Selecting a college for best job prospect

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>This is my second of two specific questions regarding selecting a college. If you've seen my other post, you know that I'm trying to select between UC Davis, UC Irvine, San Diego State, Cal Poly Pomona, and Long Beach State for mechanical engineering.</p>

<p>I've been reading the posts here for some time, and the crux of what I've been reading goes like this. To get either an internship or a job out of engineering, you'll need a 3.0 GPA. You need a 3.5 for a GREAT job or internship, a 3.0 for a good job or internship, and a 2.5 for maybe a job and maybe an internship.</p>

<p>So GPA IS really important.</p>

<p>It's fair to assume that one's GPA will be lower as the student competition is higher. I'm a solid student, but not brilliant. So, for the sake of argument, I might assume that I can earn these GPA's at these colleges.</p>

<p>UC Irvine 2.6
UC Davis 2.6
Cal Poly Pomona 3.0
CSU Long Beach 3.2
San Diego State 3.4</p>

<p>Doesn't it follow, then, that if I'm going to want to get a good internship and a good job as a result of my education, that I should choose between the 3 cal states. I know we can argue that the education at the UC's might be better, but if a 2.6 GPA leads me nowhere, is that 'better education' really worth it?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>No Cal Poly SLO in your list? Placement rate for engineering is impressively high, according to its [career</a> survey](<a href=“http://www.careerservices.calpoly.edu/gradsurvey/]career”>http://www.careerservices.calpoly.edu/gradsurvey/). Even civil engineering graduates in 2009 had a high placement rate.</p>

3

<p>Everyone at my pretty good high school got rejected for mech at SLO. Looks like it took about a 4.15 GPA and 2175 SAT to get in. Civil and electrical were much easier for admission this year. So that’s my list.</p>

<p>But please, everybody, you can really help me decide if you’ll stick to my original post. Thanks.</p>

4

<p>SJSU has some survey results: [url=&lt;a href=“http://careercenter.sjsu.edu/Downloads/Salary_Info/SJSU_CareerCenter_Salary_Survey.pdf]2008-2009[/url”&gt;http://careercenter.sjsu.edu/Downloads/Salary_Info/SJSU_CareerCenter_Salary_Survey.pdf]2008-2009[/url</a>] and [url=&lt;a href=“http://www.sjsu.edu/isystems/docs/SJSU_CareerCenter_Salary_Survey2008.pdf]2007-2008[/url”&gt;http://www.sjsu.edu/isystems/docs/SJSU_CareerCenter_Salary_Survey2008.pdf]2007-2008[/url</a>]</p>

<p>However, they do not include placement rates.</p>

5

<p>hey thank you ucbalumnus, the data are pretty encouraging. Its average is mostly higher than the national. SJSU is rising up to my top choice.</p>

6

<p>

The interesting thing is that for both years in that school, civil engineering bachelors degree holders had a higher salary than CE masters degree holders. Even the national averages don’t show much difference in salary between CE bachelors degree holders and CE masters degree holders. I guess grad school isn’t worth it after all.</p>

7

<p>“Everyone at my pretty good high school got rejected for mech at SLO. Looks like it took about a 4.15 GPA and 2175 SAT to get in.”</p>

<p>this is a pretty amazing stat, particularly for a Cal State U</p>