<p>My son will be a senior in HS next year and is interested in engineering as a program of study. With regard to the benefit one gets from their undergraduate degree, how much does an engineering program's reputation come into play for opportunity for things like:</p>
<ul>
<li>internships during undergrad</li>
<li>quality and quantity of companies which recruit undergrads</li>
<li>chances for acceptance to graduate programs</li>
</ul>
<p>So using USNEWS as a barometer (though one could argue how effectively it measures one program to another), how much "better" are the opportunities from attending a top 15 school vs. 16-30 or anywhere else in the top 50?</p>
<p>I realize that probably the most effective measure of an individual's experience is based on what they put into their undergrad years, but are the kinds of opportunities going to be more available to students at the top tier schools just because of the cachet the name on the diploma brings?</p>
<p>I don’t have answers to many of the questions you ask, and i’m interested in finding those facts out too. But one minor thing i’ve found out is that the starting salaries for engineering at even the top 5 ranked engineering colleges are almost identical to those in the top 50. In other words, a person’s starting salary as an engineer is likely to be very close regardless of which engineering college they attend.</p>
<p>Hi! I believe that the prestige of the undergrad of which your son is from will have a very good impact on what kind of opportunities that are open to him. I currently attend UCSD, and many well-known employers come here to recruit from the Jacobs School of Engineering. However, there are not as much highly respected companies that come to UCSD compared to UC Berkeley and Stanford. Because such engineering schools such as Berkeley’s and Stanford’s have such a good name, many good companies fight to get the engineers there. However, it also depends on the skill that your son will acquire when studying engineering. If he has a very high skill in his specialized area of engineering then of course he will stand out. I will have to say the prestige of the undergrad is important and the skill of your son to be even more important. I have also learned that there are more opportunities open to you if one goes to a highly respected and prestigious university. Hope this helps</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. The basis for the question is trying to get a feel for the value in paying the difference in tuition from one school to another.</p>
<p>The flagship engineering school for our state’s university system is pretty well regarded (it seems to consistently end up in the top 30 of most lists I’ve seen) … my son has already attended some of the information and open house sessions for the engineering school and he will definitely apply there. Using the general recommendation that you apply for the school you want and a “safety” school (another university in the state system has a much smaller engineering program [primarily because it hasn’t been around nearly as long] so he would also apply to that), though I expect given his SATs, GPA and class rank, he should have a very good chance for the flagship program. But the applying-to-college advice is to consider also applying for a “stretch” school. </p>
<p>One he’s interested in as a “stretch” is a public university in a nearby state that is listed as one of the top 10 engineering programs on practically every ranking you see (at times, in the top 5). I think he could have a realistic chance of being accepted, but just its out-of-state tuition (I’m sure partly attributed to its reputation overall) puts its cost close to triple what we’d pay for our local state university. Yes, I know there are all sort of scholarships available, but not sure how much that could possibly offset the difference. In fact, it might very well be that the fact he would be a source of out-of-state level tuition might even improve his being accepted (more income for the college for that “seat” vs. an in-state candidate), so less likely the school itself would be interested in offering any breaks.</p>
<p>So I guess as the one writing the checks, I’m trying to get my head around what I could potentially be paying for … if the “potential” possibly available from the stretch school makes the significant hike in costs worthwhile.</p>
<p>Have any other parents on the forum gone through a similar decision process?</p>
<p>I’m an engineer and have worked as a engineering manager for Motorola. We hired many new grads and their hiring practices were to select the best candidates for the job. A prestigious university may get you an interview easier, but it had little or no impact on starting salary. Bachelor degree graduates were pretty much offered the same salary range. Master degreed candidates came in at a higher grade level and salary.</p>
<p>My son is going to his senior year in HS this fall, and he’s in the college selection process for studying engineering as well. He’s in the top 10% of his class and has 4.0+ GPA and would likely be admitted to any college. We have a local state university that has a very good engineering program and is on the top 50 list. That will be the likely choice in the end, but we’re applying for some big name colleges like MIT, Berkley, Georgia Tech, etc.. just to see what they would offer in terms of scholarships. In the end, the decision will be based on the quality of education and affordability.</p>
<p>Hope this helps, and good luck with your decision.</p>
<p>My two cents about rankings are that they aren’t perfect by any means but will give a rough estimate on where a school stands. At the UG level I don’t feel like there is a huge difference between #6 and #10 though there might be with #5 and #46.</p>
<p>As others have said, a prestigious university might help you land an interview for your first job but after that experience and acumen count.</p>
<p>One reason that some kinds of companies might want alums of prestigious schools, that people tend to overlook, is that the name brand is impressive to the people with the money. At my company, when we write grant proposals, everyone who will be on the project gets a short bio, including their alma maters, and frankly, it’s just more impressive to the government funders to see a big name than a small name. At a lot of startups that are looking for investors, it impresses potential investors more if you can brag about how your engineers come from such and such big name schools.</p>
<p>laxfan, try to think of applying to a couple of extra schools this way: It costs $60 to apply, and $100000 to attend. All in all it’s not a whole lot of money, and it can actually save you money in the end. For example, I had applied to seven schools for undergrad. I didn’t get into the highest ranked school, but I did get into all the others. My financial aid offer from RPI was better than CMU’s by about $8000 a year. I sent that over to CMU, and they were willing to match what RPI had offered me. That alone paid for all of my application fees.</p>
<p>School reputation will probably not help you very much for an engineering job/career, especially in the long run. All the engineers I have met have always told me that its all about experience, what you know, and what you can do.
On the other hand, going to a prestigious school can be an unexpected help if you decide to change out of engineering, or decide to go to grad school, and especially if you decide to go the banking/finance route.
Cal Poly gets many of the recruiters that also come to UCLA, for instance. Some employers even prefer Cal Poly grads because of the school’s reputation as a hands-on top engineering school. Oh and, as far as salary and employment goes, having a degree from the alma mater of your seniors (at your job), will probably have a bigger effect than anything else. So go to a school that graduates a lot of engineers!
I would suggest that a brand name school is always the best option if you want to go there, and can afford it, because it gives you more options. But if you’re sure you want to be an engineer then don’t worry too much about it.</p>
<p>I couldn’t agree with you more. I got one of my internships through an upperclassman friend of mine, who got his through a friend of his at the same school. Oh, and did I mention our school was the vice-president’s alma mater? </p>
<p>I got my second internship through the above mentioned vice-president’s best friend’s (who went to the same college as him) wife. And the guy who hired me for a full-time job? Yep, same school as mine. </p>
<p>A competitor in my field hires a lot of Manhattan College graduates, which isn’t exactly a top notch engineering, architecture or construction management school. And it’s not like it can’t attract quality prospects; this company is one of the top 5 in the world. So why Manhattan College? I imagine there are a couple of alumni with hiring authority over at this company.</p>
<p>I got a internship from alumni of the college the i WILL be attending ( i am only a hs graduate while everyone else will be junior or senior in college at top engineering schools)
I think school reputation will be pretty important in the beginning of one’s careers. It will give you the better opportunities earlier on, putting you step before others. However, in the long run, experience will be more important, so those who took advantages of their opportunities will generally become more successful.</p>
<p>For engineering majors, even when economy is bad or slow, top companies will still recruit from the top engineering schools, but might not give space to anyone that doesn’t go to school in the name brand engineering schools. That might be the biggest difference in the short run.</p>
