Drexel, or Rutgers will produce the better, more successful, engineer.