Follow up:
It’s been three years and I’ve been happy at Iowa studying BME, I actually know two people who transferred from Purdue to Iowa in engineering so that just confirmed that I made the right decision.
Great to hear, hirschy32! My son graduates in BME in 2 weeks.
@hirschy32 and @Beastman - Congratulations to you and your kids! I would love to see follow-up posts from you both in six months or so concerning how they are doing out in the world.
We are going to try for a visit in September.
@Beaudreau I am happy to say that my son got a job as manufacturing engineer with a large biotech firm in the Mpls/St. Paul area and that the U-Haul truck will journey from Iowa City PAST MY HOUSE to his own little apartment to be rented with his own little salary dollars. He is off the dole, hallelujah!
Sadly many of his BME classmates are still looking. Word to the wise in any engineering discpline - move heaven and earth to get a job on campus as a research assistant or TA or tutor, then leverage that into a full-semester co-op position or TWO summer internships. Woe to those who blitz through in 4 years with no “real world” experience.
@beastman - Congratulations on the new job and your son being off the dole. And I agree with you. Many people have told me that real-world experience dramatically improves hirability. Employers also like to see experience on student engineering teams like SAE cars, concrete canoes, bridge building, etc.
@beastman, in your first post in this thread, you mentioned something about how challenging classes are at Iowa as an eng. major. Are you saying that your son was not challenged at Iowa as an eng. major and some classes were a cakewalk?
@PCoff23 I am sorry if I gave that impression as he surely worked hard the whole way through. Interestingly - and I don’t believe this is uncommon amongst those who are technically inclined - he found the “easy” classes hard and the “hard” classes easy. His gen eds were his worst grades and the tweaky EE elective that even the EEs don’t like was his one A+.
@beastman haha my cousin has the same problem!
My son has been accepted to both Purdue and Iowa and won’t even consider attending Iowa. Nothing about the rankings, but the vibe was all wrong for him. He hated the frat scene and the all-day partying on football game days. He thought the campus was really unappealing visually. Not that he loves Purdue or anything. His first choice is Madison.
I have to agree as my daughter is a current student there and I really dread visiting the campus, with it’s seemingly random architectural styles, the way the campus is split by the river, how far off campus you have to go (by bus, 20-30 min) to play tennis. There are many good restaurants, however!