<p>Hi guys! I'm planning on majoring in chemical or materials engineering for my Undergraduate. If you were to pick one of the four schools (Rice, USC, Northwestern, Carnegie Mellon), which would you choose and why? </p>
<p>Thanks so much in advance!</p>
<p>Rice. Houston has the best job opportunities for ChemE majors. On-campus recruiting is largely local.</p>
<p>But, I’d choose for cost first.</p>
<p>Thanks! This is extremely helpful! @UCBChemEGrad</p>
<p>It is true that a lot of the petrochemical industry can be found in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and other oil states, if you have no interest in petrochemicals, the industry, and that region of the country, then perhaps Rice is not where you want to go to school.</p>
<p>Since a chemeng generally makes a similar salary no matter where she went to school, I second UCBChemEGrad’s argument that you choose for cost first. Often that means your state flagship or a state school in a southern (or, as it sometimes turns out, petroleum industry) state. Sometimes these state schools, even if they’re oos, are going to offer enough merit to make them cheaper than in-state flagships. Perhaps you could save your money for the Tesla or your parents’ retirement or the next child in line.</p>
<p>^ChemE’s do NOT make the same salary regardless of the school they attended.
Your choice should largely be dependent on the industry you want to enter, and industry ties to your school.</p>
<p>Personally, I’d choose Rice. I’m from the South; Houston is a great city with (as was mentioned) lots of job opportunities for engineering students, but also just a great city in general IMO; Houston is the city out of the four that I’d most like to settle in after college, so if I found a permanent position that would be good. Also Rice gives you the small-college experience with a top engineering program.</p>
<p>Second would be Carnegie Mellon. But I third the advice that you should select based on cost. Although engineers can expect to make enough to pay off some loans, I wouldn’t borrow more than ~$40-50K for undergrad engineering (and personally I would take less, just in case you change your major).</p>
<p>And Andy09, there’s a pretty knowlegeable poster on here who works in engineering and hires engineers who says that all the time - engineers’ salaries are generally not determined by where they graduated from, but rather the firm that hires them. They say that they don’t pay someone more money just because they went to Northwestern or UIUC over somewhere else. Now it may be true that engineers from the top programs are more likely to work at better-paid firms, but I’d like to see some evidence to bck that up.</p>
<p>Thanks, guys for the recommendations! When I get my decision letters, I will look at the aid they are offering.</p>
<p>I’d go with Rice (although I am biased obviously), our ChemE program is really well recruited.</p>
<p>There is so much more to college than you major and you have ignored that aspect totally.</p>
<p>CMU is a trade school essentially, you take classes in your major with few, if any, requirements outside of your major. If you like engineering exclusively and dislike gen ed requirements that might be the place for you. If however you like exploring other areas of study then CMU might not be the right place for you.</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about Rice except that it’s in Texas, and I personally am not a fan of the south, but it seems as if that’s okay for you.</p>
<p>USC and NU are probably the two most similar overall of your four choices. They have gen ed requirements to broaden your knowledge of life. They have many different majors and most of them are highly respected in the “real” world. Again, I know nothing of Rice so that one might be similar as well but I kind of think it’s personality would be a bit more conservative and “formal” considering it’s location. (I’ll admit that could also be my northern predjudices.)</p>
<p>All I’m trying to emphasize here is that you need to look beyond your chosen major and into the college both socially and academically.</p>
<p>For those Rice supporters, the OP is also interested in materials engineering, not just chemE. You can ignore the small differences in ranking (CMU and Northwestern are both ranked slightly higher) and give the edge to Rice due to its location. But for materials engineering, Northwestern is ranked many spots higher, not just a few and is considered a powerhouse within the industry. </p>
<p>That said, I second that the cost should be an important factor and third atmc’s advice.</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone! I just got accepted to Georgia Tech. Should I consider going there instead of these schools?</p>
<p>More shifting sand. Either take the time to tell us what you want in a college and what you can afford or I don’t think we can be much use to you.</p>
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<p>I don’t think CMU is any different from any of the other schools. If you are in an ABET major at any school, the requirements are so extensive that you will have almost no opportunity to take classes outside of your major.</p>
<p>And outside of engineering at CMU, you will find a multitude of classes and majors.</p>
<p>Our experience with CMU is that almost every major does not allow for more than two classes outside of their major, and one of them was a writing class and one was a tutorial on how to use their internet system (the second one might no longer exist, I don’t know). You do not go to CMU without a firm desire to be totally inundated with your major and little else. That’s how Andrew Carnegie started the school and that is how it continues. Fabulous trade school with some of the most talented kids but a trade school none the less.</p>
<p>Call me biased because DS attends CMU (in SCS, where you must also complete a minor in ANY department), but I think the previous poster is a bit uninformed in calling it a “trade school”. In any event, it’s easy enough to check CMU’s website for the gen ed requirements for CIT, which call for 8 classes outside of engineering. Also, many students may have already met some of their major requirements through AP credit, freeing up even more space in their schedules. That doesn’t sound too limiting to me.</p>
<p>Okay, rant over, lol. Agree with other posters that cost should be a major consideration.</p>
<p>For engineering, I think the differences in rankings are relatively minor for this set of schools. Please, for the love of [insert your favorite deity here] do not overhype rankings… they are good to get an overall rough sense, but small differences are just noise.</p>
<p>Things to consider:
(1) Well, first you have to get accepted to one or more of these schools.
(2) Financial aid/cost of living
(3) You may or may not have a preference for where you want to settle. Some people have no problem settling anywhere after college, others may have a strong geographic preference. For example, if you want to settle in California, I think USC has a stronger alumni base in Cali and would trump small differences in rankings. Ditto for Rice in Texas or Georgia Tech in the south. Of course this is a minor effect… I am sure there are successful Northwestern engineers in Los Angles, and Rice engineers in Chicago.
(4) Each school has a different “campus culture.”</p>
<p>Honestly, you can’t go wrong with any of these schools for engineering. After looking at finances, visit if you can… then just go with your gut. You will get an outstanding engineering education at any of them. </p>
<p>I am sure others on here will try to tell you that X school is a kajillion bazillion times better than school Y and that you would be a loser to choose Y over X, but IT’S JUST NOT TRUE.</p>
<p>Congrats on your acceptance to Georgia Tech. </p>
<p>I would wait until all acceptances and financial aid offers come in. When dealt all your cards the decision will likely become clearer.</p>
<p>Once you have acceptances and out-of-pocket costs known, come back to this board for advice.</p>
<p>Come to Carnegie Mellon and major in materials engineering with me!!! :D</p>
<p>Haha bias aside, if you really do get accepted to all of these awesome schools, the academics probably won’t be the deciding factor as they’re pretty evenly matched. I’d choose based on fit. Do you really want to go to an awesome engineering school in California? Choose USC. Want a unique, hot, quirky atmosphere? Rice. Are you kind of geeky and want to meet all sorts of people in different majors while being at the front of technology? Carnegie Mellon. Don’t know much about NU but I’ve heard it’s amazing as well.</p>