I really want to go into chemical engineering, and I’m deciding between 4 colleges. Everyone I’ve talked to (college counselors, teachers, even my parents) has given me different answers, based off their biased opinion toward a certain college or major that THEY like. I will keep the colleges anonymous, and I know it might be hard to answer the question without knowing the college but I think it’ll be better without the bias. Basically the “big 4” factors when deciding the college are: price, status, “fit”/liking to the college, and of course, major. Each of these 4 is missing 1 thing- which do you think matters the least to benefit me in the next 40 or so years?
College 1- VERY high status (top 6 in nation), good fit, has engineering, BUT super expensive (I’d be 150K in debt)
College 2- cheap, I love the campus/philosophy, however, although the college itself is high status (top 11 in nation) the engineering college is new (not even ABET accredited yet) and I would have to slightly change my major from chemical to biomedical engineering
College 3- cheap, decent status with my major (within the top 30), BUT I hate the campus and don’t really feel excited or passionate when talking about it
College 4- VERY cheap (only because of scholarships), I love the campus, philosophy, and teachers there, but low status- not even top 100.
Which one would you choose and why? I know this might be an opinion thing…but I want to see if there is a majority or see reasoning behind answers and maybe that’ll help me. I know that I need to do what’s right for ME, but I really can’t. I am trying to make everyone (including myself) happy, but I want to see what will be the most beneficial in the long run. I am more of a practical person, so I am sort of leaning toward college #3 (thinking I can just suck it up) but many people think it’s a bad idea.
Well, #1 is stupid. And you do understand, don’t you, that you’d need a qualified cosigner to be able to take on that much debt? And that person would need to be able to qualify each of your four years - or you could find yourself $110k in debt with no degree!
I’d go with #2 or #4. Status isn’t that important. You need to be able to get summer internships in your field. If you can do that, and you do well at those internships, you’re going to be able to get a job when you graduate. Skills trump status. So look at the colleges’ career placement services - that’s going to make a difference.
The problem with #2 is the lack of accreditation, which could also impact career placement. But we’re missing some key data here - to give you a better answer, I think we’d need you to identify College #2.
2 or 4. 1 too expensive. 3 you don’t like.
1 = too much debt
2 = does not have chemical engineering
3 = you do not like the campus
4 = has everything you like except status and prestige
So #1 and #2 can be eliminated easily, leaving your choice between #3 and #4 (i.e. how much do you value the status and prestige versus liking the campus and such?).
Assumptions about school status and prestige may not necessarily apply to specific majors with respect to employer recruiting or PhD program admissions. School prestige is often less important for many types of engineering than for some other majors and employers, or the notions of school prestige specific to a type of engineering may be very different from the notions of general school prestige. Of course, no one can tell you more specific information if you do not name the schools. But, given the limited information you have stated, school status and prestige may be the least important factor.
Do you think #2 will be accredited by the end of 4 years? What will happen if they do not get it? Does being top 11 mean anything… faith in gaining accreditation, plummet in status if they dont?
Schools that the OP has mentioned in other posts include Clemson, Duke, Georgia Tech, North Carolina State, and Virginia Tech. All of them except Duke have ABET-accredited chemical engineering (Duke does have ABET-accredited biomedical engineering).
Alright, I guess the question isn’t answerable unless I mention that
College 1- georgia tech
College 2- UNC Chapel Hill
College 3- NC State
College 4- Clemson
hope that helps
This means that your realistic choices are North Carolina State and Clemson. Both are respectable schools for any of their ABET accredited engineering majors. Going to a school that results in huge debt or which does not have your desired major makes no sense.
Actually, if you really hate the campus and have no excitement or passion for it, NC State may not be too realistic.
Trust your gut instinct. Having to “suck it up” and take a class from a bad professor for one semester is a stretch, but doable. Why would you want to spend 4 years of your life at a campus that you hate? Now maybe you want to tour NC State one more time, and give yourself a chance to confirm your gut feelings. And maybe tour Clemson again, also. This is assuming you are close enough to make those trips work in your schedule.
Clemson has a solid reputation, and they put a priority on undergrad teaching. My D toured Clemson thinking she wanted chem eng, and so I researched it a good bit. (She ended up switching to Chemistry major and chose to attend elsewhere.) The TAs that Clemson employs are students who have already been through the class they are TAing, plus they sit through the same lecture class you are sitting in. I feel that gives them a better position for answering your questions, helping you through a confusing problem, etc. (Maybe a lot of schools do this with TAs, but Clemson was the only website I came across that promoted that aspect of TAs.)
Clemson is a beautiful campus, a large university that makes itself feel smaller and closer-knit with its layout. It is off by itself, but has several larger towns close by, plus you can get to very large cities in a couple of hours.
A degree from Clemson will be recognized, at least regionally, as a solid education. Not sure how it would be perceived if you move to Oregon or California. But comparing Clemson to NC State, I don’t think you would be giving up much, if any, reputation in terms of job seeking.
I would say #4. It’s been proven that going to a top university matters less that being accepted by one–which you already have! In addition, my mother has someone working for her who she’s dying to promote who just got an MFA in writing from a good writing college who went to the University of Kansas for undergrad. My mother herself went to a state school not even in the United States and another school in the US I’ve never heard of and went to NYU Stern for her MBA. Go with the cheap school you like, I say.
I’d try to do more research on UNC before you dismiss it as an option. First you have to consider if you’d be OK with biomedical engineering – if you really prefer EE then this school is out of the equation. If you would be happy with biomedical engineering I’d try to visit the engineering department and find out if they will be accredited before you graduate, how people coming out of the program are doing in terms of jobs/grad schools etc.
I don’t think you would be “settling” to go to Clemson. Seems like simple choice to me–you love it, it offers what you need, and it isn’t expensive. Prestige is overrated, especially for engineering. The only risk I see potentially is if you are not able to keep your GPA up, I assume it would get a lot more expensive?
@Booajo makes a good point OP. What is the GPA requirement to keep your scholarships? I would ask that for all scholarships at each school. For HS students, the thought of keeping a 3.5 might seem easy. But for engineering students, the college GPA is much harder to keep up.
Engineering is a tough curriculum no matter where you attend, and you want to consider the GPA requirement for keeping your scholarships. I would say that considering scholarship GPA requirements would be at the top of my list for my student. If you lose the scholarship, you lose the whole school. Look carefully at the rules for each scholarship. Some might put you on academic probation, some might allow you to work to regain scholarship. For some, you drop below GPA requirement and you are out.
One way to balance your GPA is to take non-engineering courses every semester to help balance out the tough courses. My D takes dance classes for some easy As, along with nutrition class, etc. It helps take the sting out of those toughly graded Chemistry classes.
Oh, this helps a lot. This is what I said before I saw the schools:
But now I’ve seen them and Clemson is an excellent university! First of all, it is ranked within the top 100 by USNWR standards (#62). Forbes ranks it #163, but they mix together their small LACs and their national universities in the same chart.
UNC is a viable option, but they have two big dings: they don’t have the major you want and they don’t have ABET accreditation. Given that you have an excellent alternative that has both of those things I don’t see why you should go there. And I don’t think you should have to “suck it up” to go somewhere you don’t like, as college is about more than just your academics (they’re most important, but not the only thing).
If it helps at all, I think Clemson is more well known than you think. I asked my dad, who’s a small town Midwest engineer, about Clemson. He said “oh yeah, definitely respectable, I’d hire someone from there, provided they passed an interview.”
Why are people saying 2? It’s not ABET accredited yet. That’s an important issue that you shouldn’t entangle yourself in. You shouldn’t have to change your major unless you’re actually okay with it.
I think you should go to either NC State or Clemson. It depends on how much you really dislike 3’s campus. If that’s a total deal breaker and you don’t love it, then go for Clemson. Clemson is a very good school that can carry its name–it’s not like a tiny school or anything like that. Drop the prestige-mongering and go for the affordable school.
If someone passes an interview, the school is probably irrelevant.
All this ABET accreditation stuff is nonsense. Duke is ABET accredited. Just look at the website. I don’t know why anyone would think that it isn’t. Also, Pratt is extremely prestigious in the right circles and has the 4th most productive engineering faculty in America. It is ranked low overall because rankings focus on total research output and it is a small school (this is the same reason why Harvard’s programs aren’t ranked highly).
PaulDirac- while Duke is definitely an amazing school, it wasn’t even on my list of choices. I’m already ruling out Georgia Tech because it’s 45k per year, so Duke is a definite no considering it’s 60,000. It just isn’t possible for me.
So many people are saying that status doesn’t really matter as much as I think? Does that mean that someone who went to Georgia Tech wouldn’t have an advantage over NC State? If so, how big of an advantage? Do they get paid more based off college? If this isn’t true, why would someone pay that much to go to a prestigious college if it doesn’t matter?