<p>I am a Utah student and going into the engineering programs at the University of Utah. The decision was made based on the scholarship, including full tuition+housing+meals, offered by the university. I come from a poor and first generation secondary education family so the offer was appealing. However, as I browse this forum, I often hear discussion and remarks about how it won't be worth it going to a "tier 2 university" to major in Engineering. I realize that the university I am attending won't be as prestigious as other more competitive universities but is it really "not worth it" to even go? Will it be near impossible to get or job or placed in the more prestigious graduate programs? Is the degree worthless? It worries me that I see remarks like that made by the veterans of this forum. It worries me that I might simply waste 3-4 year of my life for nothing.</p>
<p>tl;dr: Is University of Utah a worthless school for Engineers?</p>
<p>Secondly, I would like to ask if I should major in EECS or BME at the University of Utah. I don't have a preference but it seems that the BME program is ranked a bit higher than the Electrical Engineering. I like the opportunities EECS has to offer but feels that the more prestigious BME program might help boost up the lacking areas. Or does it not matter anyway?</p>
<p>Keep in mind that many (most?) of the people on these forums aren’t even grads or employed. One delusional/oblivious person posts about their big plans in investment banking and doing a quadruple major at Cambridge and the rest, not wanting to look inferior, repeat all of it. If you believe what they say, it’s either Yale or Pizza Hut, there is no in-between. The people who have career experience or a realistic plan are drowned out.</p>
<p>An engineering degree from any school is extremely valuable. I have a cousin with an engineering degree from an online university with a 100% acceptance rate for pete’s sake and he’s making 6 figures at Johnson & Johnson because he’s relentless when it comes to networking/self-promotion.</p>
<p>So are you kidding? A full engineering scholarship from a good college and you’re worried you’ll be wasting your time??? There are people who would willingly cause bodily harm to themselves to be in your situation.</p>
<p>Most employers won’t even pay attention to where your school is ranked much less which sub-specialization within your department is ranked higher (I’m not even sure where you’d find such info). This is all “college culture” stuff, not career stuff.</p>
<p>They will pay attention to your GPA and internships. Study the one you prefer. EE is much more versatile.</p>
<p>You should study the field you like better, not the one you think is better ranked in your school.</p>
<p>As for the “tiers” of college, I think it really depends. Engineering is one of those fields where prestige of your school matters much less. And I think I would be lying if I said that going to a prestigious university doesn’t “help” you get interviews/jobs. Not going to a “prestigious” (by CC standards) university just means that you will have to do well and work hard in college to get noticed, like everyone else.</p>
<p>Same here in the DC/MD/VA area. I know QUITE a few (not just 1 or 2) folks making $125K-$200K doing work for defense contractors and their education path was community college to local 4-year school (U-Maryland, U-Maryland at Baltimore County, Loyola, Towson, George Mason, UVA, VA Tech). Since they started at community colleges and stayed local for last 2 years, they have virtually no student loans to pay. </p>
<p>Some of them went on to get M.S./M.Eng degrees paid by their employer since part-time unfunded graduate programs does not require as high of a GPA than full-time funded ones. Not did I ask, but I did not remember any of them saying that they had 50 AP credits or had to quadruple major.</p>
<p>You’ll be fine. I have a family member who went to Utah for his undergrad and ended up with a PhD from MIT. Seems like being a Ute didn’t hurt him too much.</p>
<p>These individuals weren’t necessarily smarter or more talented than their peers. As you said, they simply had a better plan which is more than half the fight.</p>
<p>First of all, congratulations on becoming the first in your family to go to college. That’s a pretty big deal, IMO.</p>
<p>Engineering jobs aren’t like law jobs, where everything is based on prestige and ranking. It’s true that tech companies recruit more heavily from the top engineering schools, but that doesn’t mean that they’ll dismiss a strong candidate from a less prestigious school. I work at a pretty well known tech company and although I have a lot of coworkers from places like CMU and MIT, I also have coworkers from so called, “tier 2” schools.</p>
<p>I think it’s important to keep in mind that your education doesn’t just end after your undergrad education. If, after you graduate, you don’t get the job that you really want, there are steps you can take to get there. You can go to graduate school. You can build up your resume by seeking out cutting edge, challenging jobs rather than easy, comfortable ones. Good luck.</p>
<p>Personally, I’ve never heard anyone mention ABET accreditation before (except on this forum).</p>
<p>yeah for this thread being a great, beaming ray of sunshine in the blackhole of hopelessness that 90% of this forum is.</p>
<p>I hate to steal OP’s focus, but this is just following the train already going on here. As an only slightly above average CCC student looking to transfer to a ChemE program next fall, is it advisable that I look away from going to a more prestigious school like Berkeley, where I know I can get into but am not confident I could perform optimally at, and reconsider an option like UCSD where there competition might not be so stifling?</p>
<p>ABET accreditation IS important if you want to get your PE license.</p>
<p>OP, congrats on the scholarship! I agree with everyone else - go to Utah! Just the fact that you got such a great offer tells me you will do well if you continue to work hard.</p>
<p>omgcats, I don’t think you’ll necessarily have a “tougher” time at Berkeley than at slightly less competitive schools like UCLA, UCSD, UCSB. The admissions rate doesn’t correlate to how demanding your professors will be. </p>
<p>I’d really recommend taking a road trip and checking out the campuses in person. The trick photography on the web & brochures can be deceiving.</p>
<p>UCSB is my favorite… It feels like a vacation resort half of the time. You can really forget everything else and get lost in your studies.</p>
<p>Cal Poly SLO is almost unknown to people in the “arts” but above most UCs in engineering and finance. Lots of hands-on team projects, very few 3hr lectures. Very unique environment.</p>
<p>omgcats, I’ve never taken a class at Cal, but the undergrad chem e programs should be comparable at both schools.</p>
<p>That said, the two campuses are very different, so I think you should base your decision on which campus you like better. Berkeley has a urban, college town feel, and UCSD has a more of a suburban, beach-community feel. Another important factor (in my opinion), is that Berkeley is on the semester system, while most of the other UC campuses use the quarter system. Having experienced both, I think the quarter system is far superior.</p>
That is because there is less variance between technical undergraduate programs than liberal arts undergraduate programs. The same could be said for graduate level programs as well.</p>
<p>Basically, a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from a low ranked state school is largely just proof that you have a pulse and that you are guaranteed an EBT card after graduation whereas a similar degree at Harvard would not have the same outcome.</p>
<p>However, even a competent mechanical engineer or a computer science major from a low ranked state school (but still accredited) has a good chance of being employed by a Fortune 500 corporation.</p>
<p>Definitely go! Milk that full scholarship for all its worth and mention it when you start looking for jobs too.
EE is much better than BME in terms of what you can do with it. BME is a newer field and is more limited to research and medical than anything else (unless thats where you want to go). EE is everywhere and you can go literally anywhere with it. Just keep up your GPA and have a well rounded strong resume. And network like crazy.
If you go get an MS say at MIT, no one will ever care that you went to Utah for your undergrad.</p>