<p>My son will graduate this May from a LAC in Midwest with BA in BioPhysics. He has decided to apply to undergraduate programs in Engineering - sort of a modification on 3/2 programs. He wants to ultimately end up working in Chicago. How important is the location of the BE program relative to finding a job? (seems like a silly question these days) Right now he is applying to Univs of IL/MN/and WI. Any others he should consider? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Does he need to apply as an undergrad? Can he apply as a grad and make up any “deficiencies” in the first year? There won’t be f.A. for a second undergrad degree…</p>
<p>anxious</p>
<p>Engineering programs are pretty loaded. I doubt you can make up missed work in only one year. I suspect he is looking at 2-3 years of study for the engineering degree.</p>
<p>mwigal</p>
<p>In my experience engineering hiring is local/regional in nature and only a few programs have a national name. Universities tend to form partnerships with local/regional companies for internships and research. For example, I have a son in engineering in the North West and his job at school is working in a testing lab for a large network equipment company. This company has partnered with the university and many of the students graduate directly into jobs. I think this is a pretty common arrangement.</p>
<p>My advice in engineering is to go to school in the area of the country where you want to live. Any of those you mention are good choices as is Northwestern. Any of the Big 10 schools is a good choice in Engineering. Maybe Univ of Iowa.</p>
<p>
This may be true for most engineering schools, but is definitely not true for top engineering departments. At our school (and at any in the top 10), the majority of recruiters are not local – they are the big name companies that come from across the country.</p>
<p>OP: some undergrad departments will not admit a student for an undergrad degree if he already has one.</p>
<p>Illinois, Minn and Wisc all are big name engineering schools and get a lot of national attention, sounds like a great list, good luck!</p>
<p>At my large multinational company we hire engineering graduates from all over the world, and from many different schools, as we are trying to attract and retain the best employees we can get. Smaller companies probably do hire more regionally. </p>
<p>In the U.S. all accredited engineering programs (see [ABET](<a href=“http://www.abet.org%5DABET%5B/url%5D”>http://www.abet.org)</a>) have to meet similar standards, and that tends to make for similar outcomes for students across the country.</p>
<p>I’ve worked with excellent engineers from schools with no reputation, and mediocre engineers from “top” schools, so success depends a lot on the individual and what they put into their own education and development.</p>
<p>If the student has gotten a good number of math and science courses in their undergraduate degree, that should prepare them for engineering. Be sure to check with the engineering department at the schools he is interested in attending as to whether he can go for a bachelor’s or master’s degree.</p>
<p>Here is a good site to see some data on different U.S. engineering schools:
[ASEE</a> Engineering K12 Center - Students](<a href=“http://www.engineeringk12.org/students/default.php]ASEE”>http://www.engineeringk12.org/students/default.php) </p>
<p>See the College Search database…</p>
<p>Look at Marquette.</p>
<p>mwlgal
What a timely question! My D’s serious boyfriend just returned to college for a second bachelors in engineering at the technical campus of the U of Missouri at Rolla…it has a new name which right now I can’t remember. His original degree was in Psych.He became interested in engineering and began over by taking the prereqs at a community college campus in St Louis where he lives with my D who is in a PhD program. He just transferred to Rolla with undergrad status, after working with an advisor at Rolla for awhile now to determine which classes he should take in preparation.They are very welcoming (he is 25).They will be awarding him some credits from his first bachelors towards the 2nd (think things like required English).I was really surprised to learn of the Rolla campuses reputation and employment stats. You should take a look at their website.
He’s been there 2 weeks and already is involved in their solar house competition.Off campus housing is easy to come by and relatively inexpensive. He being 25 wanted to live alone and found a decent 1 bedroom for 350$ a month within walking/biking distance to the campus.</p>
<p>At one large Chicago engineering firm, a long time ago,people were recruited primarily from the following schools :</p>
<p>U Illinois Urbana Champagne-
seemed to be considered by far the best source of good candididates, at
that firm
Illinois Institute of Technology
U Illinois Chicago Circle
Notre Dame
-maybe Purdue & Wisconsin
- a smattering of out-of-region “national” schools thrown in, including Rice, MIT, etc.
National recruiting was only at a few selected major schools; regional recruiting was more the focus there.</p>
<p>Oddly I don’t recall anyone from Northwestern at all. Though people got MBAs in their night program.</p>
<p>you might also check out Rose-Hulman, though I don’t remember anyone from there.</p>
<p>I was going to suggest Purdue, too.</p>
<p>Missouri at Rolla is a top engineering school. Not all the top engineering schools are the big names or big schools. Cal Poly is another unsung very top school.</p>
<p>University of Michigan</p>
<p>Case Western Reserve University??</p>
<p>Iowa State!</p>
<p>What state could you get in-state tuition in?</p>
<p>Try northwestern mccormick. see what kind of credit and/or substitutions you can get for the prior work. IMO NU is the best in the midwest with the exception of Illinois in certain fields. I have no first hand knowledge of the BE program, but I suspect NU is relatively strong, since these programs tend to thrive where there is a good med school. Johns Hopkins, Duke, even harvard. And, NU has a strong med school.</p>
<p>So many of the excellent ones have already been listed. I’ll try to add some, and a thought:
UIUC
Michigan
any of the Big 10, really
Purdue
Case Western
St. Louis U</p>
<p>I’d suggest, if the individual knows what companies/type of companies he’d like to work in… that he check the Career Services Office of potential transfer schools. See who recruits at each school and target the schools where employers of interest do their recruiting.</p>
<p>From my observation of my son’s experience, engineering employers pretty much have recruiting relationships with certain schools. Although you can do your own independent job search, it is more of an uphill battle to get the attention of a company if you don’t attend one of their “regular” recruiting schools. They give priority to applicants from those schools and only consider others later in the process.</p>
<p>Hard to believe nobody’s mentioned Rose-Hulman (Indiana) yet. [Welcome</a> to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology](<a href=“404 | Rose-Hulman”>http://www.rose-hulman.edu/)
I’m not sure what the scoop is on 3/2 or post-bacc programs there, but if Engineering is what he wants, it’s hard to argue with their ranking.</p>
<p>Most Big 10 engineering grads are recruited by both regional and national firms. However it does depend somewhat on the major. I was a civil engineering major at OSU, and while there were national firms recruiting us, there were a greater %age of state agencies and consulting firms on campus vs other majors.</p>
<p>I have an interesting story regarding this. My apt mate was an aero engineer and because he was interested in propulsion, interviewed with both GE and Pratt-Witney and recieved job offers from each. Soon afterwards he read that P-W beat out GE for a big DOD contract. His GE offer was soon rescinded.</p>
<p>Hey, U Toledo is top 20 engineering school.Awsome college</p>