<p>Hey everyone, I'm new to CC, so do please let me know know if this is the right place to post.</p>
<p>I'm currently a high school junior, and seriously considering where to apply for college. I'm interested in majoring in Engineering in college. Taking a look at the US News rankings for undergraduate engineering programs, other than the usual Ivies + MIT and CalTech, there are a lot of public schools listed in the top 10-15 or so, such as UC Berkeley, UMich, UT Austin. I currently live in Oregon, so the only options for public schools are OSU and UO, neither of which I am interested in attending, as neither are prestigious, and I feel I could get into a much better program. Now, my question is this:</p>
<p>Are OOS public schools worth it for engineering? Money isn't much of an issue, and my parents are willing to spend the tuition, whether or not it is a private or public school, however, is it worth it to spend on a public school? I understand that there is absolutely nothing wrong with public schools, however would the tuition money be better spent at a smaller, private college instead? Is the 50k+ justified at UMich or a UC?</p>
<p>Public or private doesn’t matter, especially for engineering. Is it a great school, and proper fit for you? That’s all that matters. </p>
<p>Michigan, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Georgia Tech, Purdue, RPI, Harvey Mudd, CalTech, MIT…are all schools with outstanding engineering programs, of different sizes, vibes, and price points. Some are public, some are private. Why should that matter?</p>
<p>Is 50k+ justified? Well, these are some of the best schools in the world. Are they better than Oregon? Maybe. If money is no object, who cares? If you’re looking for value, some great schools fall closer to 40k, every bit as good as the most expensive schools, but 10k less.</p>
<p>If money is not a problem and you can get in at top engineering schools, go to the school you personally like the best, whether that is private or public.</p>
<p>Also, check out University of Minnesota- Twin Cities… great engineering school (top 5 for chemical I think) and fairy low OOS tuition.</p>
<p>Are your parents truly aware of ALL the costs associated with going to college (running up to $60k per year in some cases)? Seriously, make sure that they know. Many parents have no idea that costs have gotten so crazy high. They may still be thinking that colleges cost $25k-35k per year. </p>
<p>(My neighbor thought room and board would be about $1500 per year…lol…and he WORKED for a univ!!! He about had a stroke when I told him that room and board ALONE can cost $10k-15k per year)</p>
<p>Personally, I can’t see paying $52k for Berkeley, when you have other choices. Nearly every state in the country has 2-5+ good engineering schools (Calif has over 25 colleges with good eng’s). It is absolutely not necessary to go to a top ranked school for eng’g.</p>
<p>*Engineering is one of the most egalitarian careers, and employers typically don’t pay more for graduates of “better” engineering programs. The average salary of civil engineers coming of out MIT ($56K) is exactly identical to the national average ($57K), for example. If you think attending a stronger engineering program will open up a lot more opportunities, you need to reconsider.</p>
<p>There’s a lot more to college than prestige, and you seem far too dismissive of your options in Oregon. Have you visited U Oregon or Oregon State yet?*</p>
<p>Exactly.</p>
<p>Unless your parents are very affluent and don’t mind spending “extra money”, then either go to an Oregon school…or find another school that will give you large merit where the cost will be about the same.</p>
<p>When I first went to work in the techical world, it was obviously apparent that the Cornell eng’g grads got paid the SAME as the CSU Long Beach grads. The employer(s) didn’t care. No bonus pay for going to a big name. </p>
<p>If money is no object, then super. But no one wants to pay back loans knowing that colleagues who went cheaper are being paid the same and they don’t have loans to pay back.</p>
<p>Yes, Berkeley is a tough school and uber competitive, so just because you apply, doesn’t mean you’ll get in. </p>
<p>As an OOS you’ll be paying roughly $60K per year and that will equal to over 1/4 million dollars for your degree. Are you sure your parents would be willing to pay that kind of money? </p>
<p>As previous posters have said, it won’t matter when you’re employed where you went, unless you’re planning on future writing and publishing research articles for your discipline?</p>
<p>Try looking at OIT. You’d be looking at 20K a year tops.</p>
<p>To answer your question, there is little difference in pay unless you are comparing UWyoming to Stanford. Best not to drop the extra money for a limited ROI.</p>
<p>Certain engineering degrees at Berkeley are worth the money given the technology immersion that students get from Silicon Valley. For example, from anecdotal evidence, EECS majors can realistically earn 100-150k a year right out of school. </p>
<p>However, the EECS major at Cal is one of the toughest programs in the world, and is a challenge for even the most intelligent.</p>
<p>Personally, I would recommend a solid private school if you have that option. </p>
<p>For some people money is everything and that’s why they continue to discuss price. </p>
<p>If money isn’t an object, the private schools often have lower student-to-faculty ratios and more resources available for support. They also are often less grade deflating. </p>
<p>I’m paying full price at private schools for my two kids.</p>
<p>You might look into the smaller [Association</a> of Independent Technological Universities: AITU](<a href=“http://theaitu.org%5DAssociation”>http://theaitu.org) schools. They all have ABET accredited degrees, are well known in engineering circles and will often give good financial merit aid to students.</p>
<p>*Personally, I would recommend a solid private school if you have that option. *</p>
<p>I agree. If money isn’t a concern, then go private. Why pay high OOS costs for a public.</p>
<p>However, the parents may not really know how much schools cost these days. We often see posts from kids saying that their parents will pay…and then lo and behold in the spring the parents are shocked when they see the price. </p>
<p>OP…just be sure your parents understand the price. They may not have any idea.</p>
<p>Bubbles…a company isn’t going to start a Cal EECS major more than anyone else. If a company is paying that much to a new hire, then that company would pay the UCI grad, the Purdue grad, the Santa Clara grad, the USC grad, and so forth…the same amount.</p>
<p>The concern is how each company pays its new-hires. </p>
<p>Company A who is hiring new engineering grads is going to pay all the new-hires the same regardless of whether the grad is from Cal, USC, UCI, or wherever. So, if Company A starts high, then it will start every newhire high. It’s not going to say, "hmmm…new Cal grad gets $125k and the new UCI grad gets $80k. </p>
<p>Nearly my entire family are engineers. Hiring mgrs, directors and VPs of major companies…they don’t pay engineers more for graduating from X school. </p>
<p>Company A may pay new grads more than Company B. And Company C in the NE may pay more than Company D in the SE (because the COL is higher in the NE than the SE)…but they each will hire their new-hires the same.</p>
<p>Yeah, my parents pay OOS for my older brother, so they’re aware of the large cost of boarding, food, transportation, etc. From what I understand, especially through the posts on this thread, is that I might as well choose a private option since my parents are able to fully afford private and OOS public. What do you think about other California schools, such as USC/Santa Clara? I understand that graduates from certain schools won’t make more money as graduates from others, but wouldn’t it be easier to get jobs if you went to a university with a better engineering program?</p>
<p>Yes, if you go to top engineering schools, the name recognition of your school will be a bonus to employers. As engineering is in high demand, you shouldn’t have trouble finding a job if you do well in school anywhere with a decent program. The prestige obviously does help, though. If you can afford it/you can get in, I’d say go for top privates, but that’s just me. A UIUC engineering degree is impressive and a Cornell engineering degree is impressive. </p>
<p>Also, a lot of it comes down to fit. Both the publics and privates are worth it in that they have incredible engineering programs. But the publics tend to be much larger and have a wider range of students with mostly state residents attending, while privates may be closer knit (not always true) and have people from all over the place. Do you know if you like the feel of public schools OP?</p>
<p>Berkeley EECS is worth paying the OOS tuition - the recruitment of the program is lucrative enough to warrant the expense. If you want any other type of engineering, Oregon State or Oregon will work.</p>
<p>Not all private schools are necessarily better than all public schools (particularly in the realm of engineering and CS where state flagships are quite competitive), nor are public schools at OOS price (e.g. Virginia Tech, NCSU, Iowa State, Minnesota, Stony Brook, SD Mines) necessarily as expensive as many of the typical private schools that people on these forums like.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Perhaps not for a given company… but Berkeley (and Stanford) CS/EECS majors likely have more choices of potential employers, due to having both national reputation in the subjects and locality to Silicon Valley, which attracts company recruiters looking for CS/EECS majors in droves. MIT and CMU have comparable national reputation (which attracts non-local employers), while SJSU, SCU, and UCSC have a similar location advantage (which attracts local employers, particularly smaller ones who do not have the resources or need to travel to recruit).</p>
<p>Still, such advantages are not necessarily worth paying a lot extra for, especially if it involves heavy debt.</p>
<p>Interesting that no one on this thread has yet noticed that University of Oregon does not have engineering at all. Oregon State is the school in Oregon with the most complete selection of engineering majors; Portland State has a somewhat smaller selection.</p>