just for those curious, MechE median salary results from my schools is in.

College Majors Engineering Majors
21

<p>

I’m not sure what your point is.</p>

22

<p>I don’t understand what his post means.</p>

23

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<p>I’m currently attending a reach school that I wasn’t even admitted to for undergrad. I know fully well what it feels like to go to a reach school. I feel like if we’re arguing over anecdotal evidence, I’m a pretty good give an opinion.</p>

24

<p>Yet I don’t even disagree with your response! </p>

<p>I merely said that it would be highly unlikely that someone in the lower third of intelligence at their school could get a 3.85. Do you agree with that statement?</p>

25

<p>I agree that it’s not likely, but I don’t agree that it’s necessary they’ll get a 2.5 at a reach and a 3.5 at a non-reach while putting in very little work.</p>

26

<p>You think 25 hours a week is very little work (the exact number I quoted)? I don’t. I don’t consider that very little work even remotely.</p>

27

<p>Being an engineer from CMU and now Caltech, I consider a week where I only need to do 25 hours a week a very light week. :p</p>

<p>If you’re taking 16 credits a semester, you should be working 50 hour weeks.</p>

28

<p>Wait…are we counting class hours as part of those 25? That would be less than 10 hours of work out of class… that’s very low.</p>

29

<p>No. That was out of class time.</p>

30

<p>

3 hours of study for every hour of class? I don’t know many engineering programs that espouse that level of studiousness.</p>

31

<p>The thing is: Mechanical Engineering isn’t even the worst. Take BioEngineering/Biomedical Engineering, many of these guys at top schools, were high school valedictorian types, had to work incredibly hard in college, much more than the liberal arts folks, and the salary? forget salary, you’d be lucky to get a job. I remember Berkeley’s median starting salary was below 40k, Cornell was something in the 30k’s just a few years ago. Yet, every other high schooler wants to do Biomedical Engineering.</p>

32

<p>“3 hours of study for every hour of class? I don’t know many engineering programs that espouse that level of studiousness.”</p>

<p>I’ve taken 13 credit semesters where I studied/did homework outside of class for 40-50 hours on average</p>

33

<p>

As have I, but I doubt that is the norm at most programs. Generally, it depends on class/professor mix. Taking 6 units could conceivably be 30 hours of study for some profs!</p>

34

<p>^ Yeah… thats pretty much my life right now… 18 units last quarter went awesome. Just 14 are killing me this time around due to just ONE professor!</p>

35

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<p>UCLA isn’t a tip top program, but requires (or recommends 3 hours of study per hour of class).</p>

<p>Here’s a message from our dean a few years ago:

</p>

36

<p>And that’s not normal.</p>

37

<p>Recommending is one thing. Actually following through is another. </p>

<p>Recommending 2 to 3 hours of work for every class hour is pretty standard at all colleges.</p>

38

<p>

Is this still the case for upper level courses taken in the junior/senior years? Or does it get pretty close to 3 hours of work for every class hour once u take these upper level courses?</p>

39

<p>Eh, it’s not much worse than freshman or sophomore year. That two to three hours out-of-class for every hour of lecture thing started becoming more true for me in grad school, though.</p>

40

<p>This is the STARTING salary… right? Any idea on the median after 5 or 10 years?</p>