Question for Engineering Grads

<p>These questions are for anyone currently in the Auburn college of engineering but preferrably those who are graduating soon or recent graduates… How satisfied are you with your educational experience in the engineering field at Auburn? Any regrets not going to a more prestigious or highly ranked university? How are the job prospects? Are most employers in state or are there out of state companies recruiting? </p>

<p>The reason I ask is that my S has been offered the National Merit Scholarship from Auburn and it is a very generous offer. He has, however, been accepted to some other incredible schools includung Cornell, CalTech, Illinios-Urbana-Champagne, and Berkeley. He has been offered some scholarships at UIUC that would cover $27K a year but would need to pay about $18k a year. The others are all about the same ranging from $16k-$20K in what we would need to pay yearly. I am not trying to bash Auburn but am trying to see if the additional price for those other schools is worth it??? Each of those other programs are over $50k per year as they are very highly ranked in the engineering field.</p>

<p>Wife and I would be able to pay about half and he would need to cover the rest. Just wondering how high Auburn was ranked and thought of in the engineering world and how engineering students felt about their education… also how they felt about their post educational opportunities as graduate students or in their job market? Any help would be appreciated.</p>

<p>Tripletime, excellent question. We are having the same dilemma. We are trying to decide between Ga Tech and Auburn. I might add to your question - How is the Co-op program at Auburn? For example,Tech has the largest Co-op and you can co-op in Atlanta and still maintain your dorm/social life. Auburn grads, did it work OK to move to another town for a semester to Co-op and were there opportunities to co-op with big companies? Auburn is better financially for us- we would like to go there if we can get comfortable on these issues.</p>

<p>WarEagleEngineer, my S also got into GTech but with minimal scholarships offered… did you get a decent offer from them? Just wondering…</p>

<p>Trippletime, our S is in the same situation. We are waiting for the Fin Aid letters now but not expecting a lot from GTech. The others in the list are Clemson, Florida, Alabama.
Auburn
has a good Coop program I won’t worry about it.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, I’m afraid more parents post on this thread than students, so replies from a current student may be few in number. Hopefully, someone with firsthand knowledge will jump in and offer insight.</p>

<p>That being said, a 2011 Gates Cambridge scholar recently named from Auburn is a senior Chemical Engineering major. Anyone who attended one of the most recent 2 presidential scholars days heard him speak during the luncheon(s) – he’s a pretty tremendous example of what you could expect coming out of the Auburn School of Engineering.</p>

<p>I’m a current AU ENG student. It’s hard to give a good answer to your question having gone to no other schools to compare to, but I will say there is a good percentage of out of state students drawn to the engineering program, and Auburn does get a lot of good recruiters. Many of the new auto manufactures in Alabama (KIA, Hyundai, BMW, etc), large defense contractors from Huntsville (NPG, GD), large multinationals of out Atlanta, oil and gas industry, Aerospace and airlines, Disney, etc </p>

<p>As for the Coop program, that will vary by discipline, but Auburn has many partnerships through out the south east. I believe these can be found on the Auburn website… Check the individual disipline’s section.</p>

<p>We are in a similar situation however S is looking at business schools i.e. full tuition scholarship at Alabama vs. full freight Texas (McCombs Business School), William & Mary, Georgia Tech and Texas A & M.<br>
But I do want to share with you this: We live in East Tennessee in which is located worldwide headquarters for a large chemical manufacturing plant that hires, obviously engineers. They recruit from many schools and one target school is Auburn. The starting salary is consistent whether one has a Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech or Auburn degree. Those with debt typically regret the expense (i.e. Vanderbilt) compared to those who have the same job and had a scholarship.
I can also say that there are 4 NMS finalists from S’s high school that will be attending Auburn from East Tennessee and not Vanderbilt nor UT.
On a personal note, being an Auburn grad myself AU truly becomes a “family” and a great college experience! However, not sure if we will be following the above advice as we also want son to attend a school in which is a target school for business graduates.</p>