Having a conversation with my friends about colleges. I’m looking to go to Iowa State to study ME, and one is planning to go to UIUC for ME, the other is looking at RIT for ME aswell. They are telling me I’ll get a far inferior education and far less opportunities if I go to Iowa State rather than a top 10 school. One of the main reasons I chose Iowa was because I could afford it, rather than UIUC(instate) still being more expensive. UIUC is somewhere in the top 15 for engineering. Iowa State is top 30ish i believe.
Can someone please help me explain that, yes obviously not as high ranked, but opportunities and education truly won’t be that big of a difference. I used the CEO of Boeing for example as a person who went to ISU. I also said how Lockheed Martin looks at ISU as one of their “Target” schools to hire from. They also said that I could “go ahead and get a 60-70k a year floor job there rather than going to MIT or UIUC and getting a 6 figure job”. I’m trying to tell them they are falling into the college “curse” where you think you have to go to a top college where it costs a lot to get a viable education.
Rankings are misleading, especially when so many do not take into account the classes, professors, student satisfaction, etc. You will be fine at Iowa State, a nice school is a nice college town. Many smart students follow the money, especially when the two options are simply different public flagships. I like both Iowa and Iowa State as public options that tend to get overlooked.
Exactly what i was trying to say. I could go to those schools but I’d be in far more debt than if I were to go to ISU. Iowa State has a high Value/ROI ranking as well. I’ll still get about as many job ops as they do. Also what I said was it is better to do very good at a school like ISU, rather than barely pass at a school like RIT.
No doubt that UIUC is a top 10 engineering school. But i don’t think RIT is any better than Iowa State for mechanical engineering. So if you were considering UIUC, you may be able to justify the additional cost, but not for RIT.
Yeah but would you really have THAT many more opportunities and THAT big of an education difference? After a few jobs in engineering I’ve heard they don’t even consider colleges much anymore, it is primarily based off job experience.
Your friends are high schoolers, thus likely insecure, and have little idea how the real world works. Yes, UIUC engineering would be a bit more respected but companies hire people, which means it ultimately comes down to how you (and they perform) and all 3 would offer a rigorous education.
The problem is that rankings are subjective to begin with. You really don’t owe anyone an explanation or justification for why you chose ISU. There are plenty of opportunities, and NO, you’re not getting an inferior education, if places like Boeing recruit from there.
To answer your question, an extra 10k is not worth it, especially for a bachelors degree. Respect is earned, not purchased.
You will do well at Iowa State. We just had a great intern at NASA from there. They have an excellent and well-respected engineering department. Don’t worry about them. I have seen more good students from state colleges in Iowa, Kansas, Utah, and Idaho recently being hired than from some of the huge powerhouses. Enjoy your time, do well and you will do extremely well.
Are you looking for an answer for your own sake or to win the argument? The whole “is X school worth X dollars” is a completely personal decision. Your friends believe it is “worth it” to go to certain schools and you do not. That’s fine - they won’t be living your life and you won’t be paying their student loans. My spouse is an engineer and he was pretty firmly in favor of my kid going to a top school in her field. As it happens we were able to manage the tuition without loans. If we hadn’t, she would have gone to a school we could afford and I’m sure she would have been fine.
If you’re not exactly certain about Iowa vs IL vs RPI or where ever… - ask yourself where you want to go in life. What doors would be opened for you at one school that would be harder to get through at another? If you know what field you want to go into look to see if employers recruit at the school or they have employees who are alums. Really look at the internships people do at each school or the co-ops or the research. Do your own due dilligence about what a school offers. These things do matter - your friends’ opinions of what makes a good school for you do not.
Is the first pick in the draft that much better than number 30. Or maybe number 200 is the best. Just ask Tom Brady.
Rankings help give you a sense of direction. People here and teenagers sometimes think it means an absolute truth. Believe half of why you read and less of what you hear.
Oh my goodness, Iowa State is a fantastic engineering school!!! My Illinois daughter loved it when she toured it and the only reason she didn’t apply was because they had no biomedical engineering major. 2 of her friends are going to Iowa State for ME and they were all in the top 5% of their class with ACT scores well into the 30s. They chose it because it was the most affordable option. My daughter got into UIUC for biomedical engineering and turned it down for a school that gave her way more merit (University of Delaware). As a result, we will be able to not only afford her entire undergrad bill, but likely her graduate school as well. My husband hires mechanical engineers for a living and said the 2 best engineers he’s ever worked with came out of University of Iowa (which isn’t even as well know for engineering as Iowa State) and Northern Illinois University. Rankings are fine, but they aren’t the be all end all. Good luck to you next year at Iowa State. You’ll love it.
First, if you want to consider rankings, you need to look at the particular engineering (ME) degree, not just the overall ranking of the engineering school. I don’t know how ME ranks individually at each school but take a look. Second, engineering firms tends to recruit local universities (its just easier and they don’t incur a lot of relocation costs plus they have internships) so if you want to stray far from Ames Iowa (outside the Midwest) you will have do a lot of self promotion. Third the rankings are influenced by the type of engineering industry that is local to the area (e.g. Silicon Valley < = >UCB/Stanford <=> EE and CS). This is a circular event as engineering firms locate next to Universities with strong programs they want, kids go to Universities where jobs are plentiful locally, and round and round.
Years ago, someone I know got in to Columbia (current 6% acceptance rate) for undergrad. But he couldn’t afford it and instead accepted a very nice scholarship to Pace (75% acceptance rate.)
He got a good job anyway and later went through the executive MBA program at Columbia. It all worked out.
Someone else I know grew up in a rural area and had to start with two years at a community college before transferring to a state school. He now has the same high paying job as others who went to more prestigious schools.
That said, I previously worked for a prestigious Wall Street firm where your college was extremely important. Actually, it was important if you were white. They preferred you to have gone to an ivy league school and that’s where they recruited for their associate training programs. If you were a minority, they didn’t care where you went, as long as you were intelligent and well-spoken. (Sorry if that is offensive to anyone, but it is the truth of the matter.)
Overall, you might need to consider what career you ultimately want and seek to understand if a “better” school is required.
The secret of engineering is that all ABET accredited schools will have the same/similar curriculum.
This or that college may have a fancy new lab, but those don’t matter unless you use them.
Having research opportunities don’t matter unless you use them.
Co-ops and internship don’t matter unless you take advantage of them.
Employers in your state will recruit from your State U.
So study hard, go to your professor office hours (hours the professors set aside specifically to speak to students) and get to know them.
Try to get involved in some research or do a co-op or get an internship.
You will do great and be well set up for employment at Iowa State.
Secretly laugh that you are paying less to get a similar education.
Look at the “first destination survey” at each of the schools for ME graduates and you will see starting salaries are similar I bet.
as a newly-minted engineer the salary difference between Iowa, Illinois & RIT is going to be effectively non-existent- and fun fact: there won’t be much of a salary difference for most of the ME class at MIT either. The difference between what each of you do while at college (& esp over the summers) will affect your job prospects / salaries much, much, MUCH more than which school you chose.
Then going forward from here----once you are working, your raises, bonuses, and promotions will be based on factors such as how well you do your job, how hard you work, and how well you work with co-workers…what those factors won’t be based on is where you earned your undergrad degree. Many of the posters here know of many situations where someone who went to a ‘lower ranked program’ was promoted over those from higher ranked programs, including the elites.
If your friends are that insistent, let them take on a mountain of debt and deal with the bewilderment when they aren’t anointed after graduating from a “top” college.
Engineering is a fairly level playing field. Go where you want.
“They are telling me I’ll get a far inferior education and far less opportunities if I go to Iowa State rather than a top 10 school”.
The first question I have is: Do you even have the stats, etc. to get into a Top 10 college? Top 10 colleges are very good with financial aid btw and might not cost you nearly as much as you are anticipating. I assume you are a Junior in HS and don’t have results yet?
P.S. Just checked, in another one of your posts in another thread stated that you might have a 3.5 GPA and have less than a 32 ACT? In CS, you might have a hard time getting into these “Top” colleges with these stats and your question might be a moot point…
@ALewis3 - You are thinking like an engineer. Your friends are still thinking like high school students. I know which one of you has a head start in their careers.
A simple truth about engineering is that the cost of a solution is ALWAYS a factor in the real world. People who understand this instinctively tend to be very successful.
