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Payne - Bigger schools have arguable better professors with more knowledge.
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Irrelevant.</p>
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More resources for research and projects.
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I've made this same argument.</p>
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While there are exceptions for the most part the typical student is paying the hefty Fu Foundation and Cornell Engineering tuition for a reason.
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They are paying for prestige, not the education.</p>
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If program name held no value why would anyone in their right mind pay an MIT tuition or a Harvard tuition rate and go through all the torture and competition?
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Well, Harvard engineering doesn't really have a "name". Not comparable to Stanford, MIT, or CalTech (or half a dozen other schools). If one plans to work as an engineer, going to a school with a lesser school will likely impact your first job due to the companies recruiting at the school. Now, if you go to a school with a poorer name it will likely also have lesser students, raising your GPA (which increases your chance getting that dream job). There are many ways to look at the situation.</p>
<p>Strictly from an employment perspective, why would someone go to Harvard over GT for engineering? GT gets virtually all the major engineering employers - and a student who got into Harvard and GT would like have a very very high GT GPA.</p>
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Strictly from an employment perspective, why would someone go to Harvard over GT for engineering? GT gets virtually all the major engineering employers - and a student who got into Harvard and GT would like have a very very high GT GPA.
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</p>
<p>Well, obviously the idea would be that he is using engineering as a backup major, as many engineering students do. A Harvard engineering student is probably shooting for something else (i.e. consulting, banking, law/med school, etc.), but if he can't get that, fine, he'll just get a job as an engineer. I believe it has been pointed out elsewhere that even a mediocre graduate from a 4th tier engineering school can still get an engineering job that is relatively well-paying (compared to the non-engineering jobs out there), and Harvard is far better than a 4th tier engineering school. </p>
<p>I've said it before, I'll say it again. Whether we like it or not, the truth is, a lot of engineering students don't really want to be engineers, but are actually shooting for other careers.</p>
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I've said it before, I'll say it again. Whether we like it or not, the truth is, a lot of engineering students don't really want to be engineers, but are actually shooting for other careers.
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What percentage of engineers in school plan that? Don't give me the MIT example (this would be called the exception, not the rule). The US has about ~70K engineering graduates per year. What percentage did not want to work engineering?</p>
<p>I agree with Mr. Payne. Why would the majority of engineering students study engineering and slave away working harder than 95% of other majors if thats not their desired field of interest. Payne is right 100% its not so much that they want mechanical engineering on their resume its just that when a opportunity presents itself you gotta grab the bull by the horns and sometimes that means straying away from your field for a much better entry-level job.
the only reason the rate is so high at MIT (25%) is all the companies that recruit there offer good packages to prospective employees that they sometimes find the offer too good to refuse.
what could be the case here is that students in engineering programs tend to stray away in the 3rd or 4th year when learning about other careers that are less demanding with more opportunity.
however, the reason for myself personally getting into engineering is for the love of design and build. the fact that i am fascinated with civil engineering and read and watch films about that field hours a day is what got me into engineering in the first place.
after attending a school like MIT the average student has to be in debt to their eye balls especially students with professional degrees, which in turn could play a big role in ivy league students straying away from careers in what they studied to get the higher salaries.</p>
<p>I know this is not a representative sample, but of the 18 people in my major in my year, 17 of them went into engineering (by choice). It's still hard to believe that a lot want to go into non-engineering fields. What would you define as "a lot"? More than 1/2? 1/4? 5%? I just want to get an idea of the amount of people you're talking about.</p>
I'm going to disagree with that. GT is well known for its rigors. There is no "very very high GT GPA" at GT, period. I don't particularly think very highly of Harvard's engineering program (don't get me wrong, H has some of the best programs in other fields), apparently neither does my employer. I work for one of the "elite" tech companies, which will remain anonymous here. We only recruit at top 15 engineering schools, MIT, Berkeley, Stanford, GT, Michigan, UIUC, Cornell, and the like. No Harvard. When I was considering grad school, Harvard never even crossed my mind. </p>
<p>Now, I will say that it does seem like a lot of MIT grads go into non-engineering fields, but after talking to a number of folks at work, that appears to be the exception, not the norm.</p>
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I'm going to disagree with that. GT is well known for its rigors.
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Agreed.</p>
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There is no "very very high GT GPA" at GT, period.
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False, there are very high GPAs (3.9+) at GT. And those people are likely the same people who could get into H, MIT, or Cal Tech. It's the same way with all schools.</p>
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I don't particularly think very highly of Harvard's engineering program (don't get me wrong, H has some of the best programs in other fields), apparently neither does my employer.
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Agreed.</p>
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I work for one of the "elite" tech companies, which will remain anonymous here. We only recruit at top 15 engineering schools, MIT, Berkeley, Stanford, GT, Michigan, UIUC, Cornell, and the like.
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I don't particularly think very highly of Harvard's engineering program (don't get me wrong, H has some of the best programs in other fields)
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</p>
<p>aka it sucks..no sugercoating people!</p>
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I work for one of the "elite" tech companies, which will remain anonymous here. We only recruit at top 15 engineering schools, MIT, Berkeley, Stanford, GT, Michigan, UIUC, Cornell, and the like. No Harvard. When I was considering grad school, Harvard never even crossed my mind.
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</p>
<p>you guys literally look at the engineering rankings, tick the top 15 schools and recruit at those schools?</p>
<p>Come on racnna, while Harvard's program isn't elite, it's still very good. Ranked #30 in the USNWR (#23 for grad), if that rank "sucks", then I don't want to hear what you call schools ranked below that.</p>
3.9+ GPA people are extremely rare. I find your response quite ironic. I'm speaking as a GT alum, how about you? There is nothing magic about the name Harvard, no need to put it on a pedestal.</p>
<p>
Not sure how the list of schools are actually generated, but I took a look at the recruiting schedule and noticed that the a dozen or so schools on there are almost all in the top 15. Even at one of these schools, it's still super competitive. In my own experience maybe about 1% of the applicants from one of those schools get hired, if that.</p>
<p>How much does GPA count for in hiring? How about for grad school admissions?</p>
<p>If someone has that 3.9+, will he definitely have some good choices in jobs and grad schools, or do other factors matter more? (job experience, research, demographics, interviews, etc).</p>
<p>For jobs, GPA is secondary to experience. A friend of mine was hired by Nvidia because of his work experience, whereas his GPA in grad school was somewhat low. GPA is however important for grad school admission, as many schools have a minimum cutoff. However research and GRE are also important factors.</p>
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3.9+ GPA people are extremely rare. I find your response quite ironic. I'm speaking as a GT alum, how about you? There is nothing magic about the name Harvard, no need to put it on a pedestal.
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I said one could likely get a high GPA at GT if they were good enough to get into Harvard. Likewise, if someone got into MIT or CalTech they could likely get a high GPA at GT. It's called student ability.</p>
<p>3.9+ GPA people are extremely rare, yeah, that's like the definition of a 3.9+ GPA. Usually reserved for the top 3-5% of a class.</p>
<p>The whole idea of transferring GPA's is stupid and unproven. The worst student at MIT is still going to be the worst student at a 300 ranked school. It comes down to work ethic more than actual smarts and in engieering actual smarts dont play to big of a roll.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The whole idea of transferring GPA's is stupid and unproven. The worst student at MIT is still going to be the worst student at a 300 ranked school. It comes down to work ethic more than actual smarts and in engieering actual smarts dont play to big of a roll.
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The middle student at MIT will likely be top 5% at CSU Northridge.</p>
<p>Prove this to me in Proper documentation where a student at a top school went to a Lower ranked school and did just do well. If you can prove it, Il belive it. Otherwise its just Bull.</p>
<p>Hell, I went to a school with less capable undergrads with the expectation that I would be able to perform better with the same effort. Worked like a charm.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Not sure how the list of schools are actually generated, but I took a look at the recruiting schedule and noticed that the a dozen or so schools on there are almost all in the top 15. Even at one of these schools, it's still super competitive. In my own experience maybe about 1% of the applicants from one of those schools get hired, if that.