Here are my colleges and net costs:
University of Utah - $16,472
Clemson - $33,070
WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute) - $32,504
I want to study chemical engineering and have good internship and job opportunities. I was offered some scholarships to a ton of other schools (Rose Hulman, Georgia Tech, Colorado-Boulder, etc), but the three listed are the most affordable. Random selection; I know… It is complicated. Any help is appreciated!!! [-O<
Clemson is still on tw1’s shortlist but we only spent 1 day there. What did you like about it?
I recently added Clemson back on to my shortlist because of their career services. The Princeton Review speaks highly of Clemson’s internship opportunities and job placement, which caught my attention. I have not visited the campus, but I like the location. Also, my parents are in the process of changing jobs, and it is possible that my family will move to Florida from Washington state, which will make Clemson much closer than Utah. I got into a lot of great schools, but now that we have to think about paying for college, the cheapest ones seem like the smartest decision, which can be disappointing for me. Utah is the cheapest, but I hate choosing the “Podunk University” after all my hard work in high school.
:!!
Does paying for the more expensive options involve going into debt? Do you have any plans for grad school?
@Dunboyne The debt depends… My dad is trying to switch jobs because of unfortunate economic and business circumstances. It looks like he will be able to get a good job in the next year, in which case there would be no debt. But we don’t know what is going to happen. I would like to have the opportunity to go to a good grad school. Probably for engineering management or something like that after I get my chemical engineering undergraduate degree. Internship and job opportunities are also very important.
:-??
The outlook for overall job growth for chemical engineers does not look very promising.
" Employment of chemical engineers is projected to grow 4 percent from 2012 to 2022, slower than the average for all occupations", http://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/chemical-engineers.htm
Most of the jobs for ChemEs are located in Texas, Louisiana, Delaware, New Jersey & Delaware.
http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes172041.htm
Proximity may help in getting internships/interviews.
Also keep in mind the scholarships are based on 4 years of study, and if you come in with far fewer AP credits, it may take 4 years to just complete UG in one field of engineering.
How many AP credits will you be awarded when matriculating into any of the schools under consideration? Will it provide any leeway to add another major or a minor and complete UG in 4 years?
Another thing is to look into the possibility of pursuing your UG where you might have in-state status for tuition purposes, so in case you need more than 4 years, you are not penalized with extra out-of-state tuition. However, It may be too late now.
Should you be bent upon pursuing ChemE, and you come in with enough AP credits, you may be better off if you can have a dual major or a minor in a field with better job prospects (CSE for example), If not, consider studying another field (like CSE, ME, EE, etc.).
If you are open to other fields of engineering, WPI looks like a good match since it is known for engineering. Also, WPI being a small private university, the class sizes are small providing more interaction with teaching faculty, very important in freshmen year when transitioning from high school where students are used to being with 25- 30 students in their class. It is not uncommon to be crammed into large lecture halls with over 400 students in public universities in their freshmen year.
Clemson would be another choice, but don’t know about their placement of ChemEs.
@Trinity7 Thanks for your response. The job outlook for people graduating with chemical engineering degrees is debatable. Most people with ChemE degrees have job titles other than “Chemical Engineer.” For example, they can get jobs as “project engineers,” “process engineers,” or a variety of industries, like pharmaceuticals, food processing, etc, where the job titles vary. Overall, I agree with what you are saying, though. At WPI, I would be interested in double majoring in Industrial and Chemical, even though both of those have relatively poor outlooks according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Worcester is not a very good city, which worries my parents.
I have plenty of AP courses (8 with 4 or 5). I am in the honors colleges at the bigger schools, which would give me the opportunity to take smaller classes, although I might not want to deal with additional liberal arts requirements.
The career center employees at each college told me that they would make sure that I got good internships, which is helpful if they are being honest. None of the cheaper schools seem to have the reputations of the more expensive ones: Georgia Tech, Rose Hulman, UIUC, etc.
That’s a tough decision. You will just have to hammer that out with your parents regarding affordability. If you know you won’t go into debt and can absorb that extra $65K fairly easily, Clemson and WPI might be worth it to you because it seems like you’d be unhappy at Utah. Engineering can be a struggle at the best of times, let alone when you’re unhappy.
I don’t think Utah is as bad as you make it out to be, though. You’re studying engineering, so the job prospects are about as good as they get for a broad field of study, so I wouldn’t worry too much about employability if you decide that the risk of debt is too high. Also note the extra costs for grad school should you go that route. Grad school would give you an opportunity to attend a more selective school than Utah, too, so you can always improve your resume in the future. It’s possible to transfer too, if the financial situation clears up.
WPI is a pretty good option to have for engineering, though, but you’d need to straighten out that affordability. Utah isn’t the end of your future, if it comes to that!
The comments were based on the experience of a few 2015 graduating students in ChemE from a large, highly regarded mid-western university.
Getting internships is still a challenge. Scour the engineering placement center for their annual placement reports for internships. The ratio of the number of internships offered through on-campus career fairs to the number of enrolled students in engineering programs should give some idea about the level of demand for interns. Yes, the engineering placement people will help in getting internships, but it is hard to beat the trends in employment, specifically in ChemE. Skills in Design engineering (CAD tools), knowledge of application of latest domain specific engineering software, along with good communication & project management would be useful. Unfortunately manufacturing related employment is not picking up.
@Dunboyne. Thank you for your help. I agree that Utah is not THAT bad… the rankings are just getting me down. Utah is beautiful with lots of great activities (skiing, hiking, etc), and I can really make myself happy anywhere, so that isn’t the biggest issue.
My family and I have determined that we can afford WPI and Clemson (even though some debt is a possibility). I am trying to determine if there are significant additional opportunities provided by WPI and Clemson over Utah.
@Trinity7. I have researched all of the job placement and internship data that these colleges have available. WPI has a wonderful fact book for every class that has data on each student, and if a student did not report their job/salary, they were not counted as being employed. Clemson and Utah were trickier because only about 20 percent of the class chose to respond to the survey about their job placement/salary/ internships, which makes it difficult to get a good idea of what the actual data is. All three schools had very similar average salary. WPI had a higher job placement. The career centers at the public schools say, “We have great opportunities for motivated students. The lazy kids who do not try to get internships are the ones who do not get scholarships and bring down the job placement percentage.” I just want to know if it is true that they have the same opportunities, or if I would really have a significant advantage getting internships, jobs, or grad school if I attend a more expensive school.
I would go for Utah. You are saving money and if you are a good student opportunities for scholarships will flourish after freshman year. U of U has been undergoing some tremendous changes over the last few years that are only going to make this university stronger. SLC is a strong cultural hub and it is really safe here…
It is true that lazy kids will not likely get internships. It is up to the students to seek help, take the initiative and be relentless in driving the process. Some universities, because of their prestige and closer connections with employers,will have larger number of recruiters coming to recruit on campus. Proximity to major engineering centers is a distinct advantage, since some employers may post their requisition on the university’s electronic bulletin board, and may not have the capacity to visit the university, especially if they are smaller firms. Also it helps if there is a presence of a large numbers of alumni when it comes to gaining interviews. The local firms are usually familiar with the university , and they don’t have to prequalify the caliber of students. The cost of setting up interview for a local trip, assuming the employer is situated within 1- 2 hours driving time, is low, and easy for small/medium employers to manage the interview logistics.
The larger national firms, on the other hand, will recruit mainly from certain well known universities. This is where the universities’, and departmental reputation plays a greater role. Many have minimum cut-off GPAs, usually 3.0 -3.25. In most of the cases the competitive students will be well over the cut-offs. Leadership, especially in student organized engineering clubs, active hands on participation in competitive engineering related events, and ability to work in groups is a big plus.
In summary, location of the university, proximity to large employment centers (eg. silicon valley), reputation of the university, the caliber of the engineering placement center (<–very important) all play a role. As a fresh engineering graduate, it is much easier to gain employment through on-campus interviews than responding to online job postings. Cost of attendance does not correlate to job placement, but the quality of the graduates plays a greater role. The ones that have well established engineering co-ops is also a good bet (eg. Kettering).
Thank you, everyone.
@Kelowna Yes, I am probably going to choose Utah. I just can’t seem to find a really compelling reason to spend twice as much at another school.
@Trinity7 I agree that on-campus interviews are ideal. Utah apparently has good size career fairs, and the career counselor told me I could also drive down to BYU to attend their career fair if I wanted to. Utah is not ideal, but I think I am just going to have to make the best of it.
:)>-
Congrats. Now the real work begins!