<p>Im a junior in high school and im interested in majoring in mechE. I saw on US news that penn state was ranked 17th mechE school in the nation, whatever thats worth. Can anyone speak from personal experience /knowledge about penn state engineeering? You didnt have to specifically be a MechE major.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>I graduated from PSU in electrical engineering - I can speak in general about the college, if not the mechanical engineering department in specific. What do you want to know?</p>
<p>Oh, and 17th in the nation is worth quite a lot. There are a lot of engineering programs out there, and PSU carries a lot of weight in hiring and in grad school admissions. I wouldn’t worry about exact ranking, but you will see a noticeable benefit in a top-5 program versus a top-25 program versus a top-50 program. </p>
<p>@cosmicfish
Hey, thanks for wanting to help out!
Here are some questions that I have:</p>
<ul>
<li>What was your engineering experience there like? (Professors, class difficulty, etc)</li>
<li>How difficult is it to get into Penn’s engineering program? What are the SAT and GPA ranges?? Acceptance rate?</li>
<li>Do you recommend applying there?</li>
</ul>
<p>And also, about the rankings…
I see what you are saying, but do you know how credible/strong US News is for college rankings in general?</p>
<p>
Most of the professors were pretty good. Most of the core classes are pretty hard, with electives ranging from pretty easy to “why would you do this to someone???” In general, I thought my department (and the college) treated people according to their perception of the person as a student - weak students often get short shrift because the perception is that they are slacking (usually true), and good students get a lot of latitude and assistance.</p>
<p>
Can’t say - I never went to the University of Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>Oh, and I don’t know that stuff for Penn State, either. But I think PSU has a chart indicating the rough odds of admission by GPA and SAT, although that is for the university only - the college is tougher.</p>
<p>
That depends a lot on your alternatives. If you are interested in engineering and are in PA, then it is almost certainly a good idea.</p>
<p>
That is a subject often debated. US News is generally considered the best of a bunch of weak contenders. The issue is that rankings don’t really measure either educational outcomes OR actual student experience, relying instead on a lot of factors that won’t directly impact most students’ educations. Generally, a higher ranked school/department will have more opportunities during and after school, as well as tougher admissions and harder classes. But don’t lose sleep worrying about the difference between 3 and 5, or 20 and 30 - the differences in those ranges are slight.</p>
<p>@cosmicfish
Sorry, when i said Penn i meant Penn State, not UPenn!</p>
<p>Thank you for your insight!
Im just curious, what is your current job? How did PSU help prepare you for it?</p>
<p>I am a staff electrical engineer with a massive company, primarily working on research programs and helping develop design tools based on the results of those programs. I am currently part-time, working remotely - I got my MS on the company dime, and then they sent me to a top program to get my PhD.</p>
<p>My work relies a LOT on the coursework I had at Penn State, and I got the job through a career fair on campus - all I did was go to the fair with some resumes. One of the nice things about PSU is that they see recruiters from a bunch of good companies, recruiting for the kind of positions where interesting work and advancement are both readily available. PSU engineering set me up with a research position and an undergraduate TA position which helped me get into my PhD program, but I cannot say anything for or against the co-op or internship programs as I did not use them - I got my degree at 30 and already had some industry experience as a technician.</p>
<p>@cosmicfish thanks for the input! Its really helpful.</p>
<p>Is it true that electrical engineering involves the most amount of math?</p>
<p>That is hard to say, because different disciplines require different types of math. For example, computer science involves a lot of linear algebra, while EE does a lot of ODE’s and aero does a lot of PDE’s. One way to think about it is look at the ration of physics to chemistry in the engineering discipline - the more it relies on physics, the more it will use math. I would agree that EE is one of the more mathematical disciplines, along with aerospace.</p>
<p>@cosmicfish ok that makes sense, thank you.</p>