<p>Hello, </p>
<p>I want to transfer from CCC to a school as an Engineering major. At this point I think I am leaning towards Computer Engineering, ME or Civil/Environmental. Heck, I might even entertain the thought of Petroleum engineering from the little I have heard, it sounds like something I would consider (anyone with more information on this)?
I live in So-Cal by the way.</p>
<p>Having attended UCSD previously, I honestly do not care about "prestige" factor as many people obsess about; I dealt with a bunch of these arrogant kids at UCSD, who in reality, had hilariously poor GPAs yet felt they could bad mouth lower UCs/Cal States but in reality were going no where with there grades/lack of work experience-.</p>
<p>My choices so far are:
CSULB-
Cal Poly Pamona
UCSB
UCSD- I attended UCSD as a Ecology major but absolutely hated my experience there- not sure if it was my major or the school all around-. They do not have Civil and their Environmental program is not accredited to my knowledge. I have a cousin who graduated from their Computer Engineering program with a 2.1 and is making over 6 figures and constantly has job offers with the same amount of buckaroos; but I credit his work experience while attending UCSD and his buddy-buddy relationship with some professors than the school itself-.</p>
<p>Right now I favor CSULB, I mean, it's close to home and it seems to offer very good education with dedicated professors-my Calc professor from CCC used to teach there and he was amazing, much better than any professor I had at UCSD, save one-. Is CSULB a good school to attend for engineering? Will it matter when I am trying to get my first job? I plan to make "friends" with my professors and see if they can offer me any internships/assistance on projects of the sorts while I am there and learn a thing or two extra from them. I care more about my education than name of the school, seeing how I personally believe I was not getting the education that I was paying for in my Ecology program at UCSD. Maybe the Engineering program is different though.</p>
<p>Anyone with relevant knowledge of the programs at these institutions would be appreciated.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>UCSD or UCSB (not much distinguishes these two in engineering, though UCSD may be a little better). While we can make the argument that small schools or B.S.-only schools (like Harvey Mudd, Rose Hulman, or liberals arts colleges) offer a better education than large research institutions (I personally would disagree for engineering), your four choices all belong to the same breed. I don’t think it’s valid to say that CSULB has more dedicated professors than the other three.</p>
<p>As there’s no particular reason to expect a different experience, it makes sense to go for the better name, unless you have very strong location preferences or the cost differs a lot. Better name means (on average) better recruitment. The first job is really the only one where your school’s name counts for much, but it <em>will</em> count and the overwhelming likeliness is that you’ll acquire that job through an on-campus career fair or networking opportunity. These are better at UCSD and UCSB than at a CSU.</p>
<p>An important consideration: did you fail out (or come close to it) at UCSD or did you leave entirely by choice with decent grades? I ask this because if you did poorly in ecology, then you need to seriously evaluate whether you can make it through engineering at a UC. It’s in an entirely different league in terms of difficulty.</p>
<p>So the connections at UC are bar none, correct? I know CSULB has a good network, not sure how it compares to UCSD however. It comes down to if the extra thousands of dollars is worth it in the long run, and that is my final question. And perhaps I generalized on professors but the ones I have had were terrible! I had one professor that I truly learned a lot from, but the rest did not want to be there it seemed. The biology department is lucky for having professors that you can understand, the math department was not so forgiving!</p>
<p>And my freshman year I wanted to do Marine Biology but UCSD did not have it so I settled for Ecology hoping it would lead to research at Scripps but ended up hating the program, it was not what I expected it to be. Instead of finishing it out and getting a degree I did not want to continue so I decided to go to a CCC and take engineering classes-math and physics-. UCSD me 20k a year and it was not worth staying there to complete pre-req classes.</p>
<p>And I have no problem with courses at UCSD, save Chem since my professor gave challenging tests-class average was 48%-…eeek.
Funny thing is I had a colleague who switched from engineering to environmental science and loved it, but hated the engineering department. He was also on the verge of graduating… I could not do that with so much $$$ going to waste.</p>
<p>For jobs you can attain right out of undergrad, the college only makes a small difference. The average starting salaries of high-ranked schools vs. national averages bear this out. During some years, the averages at top schools can actually dip below the national average in some engineering majors. This is untrue most of the time, so clearly firms put some additional value on degrees from better programs, just not much.</p>
<p>IMO, the overwhelming majority of people are better served by a cheaper school because compounding interest can really screw you over and, as stated above, school rank just doesn’t seem to matter much in engineering for B.S.-level jobs, which is what most people take up. It does matter a little, so you can’t dismiss it outright.</p>
<p>I suggested the UC’s on the basis that they are indeed better, but I did say that cost should be a factor. I’m not familiar with the in-state pricing of the CSU’s vs. the UC’s but you will almost certainly NOT make back the money you lose by going to a higher ranked college (this is general for engineering, not limited to CSU vs UC).</p>
<p>The tangible benefits of higher ranked schools come in three forms:</p>
<ol>
<li>some prestigious engineering firms such as Google recruit only at a few top schools</li>
<li>same story with investment banking and consulting firms</li>
<li>better preparation for grad school because of: a) more difficult program, b) better research opportunities, and c) letters of recommendation from more well-regarded professors</li>
</ol>
<p>Since I can’t know how much X amount of money is worth to you, I’ll just note two things. First, you shouldn’t expect significantly better or worse education/experience at one large research university vs. another large research university. Second, it’s very safe to assume you won’t make back the money spent on a more expensive engineering education. If like most of us you’re not rich enough that costs don’t matter to you, then you should strongly consider whether (and how badly) you want one of these three things and weigh it against your finances. If you’re not interested in any of them, then I recommend a cheaper school all the way.</p>
<p>I would go to a CSU if your money situation isn’t great. If it is, I would go to a UC (UCSB in my opinion).</p>