How significant is the difference between a top Engineering school and a lower one?

College Majors Engineering Majors
101

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And the 110k ceiling in comp-sci -- well, that's if you work 60 hours a week.

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<p>Oh, I don't know. I can personally count quite a few computer scientists who make well over 150k (in fact, in some cases, over 200k), who barely work over 40 hours a week. </p>

<p>That's what computer science contracting can do. These guys are charging well over $100 an hour to design specialized systems for banks and whatnot. Every hour they work is another hour they bill. So if they work 60 hours a week, believe me, they're billing for every hour.</p>

<p>Now, is this common? No. But hey, you're the one who constantly wants to raise the issue of people who are uncommon, like doctors. Again, 1.3 million Americans graduate with bachelor's degrees every year, yet only 17000 people matriculate at American medical schools a year, or only 1.5% of the total. So if you can constantly invoke rare instances, then so can I.</p>

102

<p>actually today it isn't all that hard to get into med school. I read recently currently HALF of med school applicants will get in somewhere at some time. (I haven't bothered to substantiate this and yes it does seem high, and I can't recall where I read it, but it's only the top schools that have the 5% acceptance rates. There's lots of school, osteopathic schools, Guadalajara (sp), Granada etc) There's so much keeping people from applying...years of debt, malpractice premium nightmares, insurance hassles, it goes on. Med school apps are down. Bright college kids don't want to put up with that anymore. Whoever said doctors keep their work at work is hallucinating.</p>

<p>I know nurses who do a continuous 24 weekend shift. They have full benefits, great pay and are off 5+ days a week. Not bad.</p>

<p>What about teachers? In my NJ school district the average (yes average) is $78K. And they have summers off and a great retirement package. Let's face it most aren't rocket scientists, they just make more $ than real ones.</p>

103

<p>"actually today it isn't all that hard to get into med school. "</p>

<p>yeesssss, I agree.</p>

<p>"Whoever said doctors keep their work at work is hallucinating"</p>

<p>I said that...in comparison to engineers, doctors keep their work at work. Don't count on-call duty doctors, because then you have to count on-call engineering-ops personnel also -- and that's when the hours for engineers can add up to 60-100 hrs per week easily. Also, doctors get paid HEFTILY for on-call duty while engineers don't get anything...it's basically part of being employed.</p>

<p>" know nurses who do a continuous 24 weekend shift. They have full benefits, great pay and are off 5+ days a week. Not bad."</p>

<p>YEEESSSSS!! I know a lot of nurses that pull this kind of shift and love it.</p>

<p>"Oh, I don't know. I can personally count quite a few computer scientists who make well over 150k (in fact, in some cases, over 200k), who barely work over 40 hours a week. "</p>

<p>Which computer scientist makes 150k, 200K? That's so absurd it's laughable. Are you talking about a 3-month contract?? Or is this a full-blown stable job that we're talking about.</p>

104

<p>I live in Oklahoma. I'm thinking about going to the University of Oklahoma to get a bachelor's degree in engineering and probably work in Oklahoma. I have the money to go out of state to a maybe-better school, but I think I want to save it. How is OU's engineering school, and is it much worse than some of the top-ranked engineering schools?
In other words, should I spend the extra money going to an out of state college?</p>

105

<p>aehmo I think that you don't realize that many people don't want to be nurses because their job involves interaction with lots crazy people. While an engineer can get a degree in "nursology" and get certified, I don't think that the engineer person will enjoy dealing with crazy patients all the time. Nursing pays lost of money because of the problems faced on the job. For example if someone dies during your shift you can be held accountable. In hospitals, (where the salary is high), nurses are responsible for 10+ or more patients at a time. And when you say the nurses leave their job in the end of the day, you are completely wrong, they keep talking about the problems and everything that happened on their shifts (many of which are on weekends and nights). So, engineering is the best option for many techno-people even if the field has a shaky future.</p>

106

<p>Let's not forget that in spite of some similarities, engineering and nursing are very different. Not everybody is suited to taking care of sick people, just as every person isn't suited to giving presentations and problem solving. No matter the salary or job security, you MUST be honest with yourselves and acknowledge whether or not you are suited to the particular duties of the job.</p>

107

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"actually today it isn't all that hard to get into med school. "</p>

<p>yeesssss, I agree.

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<p>I COMPLETELY disagree. Half of all applicants get in somewhere - but that's just the APPLICANTS. Plenty of people don't even bother to apply because they know they won't get in. Let's face it. If you get less than a 3.0, you're not even going to apply because you know you won't get in.</p>

<p>Besides, I will point out, about 70,000 people in the US get engineering bachelor's degrees. Yet only 17,000 people matriculate at US medical schools every year. So even if every graduating engineer were to instead try to be doctors, and every available med-school spot went to them, that would still mean that more than 75% of them would not get a spot. What are you going to do with these people? </p>

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Also, doctors get paid HEFTILY for on-call duty while engineers don't get anything...it's basically part of being employed

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<p>I have never heard of a doctor getting paid anything extra for being on-call. Tell that to the residents who are always on call and barely crack 40k a year. </p>

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Which computer scientist makes 150k, 200K? That's so absurd it's laughable. Are you talking about a 3-month contract?? Or is this a full-blown stable job that we're talking about.

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<p>It's not that hard to find. Granted it is hard to get the experience necessary to qualify for those jobs, but not as hard as med-school is.</p>

<p>I just did a short Internet search and came up with this. It didn't take me that long to find them. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.devbistro.com/jobs/8615%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.devbistro.com/jobs/8615&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.devbistro.com/jobs/13199%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.devbistro.com/jobs/13199&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.devbistro.com/jobs/8611%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.devbistro.com/jobs/8611&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

108

<p>bloviate: To discourse at length in a pompous or boa****l manner</p>

<p>(Vocabulary lesson for me!)</p>

109

<p>What's wrong with that word that means arrogant or bragging that got beeped out? Is it "boast" or "ful" that was bad???</p>

110

<p>"If you get less than a 3.0, you aren't even going to apply because you know you won't get in."</p>

<p>Well thank goodness. For the premed who knows grades mean so much, who still can't muster more than a 3.0 in spite of mad studying...I don't want him cutting me open...he shouldn't be applying in the first place.</p>

111

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Well thank goodness. For the premed who knows grades mean so much, who still can't muster more than a 3.0 in spite of mad studying...I don't want him cutting me open...he shouldn't be applying in the first place.

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<p>Oh, I don't know. There are plenty of brilliant workaholics at, say, Caltech or MIT who nonetheless end up with significantly less than a 3.0. I think I'd rather prefer having one of them cut me up than some dude who cruised his way to high grades through an easy major at an easy school. Let's be honest. There are schools and majors out there in which you can get very high grades while knowing very little and doing very litle.</p>

112

<p>"OH_DAD, why hold back? Why don't you just name the posters that you are referring to who you think have no life and are bloviating?"</p>

<p>We all know who's bloviating...anybody that twists reality into painting a rosy picture about engineering certainly falls into that category.</p>

<p>The truth is that engineers have it pretty rough nowadays...huge layoffs, outsourcing, fresh-meat from colleges, no pensions etc. are killing the average engineer. Obviously the "jobs" that you posted on "devbistro", which is a shady employment website at best, are TEMP jobs to support some ridiculous claim that engineers can look forward to making upwards of 200k if they work hard enuf. The sad reality is that most engineers won't crack 100k barrier...If they do, they ain't going to crack 110k easily....every 10k gets tougher and tougher, and the jobs get less and less secure. At 200k, it's a pump and dump gig!! They'll bring you on board for 3-6 months, use you up and then spit you back out. That's the most probable scenario.</p>

113

<p>Even if most Engineers won't crack the 100k barrier, most liberal arts majors won't either, so what's the point you're trying to make? Everyone knows that life is rough these days. No one will argue against that. </p>

<p>What's of interest here is that whether life is tougher for an engineer.</p>

114

<p>lol 100k sounds pretty good to me</p>

115

<p>"What's of interest here is that whether life is tougher for an engineer"</p>

<p>"lol 100k sounds pretty good to me"</p>

<p>Well, it's a tough life for just 100k. Working 60 hours a week, being in high pressure situations (e.g. donald's boardroom), having to work over the weekends and nights to meet deadlines etc.</p>

<p>Also, you're only making money when you're employed....if you're laid off, you could be out of a job for 6 months to a year easily. There's no guarantee of finding a decent job that pays your as much as the previous one. And lay-offs are very common in engineering nowadays.</p>

<p>There are much easier ways to make 100k. Doctors, nurses, chiropractors, lawyers, etc, and much STABLER ways!!!! Also, most professions enjoy life more than engineers....being able to see the sun once in a while, not having constant pressures (to present powerpoints, defend every decision you make, to network with other team leads/managers who may/maynot care for you......coding is not considered to be "pressure" by engineers, but the other stuff is, and there's plenty of it), not having to worry about paychecks in the next quarter (layoffs happen at the end of each quarter) etc...!! Is that a good way to earn a 100k, or would you rather make 90k and enjoy your life in other professions!!!!!</p>

<p>"Even if most Engineers won't crack the 100k barrier, most liberal arts majors won't either,"</p>

<p>yes, but most doctors easily make that. Lawyers will easily make that, chiropractor, Nurses in many cases, Businessmen will crack 100k easily, investment bankers (many of liberal arts majors), etc...there are tons of ways to make money......engineering and investment banking are just less stable and more political, that's all.</p>

116

<p>Doctors......just as(if not more) streesful as engineering...also dont doctors tend not to have lives?
Nurses....stressful(my moms one)....
too many lawyers in this country as is
I like math and sciences-Engineering Is looking good to me ;)
I just think you seem to put engineering as a low profession...every profession has its bad points. But what if someone actually lets say likes their job?</p>

117

<p>A poster asked about the word synonymous with bragging and why it was edited. The short anwer is that it was not the entire word but the censored letters used in that order that the censoring program automatically found and deleted.</p>

118

<p>Medicine and Law (especially) are definately more stressful than engineering as careers. Nursing and Ibanking, are both open to undergrads - nursing is just as stressful as engineering. Ibanking is much more stressful.</p>

<p>And as said, getting into Medical and Law school is difficult - MUCH more difficult than getting into engineering undergrad.</p>

119

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Well, it's a tough life for just 100k. Working 60 hours a week, being in high pressure situations (e.g. donald's boardroom), having to work over the weekends and nights to meet deadlines etc.

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<p>60 Hours is pretty good compared to some other jobs. Ibankers are expected to work 90-100 hours a week at certain times. For lawyers, 60 hours is very common.</p>

120

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We all know who's bloviating...anybody that twists reality into painting a rosy picture about engineering certainly falls into that category.

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<p>I'm pretty sure that the one who is bloviating is the guy who is constantly stating that engineering is the worst thing to major in the whole world, and then 'brilliantly' picks biochem as the perfect major that everybody should do.</p>