<p>Agreed. The diligent student will do well in most colleges with a rigorous engineering program</p>
<p>The question though is where do you want to work? Perhaps at a “top ranked” company that is as likely as not to be some states removed from your college. Those “top ranked” companies recruit selectively. They work from the list of “top ranked” schools. So all else being equal if you’re at a top ranked school your first job or two, and indeed your intern jobs will be superior to jobs that you’ll get coming from lower ranked schools.</p>
<p>I’ve a family of engineers altho I am not one. When i’ve talked to them about hiring, which has been quite frequently because of my S’s interest in engineering, to a tee they tell me that what they’re looking for when hiring is whether or not an interviewee is going to fit with “their team.” They don’t want to bring somebody in who’s going to disrupt the team: she has to be able to pull her load, have experience in the field, come upto speed fast, have good interpersonal skills, dress like the other team members, be able to give it 60 some weeks, etc. Where they went to school seems to be a factor only as it might disrupt the team. For what it’s worth.</p>
<p>Perhaps you should ask your family of engineers where they recruite fresh engineering grads, especially their more lucrative engineering positions.</p>
<p>A new EECS/CS grad from Cal or anyplace else would be very lucky to get over $90K right out of school. They should probably expect something like $75K-$80K for a first job. Given the cost of living here in the Bay Area, $75K here is probably equivalent to something like $55K in Ohio or a place like that in middle America.</p>
<p>People tend to exaggerate what their salaries are, so I don’t trust any survey where salaries are self-reported.</p>
<p>There’s absolutely nothing wrong with an engineering degree from an Oregon school.</p>
<p>GoBlue81, when one of them is in town recruiting, it doesn’t seem to matter which of the area schools they’re working at. They’re looking to cherry-pick promising talent that will fit their specific needs first, and then their company’s needs second. There doesn’t seem to be a preference for recruiting at one school over another. I’m speaking here of recruiting for entry-level positions, where the issue of lucrativeness is more muted, as other posters have suggested.</p>