<p>What is the engineering program at ASU like? Toughness, quality, job placement in relation to schools like say Texas A&M, which I am also considering? Also what is the Barrett program like? How nice/how big of a difference do the Honors facilities make? Any personal experiences and recommendations would be appreciated. I’d be in-state and would get a large scholarship to ASU. Would like to know if it’s worth saving the money and going here, or whether going to Texas A&M or UT Austin (for example) would be better. Pretty sure my major will be chemical engineering too, if that info helps at all or narrows anything down. Thanks!</p>
<p>@Edwong81. I don’t have personal experience, but we live in Arizona and my oldest son is a freshman at A&M, studying aerospace engineering. His roommate is a chemical engineering major. My son loves A&M! But he is working extremely hard. The only thing he does not like is the Freshman Fundamentals of Engineering course. It is a tremendous amount of work for only two credits and not everyone pulls their weight. But I have heard similar complaints about freshman introductory engineering courses at other schools.</p>
<p>My son was also accepted at Texas and ASU/Barrett. He liked Texas but they didn’t seem to want him as much as A&M. Barrett is a top honors college (much nicer facilities than A&M), but the ASU engineering program is not as strong, especially in aerospace engineering. But keep in mind, that all accredited engineering programs must meet high standards and do graduate qualified engineers that find jobs. I was talking to a colleague whose son just graduated with a mechanical engineering degree from Northern Arizona University, ranked 63rd among all colleges that do not offer PhDs. His son worked hard, got good grades, and landed a job with Boeing.</p>
<p>I don’t have any specific information about chemical engineering, but there have to be many more CE jobs in Texas than in Arizona. Also, both Texas and Texas A&M have exceptional petroleum engineering programs. Right now, that is the top paying engineering job, but with oil prices declining, that could change by the time you graduate from college.</p>
<p>You will see other posts by me where I talk at greater length about how much I like Barrett. I have toured twice and know quite a few kids who go there and love it.</p>
<p>I’m an ASU student enrolled in both the engineering and Barrett honors programs. One of the benefits of being an engineering student at such a large school is that there are so many opportunities available to you if you seek them out. In my experience, professors are very welcoming to students to show an interest in their research and will try their best to help you get paid lab experience if you are competent and hard-working. Being in the honors program helps keep the ASU experience from being overwhelming. You are constantly surrounded by intelligent and ambitious students. There are hundreds of students in my major and class (mechanical engineering, 2017), but I feel like I know almost every Barrett student in that group, from living in the dorms and taking classes with them. </p>