<p>Can anyone rate the a Eng. degree from Cornell with the prospective employers compared to an equivalent degree from Columbia,Duke,Stanford, MIT,Berkely?</p>
<p>Would they prefer a Cornell engineer over one from Columbia for example?</p>
<p>Employers do not rate degrees. At that level, they rate the individual. However, if you wish to know how Cornell (the university, not its students) is approached by employers vis-a-vis other universities, I'd say Cornell is slighly lower than MIT and Stanford, about as high as Cal and higher than Columbia and Duke.</p>
<p>I good way to see what particular univeristies are popular with employers is to actually go to their websites and see what universities they go out of their way to recruit at. That will tell you more than anyone on this board can.</p>
<p>It's like splitting hair, but nevertheless:
1. MIT
2. Stanford/Caltech
3. Cal/Cornell/Princeton
4. CMU, Northwestern, Michigan, Duke ...</p>
<p>From what I hear, Princeton's engineering program isn't very strong, they are much better at physics/math and hard sciences.</p>
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Princeton's engineering program isn't very strong
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<p>Well, according to USNews undergrad engineering programs, Princeton is ranked #12, which is still pretty darn strong. Keep in mind that there are literally hundreds and hundreds of engineering programs out there. To be ranked #12 is very very good. Princeton's engineering program is ranked higher than that of many schools that are actually supposed to be technology specialists, like and Virginia Tech (#15) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst (#15). These schools actually have the word 'Tech' in their name, so I would think that they are actually supposed to be very good at technology, yet Princeton has a higher ranked engineering program than they do.</p>
<p>Sakky, I think you give Princeton and Duke slightly elevated statures in the eyes of Engineering firms. </p>
<p>I'd say that CMU, Georgia Tech, Michigan and UIUC are in the same level as Cornell. </p>
<p>Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Princeton and UT-Austin are probably on the same level, slightly lower than the group above. </p>
<p>I don't think Duke belongs with any of those schools, unless we are discussing BME, in which case, Duke definitely belongs.</p>
<p>Well, Alexandre, I would turn that question around and ask how many people would really turn down Princeton to go to Georgia Tech, unless money was a factor? </p>
<p>I believe the key factor is that at schools like Princeton (and Harvard, Yale, Brown, and the like), a lot of engineering students don't ever actually intend to work as engineers, just like a lot of History students have no intention of actually working as Historians and a lot of PoliSci students have no intention of working as political scientists. To them, it's just something that allows them to pursue their intellectual interest and gives them a backup career while they're on their path to consulting or banking or med school or whatever it is that they really want to do. I know if I was going to Princeton, I'd probably choose engineering (or CS) if, for no other reason, because I know it gives me a highly marketable degree in case I can't get an offer in consulting or banking or whatever. It's certainly financially safer than getting an Art degree or a Religion degree.</p>
<p>Similarly, I am fairly certain that the Harvard and Yale engineering and CS students are getting higher average starting salaries than are the Harvard and Yale Art students or the Music students. </p>
<p>The point is, I don't think we should necessarily fixate on what the engineering firms want. Heck, if we asked the engineering firms what they really want, they would all honestly reply that they really want are engineers who are willing to work for extremely low salaries and are willing to do boring dirty grunt-work without complaining. That's why a lot of large Fortune 500 engineering companies don't actively recruit at MIT because, #1, they don't want to pay MIT-type salaries, and #2, a lot of MIT engineers don't want to work in big boring industrial factories or mines, preferring to work in sexy startups, or in consulting/banking.</p>
<p>"..how many people would really turn down Princeton to go to Georgia Tech, unless money was a factor? "</p>
<p>When I was in school many people who actually wanted to be engineers would apply to Georgia Tech but not apply to Princeton, because they did not perceive Princeton as being at the same level in engineering. General reputation aside, it is my perception that engineers tend to be "Where's the beef" kind of people.</p>
<p>If I were applying now I would want to carefully look at the number of courses and majors offered, e.g. Also: work/coop opportunities, the degree to which the school facilitates exposure to what's really out there in terms of companies and actual practice areas, as opposed to just theoretical academics. And I'd be interested in how many of my fellow students actually plan to be working engineers.</p>
<p>The relative appropriateness of particular programs could well depend on the goals of the applicant.</p>
<p>Personally I don't trust the rankings. Particularly whjen they are producing seemingly bogus results. RPI is a great place to learn to be an actual engineer.</p>
<p>If you actually want to be an engineer, Georgia Tech works just fine in my opinion. Probably every major engineering employer recruits there, so you'll have your chance to present your credentials to most of the relevant employers, and you will be exposed to most of the types of opportunities that are out there. Just like at the other places Alexandre mentioned.</p>
<p>I don't really know about Princeton.</p>
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When I was in school many people who actually wanted to be engineers would apply to Georgia Tech but not apply to Princeton, because they did not perceive Princeton as being at the same level in engineering. General reputation aside, it is my perception that engineers tend to be "Where's the beef" kind of people.
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<p>But I think that's precisely the point - how many high school kids already really know they want to be engineers? In fact, the same question can be asked about practically any major. Most high school kids don't really know that they want to major in English or PoliSci or Math or whatever it is that they end up majoring in. I believe CNN once reported that the average college student tries on an average of 3 or 4 majors before finally settling on one. </p>
<p>In fact, that's why every school allows undergrads to switch in and out of majors to some extent. Not to drag out MIT and Stanford as examples again, but they are the best engineering schools in the country, and yet they allow students to freely switch in and out of whatever majors they want. Anybody goes to MIT and tries engineering and doesn't like it is free to switch out. But why allow this at all, if students are already supposed to know what they're going to major in anyway? Maybe MIT should just admit students into specific majors starting from day 1, and bar students from ever trying to switch. Why not? After all, if incoming students always knew exactly what they wanted to major in, then none of them would ever want to switch anyway, and so MIT would enjoy significant administrative efficiencies by knowing exactly how many students would be majoring in each subject and could therefore dispense of any buffer academic resources.</p>
<p>From what I've seen, most incoming college students have only a vague idea of what they want to major in. They may know that they want to major in something technical or something artsy, but rarely have they already decisively settled on one particular major. Hence, the technical students might try out an engineering class or 2 to see if they like it, and that's where it all starts. If they find out they like it, they stay. If they find out they hate it, they switch to something else.</p>
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From what I hear, Princeton's engineering program isn't very strong
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<p>It is all about combination between prestige and capacity. As the OP is more concerned with the employers' perception, I would say that Princeton has a venerable reputation among the engineering employers, very much so than let's say Gatech or Purdue for bachelor grads.</p>