My opinion is that a future student should go to a University they can afford without incurring debt or only a very small amount if they are going into engineering. Pretty much all companies pay the same for a BS in Engineering regardless of what school was attended. See the below from WSJ:
That’s like saying on average, everybody is average.
Some people are well served by borrowing a substantial sum of money. Others, not so much. On average …
If you are going to borrow a lot of money, there better be a big payoff. At least it has to be better than the interest cost + opportunity cost that you do not have the money to invest yourself; could be upwards of 12%/year when you do cost of capital calculation. It is all about leveraging your return.
Did these calculations with S1 when he was trying to choose a school. The amount a debt could not ever be recovered given the very small differences in pay. From what we can tell, the particular school for engineers has more to do with which doors are opened more easily than how much pay is forthcoming. Certain employers seem to have more of an affinity for graduates from a sub-set of the population of colleges. Tendency toward regionalism, but there are a host of exceptions. The theory seems to be that it really depends upon the experience and school loyalty of the decision-makers at a given organization. Ultimately, your career trajectory has considerably more to do with your personal abilities, personality and work-ethic than with the pedigree of the school from which you graduate.
@Torveaux 100% agree. I am speaking from being in the industry for 30+ years. Really has to do with Brand recognition when you are talking nationally. OSU and UM will open more doors just because of name recognition.
As long as school is ABET accredited, almost all hiring managers will not have an issue.