<p>Should a student choose to go to a more reputed school, but not particularly known for a given discipline OR lesser ranked school known for a particular discipline (for example: Harvard Engineering over UIUC)? Assume that fit, costs etc are all on par for this decision.</p>
<p>This example maybe extreme and easy since it is Harvard. However, the decision is not quite that easy for other pairs of schools.</p>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
<p>Well… supposedly ranking doesn’t matter after the first job. But DS went with Georgia Tech because of the ranking so if cost/fit is all the same I think I’d leave the decision up to the student.:)</p>
<p>Does the student genuinely intend or is hardcore about being an engineer? </p>
<p>Does he have notions/plans to go off to become an i-banker or organizational business consultant or other fields where overall college name pedigree matters?</p>
<p>If the former, my engineering relatives and most engineering grad supervisors would say UIUC. However, one must also note that Harvard has been putting much money and effort to improving its DEAS so it’s not the “neglected stepchild of FAS” some DEAS friends complained about around 15-20 years ago. </p>
<p>If the latter, Harvard.</p>
<p>“Easy”- I hope you are not thinking Harvard…</p>
<p>@wis - I meant it makes the decision easy since it is Harvard
@cobrat - the latter. I was just using engineering to make the point</p>
<p>For undergrad, I think overall experience is more important than individual department with the exception of a very few fields. Engineering is one of those fields, but even then, I would take it with a grain of salt. For example, I wouldn’t make the decision between Harvard and UIUC for undergrad simply based on the engineering major - yes, UIUC is better than Harvard, but the difference in job opportunities and academics between the two schools is likely to be negligible, quality-wise. You’ll get a high-quality education at either. It would come down to other things, like student life experience and financial situation, for me. Or like if a student was really set on majoring in some specialty major like advertising or public relations - which are really only available at large public universities - I would recommend attending one of those. Even if they switch majors, they’ll still have the flexibility.</p>
<p>And for other widely available liberal arts majors, like anthropology or English - I would say no, unless there’s some sort of special program that attracts the student. Like Hamilton College has the writing across the curriculum program which is an attraction - but a student who likes to write is unlikely to stop liking writing even if she decides to change her major to psychology or physics instead of English, and the writing program will benefit her either way.</p>
<p>The other thing is that students OFTEN change their major. About 25% (possibly more) of STEM majors change to something non-STEM, and still other engineering majors may decide to change to another STEM major. What if student gets there and falls in love with nuclear physics or botany? I mean, presumably UIUC and Harvard are also great schools in both of those, but if the student would otherwise rather go to Harvard, then they should go there.</p>
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<p>Harvard is relatively limited in types of engineering (biomedical, environmental, electrical, mechanical). On-campus recruiting is likely to be different, with Harvard getting investment bank recruiters and UIUC getting engineering recruiters.</p>
<p>Harvard is likely to be less expensive for a student from a low or middle income family.</p>
<p>CUPKSDAD, my son chose Carnegie Mellon (for comp sci) over Harvard. He thought it was a hard decision, but didn’t regret going to CMU. For a more well-rounded kid, who was likely to take advantage of the House system and extra-curriculars at Harvard, another choice might have been better. Harvard doesn’t have as extensive a comp sci program as CMU, but its graduates also do very well.</p>