<p>@goldenboy - “Berkeley is one of the most elite schools in the world and arguably the best in engineering.”</p>
<p>Sort of off topic but if you are just going on ranking . US News & World Report puts Berkelely #3. MIT is #1.</p>
<p>Here’s the way we look at it, our incoming Engineering student son is going to succeed or fail based on his own hard work. Alabama has absolutely everything he needs to be successful, now it’s up to him.</p>
<p>On a side note, we have friends with a brilliant daughter who was accepted to U of I (in-state), Princeton & MIT for Engineering undergrad. She chose to opt for a strong state school undergrad, rather than paying for an pedigree undergrad, and she’s now at Stanford Grad school, with scholarship, without a load of student dept. Pretty smart plan if you ask me.</p>
<p>Momof3, for what it’s worth, we’re a non-automatic scholarship family and still think Bama is a great deal. That said, we are waiting to hear on other merit scholarships, which will happen in mid-March. I bet if ya’ll moved quickly, you could still throw your hat in the ring. That said, your daughter may already be settled headed somewhere else.</p>
<p>After reading some of the posts on this thread, I had to go back and make sure I was on the “look” thread. Then I realized that this thread has turned into the “look” in written form.</p>
<p>Back to the topic, we have gotten many comments about D’s decision to attend Alabama. Several people, who are very supportive of D and her UA decision, continue to ask her if she’s excited about Arkansas! Apparently, if it begins with A and is not in California, it’s all the same - Arakansas, Alabama…whatever. We’ve started to smile a lot and use “Roll Tide” often.</p>
<p>Unlike many on CC (though not necessarily this sub-forum), we didn’t enter the college search with the idea that our daughter would attend the highest ranked school to which she was admitted. Nor did we intend to send her to the lowest cost school. We fully intended to send her to the college of her choice. In the end, that school was (is) Alabama. In doing so, she declined admittance to schools including WashU, Carnegie Mellon, NYU and Northeastern and was offered some enticing scholarships from some of those. Alabama was her choice because she thought she would get the best overall education/experience (for reasons that many have already described). I’m proud of her for that. We don’t buy into the notion that you have to go to the most highly ranked college in order to succeed. Success in life means so much more than that. In fact, there are many people with very fulfilling lives who didn’t even go to college and are not particularly affluent. If misplaced pride wasn’t going to play a factor in D’s college choice, it certainly shouldn’t factor into her parents’ support of that choice.</p>
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<p>And where is UA in that ranking/</p>
<p>Yes!!! Exactly, Lattelady, exactly.</p>
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<p>Well said. Contrary to the common wisdom, any college outside of Harvard is on equal status with another. Frankly, in the world in general, no one has heard of Yale or Princeton or Dartmouth or (God forgive me) U Chicago. They only know one school in the United States: Harvard. After that, everything is the same and equal. UA is just fine. It is a hard truth for those who are Ivy obsessed to accept, but nothing really matters except Harvard. OK, maybe Stanford . . .</p>
<p>As I sit here working from my office at home, wearing a Bama t shirt, catching up on the CC Bama forum and just got through reading this thread, I am reminded of how proud I am to have my son literally having the best college experience he could have ever dreamed of at Bama…! He is a 2nd year Honors student, double majoring in Economics and Finance, just pulled his 2nd 4.0, is social chair of his fraternity, has served as a first year councilman in the student gov’t, is a member of the Finance Association, was just selected to be a member of the Culverhouse Invesment Management Group which is not easy to get into, worked as an intern for an international corp this summer and is lining up his internship opportunities for this summer, loves his experience in the Honors College and the Culverhouse business school, loves his fraternity, loves all of the soroities!..not to mention the how far the fun meter is pegged for the sports fan in him. </p>
<p>Honestly, I donot care where else he could have gone…he is where he’s supposed to be. When people ask about him and where he goes to school, I couldnot possibly hold my head any higher or be more proud than when I say he’s at the University of Alabama…</p>
<p>Roll Tide</p>
<p>Engineering is one of those majors where it is definitely not needed to attend a high ranking eng’g program in order to succeed. </p>
<p>There are over 400 schools that offer engineering and most of them are probably good enough to get a good engineering education in order to get a good-paying eng’g job. </p>
<p>Certainly any that are ranked within the top 150 are definitely good enough </p>
<p>In Calif alone, there are around 25 schools with good engineering programs. Any one of them would result in a good paying job. And, since companies pay new engineers the same rate, there’s no need to go pricey for that degree. </p>
<p>What a shock it must be for the Cal eng’g grad to find out that his fellow new-hire eng’g grad from CSU Fullerton is getting the same salary as he. lol</p>
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<p>Sound wonderful! He can get a job at some local bank. Unfortunately, no one on real Wall Street ever considers UA grads. Forget about New York.</p>
<p>karenhan4951,
Not sure where you are getting your information from but New York has the largest OOS alumni network in the country.</p>
<p>One of the first things I looked for for my son was the acceptance of a UA degree in NYC area. My son will be getting his Accounting degree and probably his Macc from UA. I was told by many top members in the finance and business world (where I work I am in communication with many top businessman and captains of industry) that as long as the school is AACSB rated and in at least the top 50 in their respective field that finding work is more about the person than the school attended. All of the Big 4 accounting firms recruit from UA and offer internships followed by permanent positions.</p>
<p>"no one on real Wall Street ever considers UA grads. Forget about New York. "</p>
<p>ha! good one! If you only knew…</p>
<p>^ I’d like to know. We keep hearing that investment banking is largely limited to grads from the most elite schools. I know there’s more to “real Wall Street” than investment banking, but how is the UA degree viewed on Wall Street?</p>
<p>Chardo,
That might be a good question to send to the UA New York alumni assoc. They have a website with many contact emails. I’m sure they can put you in touch with someone who can answer that question or even someone at the Culverhouse school. I wish I could publicly say who I’d spoken too but cant for their privacy, but I can promise you that you have heard of many of these folks who are talked about in the Finance world everyday.</p>
<p>May be helpful</p>
<p>[Greater</a> New York University of Alabama Alumni | LinkedIn](<a href=“Sign Up | LinkedIn”>Sign Up | LinkedIn)</p>
<p>My own kid (engineering) is not likely to be interested in a Wall Street job, so I don’t really care personally. I just posed the question for others who may be concerned.</p>
<p>Question for goldenboy and others:</p>
<p>What exactly constitutes a “better” education in Engineering (to pick a specific example)? Is a Calculus class at one school in any measurable way better at one school over another? - Especially taking into account the huge variations in styles and abilities of teachers within a school (all schools). </p>
<p>I have a Bachelors and two Masters degrees, all from different universities. These schools range in the rankings from top 5 (US News) to in the 100s. I have had teachers I’ve clicked with and those I haven’t at each of those schools. For the most part learning is up to the student regardless of the environment.</p>
<p>I’ve heard the response that maybe in low level courses there is little difference but the differences come out at high level courses. I don’t buy that because in the high level course what the student puts in is even more important in the learning process, minimizing the effect of the teacher or school.</p>
<p>I have also taught at a community college. And you know what?.. what you learn in a Finance class at a Community College is exactly the same as at an “Elite” University with multiple Nobel Laureates in Finance (who you will likely never meet in person). There is as much variation between teachers within a school as between schools. </p>
<p>This whole “significantly” better stuff is nonsense and people spouting it have no idea what they are talking about.</p>
<p>That is not to say there are not differences in schools. These differences in size, location, emphasis, personalities, etc. will have significantly different impact on how different individuals will learn. For any individual one school can be better than another. So if someone will thrive in a large school rather than a small/mid size school, then Alabama could very well be better than Harvard. </p>
<p>So please, explain how a student X will get a better education in Engineering at one school over another (assuming they both offer the same variety of Engineering)</p>
<p>Next door neighbor is a high ranking scientist at a very well known global corp. Trust me, you would know just the initials of this company. Stanford grad and both parents were Berkeley grads. We have talked many things over the years and he views UA to be up there with the best of all public universities in the nation. </p>
<p>Another friend works for another well known communications giant, travels the globe and owns several patents within in the industry. He attends many recruiting events across the country. His big thing no matter where one goes to school, V-O-L-U-N-T-E-E-R and be a LEADER in something. Upon hearing that our D was going to attend UA it was a positive reaction. He has been to UA to recruit many times. </p>
<p>Then upon hearing that D plans to attend med school we have had those that respond to the UA announcement by saying she should go to an easier school than UA for undergrad. LOL! </p>
<p>In the end, she visited Bama and fell in love!!! She is going to do her undergrad studies at the school she feels gives her the best opportunity for HER. She then plans to attend med school and thinks UCLA is her top pick and dreams of someday living and practicing on the West coast. GO FOR IT GIRL! </p>
<p>For those that think UA is such a lowly performing school for all of the higher achieving students there, then move on over and let them all attend those that you view to be so much better. Chances are, for those that view UA so lowly if they had to compete for admissions to their school they may have not gotten accepted themselves. Something to think about. Just sayin :)</p>
<p>^^^Superbly stated, gstudent99. As a grad student at Michigan State I T.A.'d the same undergrad courses I’d taken at Cal, some of which (at Cal) were taught by folks considered to be among the best in their field. The quality of these courses at MSU was indistinguishable from the quality at Berkeley, other than in some cases the “no-name” prof at “Moo U” was a better teacher than the eminent researcher at Cal.</p>