<p>I'm currently a first year student at the University of Cincinnati and I'm in my second quarter. As of now I am in an Exploratory (undecided) major and have a decent GPA (3.28) and it's looking to be higher for this second quarter. I am currently deciding between a few majors but their all in the college of engineering.</p>
<p>I have been contemplating transferring to OSU because they have a better engineering program but how much will that matter once I have the degree?</p>
<p>If you go to a better known university you will probably get more recognition even though the course work in any accredited engineering program is basically just as hard.
Sometimes when you transfer you’ll lose credits. It depends on the college/university.</p>
<p>You should mention which specific engineering programs you are interested in. You should also see if they are accredited programs. I have not heard of OSU so I don’t know what types of engineering degrees they offer.</p>
<p>What, are you from the moon, del_psi? OSU, in context of him going to Cincinnati, is Ohio State. If you live in America or Canada, you would be hard pressed not to hear of them considering that A) they are a large, well known school, and B) their students/alumni tend to be very overtly proud of their alma mater.</p>
<p>The most important thing is you get the degree (and only 1 out of 3 freshman that start in engineering will graduate in engineering). I’d pick the college based on which one your comfortable, appropriate distance from family (close or far depending on what you want), and the right feel. The right college environment will help you complete your degree and that means much more than going to the best school.</p>
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<p>It’s not. We went through syllabi from ME programs a year ago and showed that there is a difference in what is covered (as much as 33% per class). Just because everyone meets a minimum criteria to be accredited doesn’t mean that they all meet the same criteria.</p>
<p>But, yes…</p>
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<p>… this is important. A miserable student at a rigorous school will learn less than a happy student at a less rigorous school.</p>
<p>I guess OSU is the flagship engineering school in that state, so if your thinking of working in or around Ohio it would make more sense to go there wouldn’t it?</p>
<p>At the UG level, it makes almost no difference even 4 years out of school (and probably fewer). It may help land the first job - as the hiring manager is more likely to have come from OSU than Cin.</p>
<p>That said, look at all factors before deciding; internship availability, research opportunities, clubs of interest, international study options, typical class size, (as mentioned) transfer credits, etc. Talk with some professors in the department you’re going into at both schools. </p>
<p>Bottom line: go where you’ll excell.</p>
<p>The school you go to will help you land your first job, after that the school you went to doesn’t matter at all. Most employers care more about your work experience as an engineer than the school you went to. So pick the school you like most and will allow you to do something such as an internship or co op.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the replies. As of now I am enjoying the atmosphere here at UC. I like the size of the school as well. Both OSU and UC have Co-op programs and both programs take 5-years. The next step that I’m going to take is to compare the curriculum for both schools and see how they compare.</p>
<p>I apologize for the double post but I have some more questions.</p>
<p>What are the odds of me getting accepted as a transfer student into Ohio State University, University of Michigan, or Michigan State with a 3.3GPA and 40+ credit hours? Note that I’d be applying to the college of engineering.</p>
<p>Reminder: I’m currently going to the University of Cincinnati in Ohio.</p>
<p>Any help? Also, I’d like to add that I plan on going to grad school.</p>
<p>I can’t really say on your chances at OSU or MSU, but it would be a big long shot getting into Michigan with those numbers.</p>
<p>I figured as much. Anyone else?</p>
<p>It depends who you ask. If you ask someone snobby who attended some “big name” school and attaches a lot of meaning to doing so, it will mean a lot. Fortunately, for most people I don’t think it matters very much.</p>
<p>Most of the people I work with come from smaller, less known schools. I have seen no correlation, at all, between the perceived quality of the school someone went to and the work they are able to do. As long as you don’t go to the University of Nothing’s unaccredited, completely unknown, and taught by chimpanzees engineering program you will be fine and able to land a good job.</p>
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<p>My company performed extensive testing on school attended and overall success as an engineer, and found a very strong correlation. The results didn’t have the power to determine if that was because better students go to better colleges and make better engineers or because the better engineering schools provide a better education. But we did show a relationship.</p>
<p>Also, we’ve shown on this forum many times that the better engineering schools cover more material in a given class than the lower tier schools. ABET defines a minimum education, but that doesn’t mean that schools can’t teach above the minimum. Anecdotally, if all schools taught the same material at the same level of difficulty, wouldn’t Stanford and MIT students find school incredibly easy while Texas A&M Corpus Christi students found school to be incredibly difficult? That is, unless you believe the applicants to those schools are all of equal caliber.</p>
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I go to WPI, which is regionally well reputed but isn’t ranked too high by US News and other news magazines, and from online probing of course syllabi, I find that what is covered here in a semester of 6/7 courses (quarter courses - cover slightly less but we take more courses per semester) is generally equivalent to what “higher-ranked engineering schools” like Purdue and UCLA cover in a semester.</p>
<p>However, it is likely that schools with weaker students like UMass-Dartmouth or Cal State Sacramento cannot cover as much. However, I don’t think there is too much of a difference in engineering rigor among the schools discussed here in College Confidential. Undergrad engineering Students at Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, WPI, Purdue, Texas, TAMU, Wisconsin, RPI, Rose Hulman, Northwestern, etc, are probably learning very similar stuff.</p>
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While I don’t go to MIT, I can believe that MIT courses are generally harder than Texas A&M Corpus Christi courses. Nobody doubts that MIT students are stronger. However, TAMUCC students are far more likely to be too overwhelmed by the material and drop out of engineering than MIT students. Also, MIT students are probably more motivated and in addition to course work pursue more clubs and activities and research projects than TAMUCC students.</p>
<p>However, even within a school, different faculty teach the material at different levels and sometimes cover significantly different amounts of material within the exact same course. At many schools, there are extra challenge assignments given to above average students either through an honors program or normally which enable students at a second or third tier engineering school to cover what is covered at a top engineering school. Similarly, there are extra theoretical courses at top schools for the absolute top students. </p>
<p>Research opportunities are available at many schools which enable students to master more recent aspects of subjects and to potentially discover something new. I think research is a leveling ground for motivated students at all sorts of schools. While MIT may have better facilities, I believe that understanding the process of research and discovering something new is much more important than the prestige of the research. If a student wants to learn more, the opportunities are certainly there.</p>
<p>G.P.Burdell so comparing UC, MSU, and OSU would you say there’s a big difference between the programs? I’ve compared all their schedules and they seem similar but I don’t know how in depth they go in each class (which is your point).</p>
<p>If it helps any I’m going into either Electrical/Computer Engineering or Computer Science (leaning toward Computer Science).</p>
<p>Well, I believe UC incorporates co-op into their curriculum, so you should decide if mandatory co-op and waiting five years to get a degree is for you.</p>