HELP! University Of Alabama or Tennessee?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Alabama
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<p>Why would today’s students depend entirely upon a university career center to find internships and job interviews? What I could have done with the internet back in my college days. We have had this awesome thing called the internet for years and the information and resources available are so immense. Students, especially engineering students, ought to be able to do some virtual footwork on their own at corporate websites, job fair websites, engineering professional organization websites, blogs, etc. I have mentioned before that a top guy at a large defense company speaks highly of Alabama grads, and he is now based out in Santa Clara. Silicon Valley values smart people regardless of where they come from. Even out there, with all the opportunity, a prospective engineer better learn the skills of networking and learn how to be constantly educating oneself to be ready for the next opportunity. Nobody out there that we knew went to work with one company and stayed forever. There is a lot of flux and lateral movement, and you have to know how to be the first to recognize coming change. Nobody waits for a recruiter. Wait for a recruiter and you have already missed out.</p>

<p>So sure if the career center can help, great, but in this day and age of the internet, no student has an excuse to be uninformed. Learn to hustle, and if the career center offers classes in that, then sign up!</p>

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<p>You can’t major in Construction engineering or Architectural Enginnering at Auburn. </p>

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<p>“However, it still offers almost nothing that cannot also be had at Auburn or UTK…”</p>

<p>So what? That can be said of a lot of schools. Most schools offer the same common majors. the unique majors are found “here and there” (some at Bama, some at UTK, some at Auburn)…but if I’m not going to choose a unique major, it doesn’t matter. </p>

<p>Auburn’s scholarships OOS scholarships aren’t as good, so if you can get the same thing at Bama for less money, for many people that’s important. My H hires both Bama and Auburn grads and he can’t tell any difference whatsoever in the quality or education from either school…or really any other good school with eng’g.</p>

<p>As for UTK, it’s in his backyard, it’s ugly, and some kids want to “go away”. If he can get his degree elsewhere, for the same or less cost, why not. </p>

<p>Both my kids went to Bama. They could have gone to UAH and got essentially the same education (math and chemE). But, they preferred Bama and it only cost us a tiny bit more. </p>

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<p>My family has had first hand experience with the utk engineering program and area. In fact I worked for a large engineering firm. Most employees were graduates of utk or Georgia tech. There were plenty of opportunities in getting great interviews all over the country with utk. There are a lot of needs in Knoxville and the surrounding area. I know alabama is raising its image, and probably has a nicer campus. I will say though in 2000 I remember the demonstration at utk of grad students who built a battery run car that won accolades. Also solar applications. i would look at the specific area you are interested in and see what the school is doing in that area now. if they are forward thinking that can yield tremendous opportunity. if you have a particular employer in mind, call and ask what major schools they recruit from. like i said, our firm was primarily utk and georgia tech grads, but that was in 2000-2005. I am impressed with their program and opportunities. </p>

65

<p>I don’t think people realize that any good, established univ can have a very good eng’g program. That’s why there are over 150 very good eng’g programs in this country…actually more when you consider the non-national Univs. If a good, established univ has a Col. of Eng’g, likely it’s a good one. </p>

<p>No one is saying that you can’t get an excellent eng’g degree from: UTK, Auburn, LSU, Miss St, UAH, a CSU in calif, or any of the many, many, many other schools. YOU CAN. They all offer very good programs. </p>

<p>Employers can’t tell the difference, and they do NOT pay you more if you go to A or B or C. Company X will pay all new-hire eng’rs the same. If they start new-hires at $65k per year, then you’ll get that whether you went to Purdue, UMich, UAH, CSULB or wherever.</p>

<p>At this point, it can come down to which school you like best and affordability. Unless you’re picking a discipline that is only at one school, go where you want and can afford. </p>

66

<p>I forgot to include Environmental Engineering in the list of programs found exclusively at UA. <a href=“http://uanews.ua.edu/2014/02/ua-adds-architectural-environmental-engineering-degrees/”>http://uanews.ua.edu/2014/02/ua-adds-architectural-environmental-engineering-degrees/&lt;/a&gt;. “Combined with existing degrees in civil and construction engineering, UA will be the only institution in the country to offer all four engineering degrees that focus on designing and improving many aspects of everyday life. Students studying in these related degree programs will have the ability to improve society’s overall quality of life and address the complex problems faced within built and natural environments.”</p>

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<p>^^^</p>

<p>“UA will be the only institution in the country to offer all four engineering degrees that focus on designing and improving many aspects of everyday life.”</p>

<p>That’s just the thing. Each univ offers something a little bit different and that’s great. For someone to suggest that because X school offers (fill in the blank) discipline and Z school doesn’t and therefore X school is more “cutting edge” or gives a student more options is just silly. Z school offers something ELSE that X school doesn’t. All large schools offer all kinds of options. </p>

<p>I would offer that since Bama is the school that has recently added 900,000 square feet of new STEM space which is loaded with state of the art technology, it is poised to be “cutting edge.” When Sen. Shelby embarked on his goal to get Bama the funding to build the Science and Engineering Complex his goal was for Bama and other eng’g programs in the state to have first class facilities. And, probably because he’s an Alum, he earmarked the most money for UA.</p>

<p>"[Many years ago], Shelby realized after holding town halls around the state that Alabama’s college and university facilities were not on par with some of the top notch institutions around the country.</p>

<p>“I noticed our facilities didn’t look like MIT’s or Stanford’s,” he told Yellowhammer. “I was sitting on the Appropriations Committee watching all this money going to Harvard and Yale. I realized if Alabama was able to get some of those resources, it would pay off generation after generation.”</p>

<p>He has since been able to bring hundreds of millions of dollars to our state’s universities to build math, science and engineering complexes.</p>

<p>“We now have first-class facilities at Alabama, South Alabama, Auburn, Alabama-Huntsville, and Alabama-Birmingham,” Shelby said with satisfaction. “Alabama has some of the finest math, science and engineering institutions in the country.”</p>

<p>And while the complexes will no doubt pay off for decades to come, they’ve also become a huge selling point for new companies considering locating in Alabama right now."</p>

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<p>

I get what you are saying but the improving life stuff is what pretty much all engineers do. Nuclear? yep (power, medicine, etc.), Petroleum? yep(How did you get to work? Food to the store?) Electrical? yep (look around) Mechanical? yep (look around). Pick the school that offers your intended major plus some other options in case you change your mind, one that you can afford, and one that you like. For some that may be UA, others AU, UTK, others MIT and still others will choose the University of Wyoming.</p>

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<p>N_pal123, did you look at TN Tech? My nephew (a TN resident) would not even go look at UTK - if her were my S I would have made him look at UTK just to compare. TN Tech had awful housing but it didn’t bother nephew. TN Tech has a great eng reputation, and Adtran offered him a co-op position (which was great because they paid the housing on their co-ops - they were in very nice new apts and did a lot of fun things together after work and on weekends; there were about 20 co-ops from various schools, but they did not have any from UTK for some reason - he was able to have a work schedule Jan - Dec to accommodate for his class sequencing). He actually decided to go CS instead of EE, and also had a summer internship (and job offer) from ALFA Ins. Nephew graduates in May and seems to have lots of job opportunities.</p>

<p>Obviously you have some ideas about UTK that may be false as well as some ideas about UA that may be false.</p>

<p>You still have some time to decide if you are going to college Fall 2014.</p>

<p>Nephew strongly wants to work in TN.</p>

<p>As a career professional, I would advise him to look for the best career opportunity - once he is out in the job market a while, he may be able to advance to something in TN to live where he wants. But I think he has good prospects in TN.</p>

<p>We live in AL so UA is instate for us. My DD will be going to UA in the fall studying civil eng. She is super excited.</p>

<p>Good luck with your decision process. If able, schedule a day at UA in the eng field you want to study to evaluate. Do the same if possible at UTK.</p>