<p>One of my teachers, when I told him I'd like to go into engineering, at a school like Princeton (not so realistic) or Cornell (a tad more realistic), and completely shut me down, saying that I don't need to go to a top-tier school to be successful in engineering. </p>
<p>I acknowledged that this is true, obviously, but I made the point that employers will be more likely to take another look at my resume if I have a name like Princeton on there. He said that "anyone who knows anything about engineering" will know that Princeton is not the top school for engineering and will not be more likely to hire you because of it opposed to if you went to a state school. </p>
<p>I felt pretty stupid after that discussion, but I wanted to know, what do you guys think? Does "brand recognition" count when finding a job?</p>
<p>An Ivy league school does not mean it has a “top-notch” engineering program. A lot of the highly regarded enginering schools are state flagships (UMich, UMinnesota, UIUC). </p>
<p>If you manage to get accepted to HYP and get a lot of financial aid, it’s fine to go. But there would be no need to overly stress about it because a lot of engineering employers only care that its ABET accredited and you did well in relevant classes. ABET means it sets the same standards across the nation, so you technically don’t learn anything more in engineeirng at Harvard than you would at any state flagship with an ABET accredation. The thing that would matter is strong areas in certain disciplines (JHU is big on biomedical engineering) if you are looking for research for grad school or something lik ethat</p>
<p>tldr; employers wont care where you get your degree from generally. engineering employers are smart enough to not be shock and awe at Ivy League grads</p>
<p>What your teacher said is actually very accurate. The reality is that you don’t need to go to a top-tier school to do well in engineering. Most of what you learn at the undergraduate level consists of established principles straight out of a textbook. Whether you choose to read that textbook at Princeton, or at New Mexico State is irrelevant. </p>
<p>Where the differences do become apparent is in the academic preparedness of students attending either of these schools. However, these differences are relatively meaningless since there are expectations set by both the schools and ABET to ensure the graduates are adequately prepared for their fields. Students either succeed or they don’t. The lack of preparedness is usually reflected in the lower graduation rates. For the motivated student, however, a lower graduation rate is irrelevant since they themselves are determined to do whatever it takes to succeed.</p>
<p>Where top-ranked schools come out ahead is at the graduate level, since they often receive a lot more money for research, as well as attract top research talent from various fields.</p>
Telling your pals you are thinking of Princeton is going to gain you street cred at HS and brownie points on this forum. It is not, however, going to impress engineering employers. See, they care about what you can actually do and what you know, and they are not impressed by Ivy pedigrees. </p>
<p>And if you need them to " to take another look" is that because you’re thinking that your college grades won’t be up to snuff but the Princeton name will buy you a 2nd chance? Sorry, it won’t work that way.</p>
<p>Your teacher is trying to temper your expectations, and offer u high quality viable options. Ivy schools are excruciatingly hard to get admitted into. If u want to apply to them, then it’s your prerogative. Just don’t take it as a default that you will get in, no matter how good a student u are. </p>
<p>Employers who hire undergraduate engineers like to shop for them at engineering schools bcs there are lots of them there:</p>