<p>I am thinking about majoring in either Mechanical or Chemical Engineering. </p>
<p>What is your home state? What can your family afford? Usually the flagship U has good programs in that.</p>
<p>At least you narrowed your options down to only 500 schools. Need more details to give any sort of advice. Size, location, activities, stats, budget?</p>
<p>I live in Indiana.
ACT: 32
UW GPA: 4.0
Weighted: 4.85
Activities: NHS, Lab Assistant, Tire shop employee;
Family income: $50,000</p>
<p>I was told to apply to Georgia Tech, Case Western and U of Michigan for Chem E.</p>
<p>@Erin’s Dad
@Chardo </p>
<p>Your state schools are always a good starting point. ChemE and MechE programs are acredited by ABET so you’ll study about the same things no matter where you go. The biggest differentiator for your future is what you do in college. Do you work hard to get good grades and master the material? In math/science classes good students commonly spend 6-10 hours per week outside of each class reading the text, doing the homework, doing extra practice problems. Many who start college in engineering see their friends with a lot more free time, so about 1/3 to 1/2 of those who start as engineers end up switching out. The other big key is finding internship/coop positions, which really stand out when you graduate (and usually mean you have offers from places you already worked because they know you).</p>
<p>{ ChemE and MechE programs are acredited by ABET so you’ll study about the same things no matter
where you go.}</p>
<p>If that is the case, then why do they rate the Chem E department from colleges? Stanford is rated #1 for Chem E, I believe.</p>
<p>With family income only 50k, I suspect you will need major amounts of aid. Purdue should be your first look, as an in-state option with excellent engineering. Case is well respected, and generous with merit aid, though they still might net out too expensive. Michigan and GT are excellent, but out of state publics are generally not good with aid. They will likely be unaffordable without huge loans. An exception would be Alabama, which would give you guaranteed full tuition scholarship plus $2500 per year. Net cost would be around $12k per year, about half the cost of Purdue. Alabama is surprisingly strong in chemical engineering.</p>
<p>
I don’t have the time or energy to type a 10,000 word reply so I’ll keep this short. Ratings of departments are based on the influence in academia of the research done by the profs, completely irrelevant to what you’ll learn as an undergrad. Nor did I say all programs are viewed identically by employers. MIT, Caltech, Stanford, schools like that, companies want to hire kids from those places. Is it because they were taught so much more? Not really, IMHO. Engineering education is primarily about learning the <em>theory</em> underlying engineering practice, which is why you take so many courses in calculus and what is essentially applied calculus. On the job software does all that calculation for you. What you get with one of those schools is a kid that is really smart, they had to be to get in (and make it thru).</p>
<p>Getting good grades shows prospective employers you are smart enough to do the job. I’d be a bit leery of colleges that accept almost all applicants, because the classes have to be geared down to what they have to work with, other than that good grades speak for themselves. After that, its work experience. Employers know that the job isn’t the same as the education, they want to see that you have some real-world exposure and still want to do it. It’s also a chance for the places offering the temp jobs to see what you’re really like. </p>
<p>But its your life and career. If you feel pursuing rankings will make a difference in your future then do it, you don’t want to have regrets 5 years hence.</p>
<p>Alabama at Birmingham?</p>
<p>@mikemac Thank you.
Ranking is a only one criteria in my search for a good Engineering school. I really want to attend a school with a strong Chem E department. I might have some outside scholarships coming.</p>
<p>^^ no, Tuscaloosa.</p>
<p>{ Case is well respected,.}</p>
<p>I hear that a lot. </p>
<p>How so ?</p>
<p>First of all, you’re in-state for Purdue, an excellent engineering university. Applying to PU is a no brainer, unless you do not qualify for admission.</p>
<p>Second, ignore rankings. Investigate a department’s strengths and specialties instead.</p>
<p>Lastly, while I like UAB overall quite a bit, Mechanical Engineering is not strong there. And there is no ChE department at UAB.</p>
<p>You should consider some private engineering universities that may toss some cash your way:
Renssalaer Polytechnic University
Illinois Institute of Technology
Case Western Reserve University
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Vanderbilt University
Saint Louis University
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
U of Rochester
Rice U</p>
<p>With your GPA you would have a shot, a longshot (given the numbers of applicants) at MIT, Northwestern U, Cornell U, U of Pennsylvania, Princeton, Columbia, Carnegie Mellon U.</p>
<p>Other state schools known to offer generous financial aid to outstanding applicants are U of Alabama-Tuscaloosa, U of South Carolina, Clemson U. An especially low-cost option is South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, which has an outstanding reputation among engineers and corporations whom hire engineers; Boeing, UTC, 3M, Dow Chemical, General Mills, Cargill, NASA etc.</p>
<p>When you guys say it’s a good school. What are your referring to to draw the conclusion that it’s a good school?
It’s not that I don’t believe you. I am trying to understand your criteria vs US News ranking.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>I was told to apply to Georgia Tech, Case Western and U of Michigan for Chem E.</p>
<p>@Erin’s Dad
@Chardo
<<<<<<</p>
<p>Have you run the NPCs on those schools’ websites? None of those schools meet need. GT especially doesn’t meet need. UMich is trying, but hasn’t yet gotten there.</p>
<p>How much can your family contribute each year?</p>
<p>Outside scholarships that you might get are likely for ONE year only. Don’t count on those to help pay for 4 years.</p>
<p>Does your family qualify for a Pell grant? </p>
<p>Alabama does have a very good Chem Engineering dept. My son got his ChemE degree there. His ChemE friends walked right into very highly paid jobs. My son went to med school, but he was a tiny bit jealous (lol) to see his classmates go right into big salary careers…while he faces a lot more schooling.</p>
<p>Rankings are rather meaningless, especially for eng’g. This country needs a gazillion engineers and it is silly to think that only a handful of schools can produce quality engineers. Virtually every state in the union has a vested interest in having at least a few schools with good eng’g depts. Heck, the state of Calif has over 25 schools with very good engineering…and that is just ONE state!!</p>
<p>There is no mystery to having a good eng’g dept. Any well-established school with eng’g can have a very good College of Engineering.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Along with what I wrote above, the fact that quality companies hire/recruit from these schools is an indication. The fact that there is a low unemployment rate within 6-12 months after graduation. The fact that the grads’ salaries are very good.</p>
<p>Also…the quality of their facilities. Are they state of the art? Are improvements continually being made. Do the profs come from other good univs. Do the students do “hands on” stuff. Do they coordinate co-ops. Do their students get good internships.</p>
<p>Are they ABET accredited.</p>
<p>The fact that there are US News rankings is meaningless. How does the fact that a magazine decided to create such a thing make a difference?</p>
<p>As I already mentioned, my son is in med school. Med schools are also ranked by US News. But guess what? EVERY US MD school in the US is EXCELLENT. We don’t have any “so so” MD schools here. This country has a vested interest in having first class MD schools, so they are all excellent. So what do rankings really matter?</p>
<p>@What2Do1996 </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Smart question!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The categorical rankings have <em>some</em> usefulness to them IMO, but the national and regional rankings are laughably ridiculous. It still surprises me how much weight people put on these rankings when they fail to accomodate the needs of each individual. Similar to their “best hospitals” ranking which is also a joke… what’s the point of going to the best ranked hospital if the best specialty doctor is at a #35 ranked hospital? </p>
<p>That’s a lot of good information. Thanks you guys!
I was told that the job market for Chem E is pretty slow. How true is that?</p>
<p>Google the Occupational Outlook handbook</p>
<p>I agree that Purdue is a perfect starting point. It is in state and has very good engineering school. It also match well with OP’s stat. Another school I would recommend is UMinn-TC. It has a rather low oos tuition and they do offer a lot of merit aids if you qualify. Their ChemE is among the top 5 in the country (usually #3).
Of course there are other schools with very good ChemE too (e.g. Stanford, UCB, UMich, UIUC, NU, etc), but GPA4.0/ACT32 are not very competitive for them. You may give these reach schools a try though. Just make sure you can afford them. UMich is $55k/yr for oos and UIUC is $50k.
ChemE actually has a pretty good job market with very decent starting income.</p>
<p>Using the word “good” to describe a university is relative but elements of a school’s quality can be quantified. Things you would want to know include the school’s reputation for research and the type of research projects it has going on the dollars it commits (or receives) for research. Also, where do their recent alumni end up? Which employers visit the campus to recruit? What kind of experience does the faculty have in the academic and technological/business world, etc.? Are any faculty members officers in national professional societies?</p>