So I live in Seattle and my top choices are Cal Poly and Minnesota. UW just has too competitive engineering admissions. I want to end up living in the east coast or maybe in California or Seattle (like I do now). For example, if I wanted to work at Boeing, how hard would that be if I just graduated from the U?
Might be best to contact the Career Services department at the CSE to see where recent grads have been employed.
70% of CSE grads are employed in Minnesota. It is on the Career Services site.
That is partly because UMN attracts a lot of students from within the state, and Minnesotans don’t really want to leave when they graduate. You will be contacting west coast companies more on your own if you attend MN, but with good grades from a strong program, that is very doable. Make sure you get a couple summers of internship experience, and create a LinkedIn account to start building a professional network to help with your job search after graduation. (I have a degree from MN in another area, and have had no issues finding employment in either coast).