<p>Our son has already been accepted into the College of Engineering at both Penn State and NC State for IE. We don't expect to get much financial aid from either of those choices.</p>
<p>He recently applied to Louisville, and assuming he is accepted, will qualify for $10k/year minimum in scholarship money.</p>
<p>Another possibility could be Western Michigan, he would qualify for scholarship money, and there is an opportunity to be a walkon to the football team and earn a scholarship.</p>
<p>So here is the question--In the long run, would he be better off going to PSU or NC State because their undergraduate IE programs are highly rated--OR, take the money from Louisville or Western Michigan? Their programs are both ABET accredited, but not ranked by US News.</p>
<p>Does he know specifically what within IE he’d like to study? I can only speak for Western but it is mostly Ergo/QA focused. I think he’d be a lot better off if he wants to do OR type stuff by going to Penn State or NC State. If he wants to do Ergo/QA, Western should be a fine school. </p>
<p>Western will really only pull recruiters regionally in the Great Lakes area, while I imagine (I’m not sure) that Penn State and NC State will pull some recruiters from other parts of the country. </p>
<p>I have absolutely no idea about Louisville.</p>
<p>I don’t if the OP added the letters “OR” to distinguish between options or was actually referring to “operations research”. Still, in looking at the IE courses for the BSIE degree at U-Louisville, there is only 6 credits (2 courses) of IE electives with the rest being required and covering every IE area. It does not seem that one could concentrate in operations research. Also keep in mind that U-Louisville’s IE program is 5 years.</p>
<p>Having said that, normally I would go with the cheaper route to the degree BUT I don’t see IE as having as many openings as say computer science right out of college, so the “rep” of the school may matter. Unless I knew how many of the co-op grads found jobs after graduating U-Louisville, I would say go the Penn State or NC State route.</p>
<p>The “OR” was to distinguish between the options. Sorry about the confusion. </p>
<p>Also, I believe the 5 years at Louisville is for the Masters degree. You have your BS after the 4 years, but since they have co-ops, it is basically straight through for 4 years.</p>
<p>I got the impression that QA/ergonomics are shrinking fields as far as Industrial Engineering is concerned. The future is in Supply Chain Management and Operations Research, so whichever school is better at those things would suit you better</p>
<p>NCSU definitely does pull recruiters from outside of the region for IE. I’m currently an IE student there and have 3 semesters left after I get done with this internship I am on now. The career fair we are having next week is our smaller fair and we have 71 companies looking to hire IE’s. Considering there are only 79 or so in the senior class, that’s not too bad. PSU is a great school too from what I hear. Considering they were the first IE school in the nation, they have had time to get it right. If you have any questions I’m sure I can point you in the right direction.</p>
<p>I don’t really know but as I’m hearing more talk about onshoring/reshoring manufacturing I would expect employment in these fields to go up slightly.</p>
<p>It is better to compare money matters not in terms of scholarships, but in terms of net price after applying non-loan financial aid and scholarships. Presumably, you are out of state for most or all of them, but if you are in state for any of them, that changes the price comparison.</p>
<p>If you are out of state for all, then the list prices are WMU < NCSU < UL < PSU, with the gap between UL and PSU being rather large, while the gap between UL and WMU and NCSU is small enough that a $10,000 per year scholarship at UL would make it cheaper than the WMU and NCSU list prices.</p>
<p>He is out of state for WMU, NCSU, UL, and in state for PSU. My look at base line tuition/room/board would put them in this order.</p>
<p>PSU - $15,562/$9,400 - $24,962 (not expecting any financial aid)
NCSU - $20,953/$8,536 - $29,489 (unknown on financial aid)
WMU - $21,494/$8250 - $29,744 (qualifies for $9,000/yr Presidential Scholarship)
UL - $23,300/$7920 - $31,220 (qualifies for $10,000/yr scholarship, applied for Engineering scholarships)</p>
<p>So after the known scholarships, the costs would be
WMU - $20,744
UL - $21,220
PSU - $24,962
NCSU - $29,489</p>
<p>So the question remains, is the extra investment in the education at Penn State or NC State worth the $4-9,000 per year? Obviously if there is a chance for an athletic scholarship that would change the cost comparison. But at the end of his college education he needs a degree that is going to enable him to land a good job.</p>
<p>Oooooh…that $4,000/yr extra ($16,000 overall) is worth it for Penn State. I thought you were talking $30,000+ overall difference or something.</p>
<p>$16K???..nah, go Penn State</p>
<p>I am pretty sure a regular summer job between each school year can reduce some of that. That could result in a very manageable student loan payment after graduation.</p>
<p>Recruiters love Penn State and the IE department is very strong with a lot of options. Their business school is also well-regarded and there could be some overlap between engineering and business for an IE. I’m sure NC State is also very good, but I am not really familiar with their engineering program.</p>
<p>In the long run, having an IE degree from an accredited college is definitely good. High ratings and stuff are cool, but your son should pick the school that he likes best. If he is going to be at a college for 4 years, he might as well like the place. It won’t be very hard for him to get a job with an IE degree and good grades. PSU would probably be the best choice.</p>