<p>so i was just curious if you all could help me with this. I've become interested in Petroleum Engineering for quite a while now and i'm starting to look at colleges. Right now these are the schools i've been looking at.</p>
<p>-University of Oklahoma
-Texas A&M University
-Louisiana State University
-Penn State University Park</p>
<p>out of all these schools, which gives the best opportunitities in the Oil Industry? which school has the strongest Petroleum Engineering program? the best chances for working internationally? </p>
<p>pretty much, based on your knowledge, which school should be getting majority of my attention?</p>
<p>yes i had a feeling that penn state despite being a very strong school, would fall lower on the list due to location. as i’ve heard location is everything. </p>
<p>but any ideas on which will give me the strongest opportunities in the oil industry?</p>
<p>The reason he said “location” isn’t that Texas is necessarily a nicer place to live than Pennsylvania, but the oil industry is going to be more centered around Texas than Pennsylvania. So probably TAMU.</p>
<p>From what I know, UT and TAMU are the two top recruited programs. UT slightly more than TAMU… All the others are a notch under them, but due to the very limited number of programs really all of them will have decent recruiting. I don’t know much about Penn, other than the program is relatively new, or at least just starting to gain popularity… OU, LSU, TAMU, UT, etc., have been around for quite a while and are located near the heart of the industry. Penn, although a good engineering school, doesn’t have the best location.</p>
<p>alright thanks guys for your help! do you know anything along the lines of difficulty to get into the petroleum engineering programs? like are they very competitive?</p>
<p>I don’t believe it will matter if you went to UT or TAMU when it comes to Petroleum Engineering. I agree that sticking to schools in or around Texas would be your best bet.</p>
<p>No it doesn’t matter if you go to UT or TAMU. However, if you don’t go there, go to LSU or Texas Tech. Then if you wouldn’t go to those, I would say go to OU, Tulsa, or Mines. Then after than I would say go to Penn, WV, USC, or Stanford. That order. If you get into TAMU or UT, your set. Same with Texas Tech or LSU. But the others I would be weary of. As you pull futher from the Texas/Louisiana gulf coast, things begin to go down hill.</p>
<p>I am planning to go to University of Alaska Fairbanks.
I already got accepted!
Its a great school for petroleum engineering and geosciences. Alaska graduates of petroleum engineering have the highest entry and average salaries in the nation!</p>
<p>I believe they start at around 92,000$ working for Exxon. Compared to just 78,000$ in Texas. (entry).</p>
<p>96% of graduates of PetroE from Alaska can find jobs right out of college.</p>
<p>Yeah, no one is getting paid 92K to start in 2010 unless they literally lay golden eggs. Exxon might pay that much, but the average coming out of that school would be less.</p>
<p>Hmm. That’s odd. I got those statistics from the college admissions advisor of UAF. She said that the average is 88,500$ entry and the average for people who got hired for Exxon was over 90k. I think if you go to Alaska labor stats website you will see what I am talking about. Unless the admissions or statistics are in error.</p>
<p>Ok. Thanks for clearing that up payne. I am just curious whether you would happen to know, from your experience, what the entry salary for PetroE in Alaska is currently? Does it usually fluctuate based on Oil demand and prices?</p>
<p>No, I don’t. It’s higher than in the 48. I’d imagine ~80-85K for a new hire. The problem isn’t that. The problem is merely getting a job to begin with.</p>
<p>that’s what i’m hoping as well alchemist. I will be graduating from college in 2015 and i’m hoping things will improve by then. if not, my backup is ChemE at either TAMU or Minnesota.</p>
<p>i am currently enrolling in community college and would like to study petroleum engineering. i live in kansas. i would like to know if studying petroleum engineering at the university of kansas will enable get a good paying job immediately i graduate. what is the outlook of ku’s petroleum engineers. are well employed or are they overlooked when they apply for jobs.</p>