<p>and yes, I am planning on visiting these schools come February, so that’ll give me a much better feel for the schools and more info on campus life, scheduling, etc.</p>
<p>how highly is it truly regarded in the rest of the country and maybe possibly around the globe?</p>
<p>Do you mean how does the country regard UMich-Ann Arbor???</p>
<p>It’s the 4th highest ranking public in the nation, and it’s a Top 30 school overall. It certainly is highly respected everywhere! :)</p>
<p>What is LSA??? Is that some lower ranked regional campus? If so, it’s not fair to look less upon UMichAA because of some regional public.</p>
<p>I’m just talking about the prestige i guess of the school and how employers would look at them</p>
<p>I think most/all employers would snap up UMichAA engineering grads. Very impressive!</p>
<p>Not a regional campus. It is their college of Literature, Science and Arts at Ann Arbor. In other words, the non-specialized school, so to speak, as opposed to engineering, business, architecture, whatever.</p>
<p>I agree with mom2college, Michigan is very well thought of nationally, and reasonably well internationally among professionals in most areas. JHU probably the most prestigious, but you are wise in not worrying about presitige. Employers vary quite a bit in what they think of schools once you get past the HYP mentality, and often it is very regional. You are more on the right track by visiting, talking to profs, coaches, and students in the major(s) you are considering, and thinking through what fits you best.</p>
<p>LSA is the Literature, Science and the Arts College at UMich.</p>
<p>I disagree with mom2collegekids about college athletes. While there are some of course who cannot handle a sport and an engineering major, others are perfectly equipped to handle it. For example, JHU has a roster of 44 athletes on the baseball team, of whom 8 are majoring in engineering (as well as one in applied math and statistics and one in computer science).</p>
<p>I think that fallenchemist is correct–talk to the coaches and faculty at the schools you are considering to see what is doable.</p>
<p>In connection with your choices, I think that a University of Michigan engineering degree is well-respected everywhere. I would also say that JHU is extremely prestigious and also meets your criteria of in/near an urban area.</p>
<p>how about JHU engineering? if it’s JHU engineering that isn’t BME, would a JHU engineering degree still look good? same goes for the rest of the schools; are there certain engineering degrees that I would obtain from each school that would alter my final decision (if that makes sense)?</p>
<p>also on another note, how about getting into grad school from each of the listed undergrad schools? I want to be in the best position in terms of job opportunities and grad school opportunities if I were to perform the same and obtain similar grades at any of the schools.</p>
<p>
What you are asking makes technical sense, but I would say that is cutting it too fine at the undergrad level. People generally just know the general reputation of a school, kind of like the USNWR rankings overall. I mean even putting aside that the rankings are pretty worthless, how many people out there do you really think know the rank of a school department by department, much less down to the engineering specialty? So JHU is just known as an excellent school with a great reputation, for example. BME is the one exception to some degree, but I think even in that case you are overthinking it. Every school on your list has excellent broad-based engineering undergrad, except for Tulane which we discussed already.</p>
<p>And absolutely don’t worry about grad school or jobs coming from any of these schools. That depends far more on your grades, recs, GRE’s and the like, no matter where you went. Just go the school you like best. These are a great 4 years with incredible opportunities, so it is important you go where you feel most comfortable with your fellow students, the overall feel of the campus, climate, large vs. small classes, etc etc. You will see after you visit more schools.</p>
<p>well, overall, I would say that University of Michigan and CMU have stronger engineering depts. than JHU, with the exception of BME. However, JHU is still an excellent engineering school and I believe that its job placement is strong.</p>
<p>In terms of starting and midcareer engineering salaries, CMU is much higher than the other two schools–here’s a link to the PayScale survey [Best</a> Engineering Colleges By Salary Potential<a href=“and%20note%20that%20GT%20and%20Rose-Hulman%20are%20also%20higher%20than%20JHU%20and%20U%20Michigan”>/url</a>. </p>
<p>In connection with graduate schools, I don’t know if you’re talking about engineering graduate school (about which I have no knowledge) or law or business graduate school. If it’s law or business, U Mich and JHU probably have better placement rates than CMU (you can look at the WSJ feeder list if you’re interested, in which JHU is #24 and UMich is #30–here’s the link <a href=“WSJ in Higher Education | Trusted News & Real-World Insights”>WSJ in Higher Education | Trusted News & Real-World Insights](<a href=“http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/best-engineering-colleges.asp]Best”>Best Engineering Schools | Payscale)</a>)</p>
<p>However, fallenchemist is absolutely correct. Ultimately this should be a decision about academics, athletics, college environment, location and general fit. You have some excellent choices and you sound like you have a good head on your shoulders. Good luck!</p>
<p>I disagree with mom2collegekids about college athletes. While there are some of course who cannot handle a sport and an engineering major, others are perfectly equipped to handle it.</p>
<p>That doesn’t disagree with what I said. :)</p>
<p>First of all, only a small percentage of student athletes major in engineering. Of that small group, some will be able to handle everything and some won’t. Those athletes who can handle engineering are in the minority of all athletes.</p>
<p>I also suggested talking to the school and finding out what is expected and what is do-able.</p>
<p>My H got his undergrad engineering degree at Purdue. He swears that engineering programs are more difficult than when he went to school.</p>
<p>“I agree with mom2college, Michigan is very well thought of nationally, and reasonably well internationally among professionals in most areas.”</p>
<p>This is correct. If you decide not to major in engineering, Michigan is the best overall choice. Besides that, none of the other schools are in a location as appealing as Ann Arbor. I realize that Baltimore, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland are larger and more urban cities than A2, but they aren’t exactly NYC, LA, or Chicago either…</p>
<p>Baltimore actually offers quite a bit and is an easy car or train ride to DC. Atlanta has tons going on and has a nice climate. Won’t argue about Pitt or Cleveland though, lol. I actually lived in Pittsburgh for 11 years and it is a wonderful city in many ways, a great place to raise a family, but as a college student? Eh.</p>
<p>GT is adjacent to a bad neighborhood and while it’s nice that you can take a train to D.C. at JHU, the school is still in Baltimore.</p>
<p>I guess what I was trying to say was, for example, if I were to end up pursuing a degree in BME, then depending on where I got in, the rankings of the colleges would change in terms of which school has the strongest BME program. So, for the three engineering degree programs, I guess I wanted to know which were the top 5 for each (ME, BME & EE), considering all of the criterias I have listed previously. Then, I would use this into my consideration, to see which schools would give me the best flexibility since I’m not so sure which engineering degree I would end up pursuing.</p>
<p>Michigan is top ten for all three areas. I don’t believe any of the other schools can make that claim.</p>
<p>Okay, then in addition to my previous post, I guess I would like you guys to rate each college’s city in terms of being the best college town for a college student (climate isn’t too big of a deal since I’m used to the cold, but sure, warm weather may be a deciding factor if two cities were neck-to-neck).</p>
<p>“Michigan is top ten for all three areas. I don’t believe any of the other schools can make that claim.”</p>
<p>I need to correct myself. Georgia Tech is also in the top ten for all three areas as well.</p>
<p>Okay, then in addition to my previous post, I guess I would like you guys to rate each college’s city in terms of being the best college town for a college student (climate isn’t too big of a deal since I’m used to the cold, but sure, warm weather may be a deciding factor if two cities were neck-to-neck).</p>
<p>Once again Michigan leads the way. It really isn’t very close comparing any of the other schools to Ann Arbor, which is most definitely a college town. But I thought you were looking for a more “urban” environment? Maybe your definition of urban and mine are quite different?</p>
<p>well, he said urban and I don’t consider Ann Arbor urban. I did grad work at Ga Tech. The area is fine. Many schools are not too far from iffy areas, and you just have to use common sense. And you can put down Baltimore and dismiss the ease of getting to DC all you want, but thousands upon thousands of students think it is great to have access to both.</p>
<p>baseballa - I would consider New Orleans the best college town myself, lol. Seriously, no one can answer that for you because we don’t know your taste. Some kids hate big cities, others love them. Some kids have to have big time D1 sports as part of their college experience, others not at all. And really, just forget the rankings. They really are meaningless for the most part. They take on more meaning when you are discussing grad schools.</p>
<p>I think the rest of what you need to decide you have to see for yourself. You can believe me or not, but once you get a couple years into whatever program you choose you will wonder why you ever worried about rankings. It really just doesn’t work that way. To put it another way, the USNWR rankings didn’t even exist 15 years ago or so. The world got along just fine.</p>
<p>I guess urban to me could go two ways, but I’m more concerned with not being bored outside of school, having an environment where I can enjoy. urban could also mean a city, where shopping and the abundance of things to do is all there. I guess it’s because I havn’t really checked out Ann Arbor that I don’t know why everyone says it’s a great college town, but bottom line is, I just want to be in an environment where I can have lots of fun outside the classrooms, at the same time put me in the best academic opportunity as a potential engineer.</p>
<p>Then I think any of the places you have put towards the top of your list will work for you.</p>
<p>and when I mean urban, all I’m saying is urban > farmland. in other words, more people in one area > ghost town. not necessarily an urbanized city with great skyscrapers everywhere. sorry for not specifying before!</p>