<p>Just to take the thread on Alabama Engineering in a slightly different direction…</p>
<p>DS needs to decide very soon between Alabama and USC. So far we have been impressed with pretty much everything about UA, including the engineering dept. At Capstone Scholars Day we heard about the many opportunities available to students who are willing to seek them out and it sounds like if he applies himself, DS will come out with some great experience to include in his CV. </p>
<p>So why is the engineering dept. at Alabama only ranked 112th? (USC is ranked 9th). Any thoughts?</p>
<p>Don’t know what you’re looking at, but Bama’s engineering is ranked #96 by USNEWs. And USC is ranked #23.</p>
<p>While that may not seem high, any College of Engineering that is ranked in the top 120 or so is going to be very good. Do you realize how many CoE’s there are in the US? </p>
<p>The state of Calif alone has about 25 very good CoEs!! </p>
<p>the point is that it’s not ranked “so low”. </p>
<p>That said, Bama has recently pumped about a half of a billion dollars into its Eng’g program. So, there will likely be ranking increases in the near future. Rankings are always slow to respond.</p>
Based on that info, undergrad raking is based on the opinion of other schools. As you have figured out already, other schools may not know what is available at Alabama, or may not have been exposed to Alabama Engineering students.</p>
<p>I have seen many posts on CC about Engineering rankings in my 3 years on this site. In our family we don’t put a lot of stock in them. </p>
<p>We live within 30 minutes of one of those highly ranked schools and my DH (Bama undergrad and grad) has interviewed and hired many engineers over the years. His thought is that often graduates from the lower ranked schools are easier to train and much more flexible to work with. Often the graduates from the highly ranked schools present with an entitlement attitude because of where they went to school. He tries to hire those that are willing to learn and present well in an interview regardless of where their degree comes from.</p>
<p>On a side note, my 88 year old father-in-law is a Bama Engineering grad and served alongside Werhner Von Braun on the Apollo program. My brother-in-law and niece are also Bama Engineering grads and have both been very successful. Hopefully, my DS will continue the family tradition of successful Bama engineers. My DH is very impressed with the new engineering facilities/labs and thinks my DS has a great opportunity ahead of him. </p>
<p>Your son has 2 great opportunities ahead of him and can’t go wrong with either one. Good Luck as he makes his final choice.</p>
<p>I will continue to push my barrow for looking at objective data.
First, look here for a purely numerical view of colleges: [ASEE.org</a> - ASEE - Publications - College Profiles - Search the Profiles](<a href=“http://profiles.asee.org/]ASEE.org”>http://profiles.asee.org/) . This strips away the glossy brochures and allows you to compare apples with apples when comparing schools. It is compiled by the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE). You can tell a lot by “following” an eng’g class of student through its program, by viewing the same data over a number of previous years. This gives you bums-on-seat info, and is useful to see how many people actually are in each program, and whether they graduate.
Next, look here at a publication called “Engineering By the Numbers”, for information about various branches of eng’g - it gives #s of degrees conferred, and is again, purely numerical: <a href=“Page not found”>ASEE.org; (2012 edition should be out shortly).
Lastly, make sure whatever program you are pursuing is accredited. This link will allow you to search by eng’g field, or by school, and can tell you how long the program has been accredited and so forth: [Accredited</a> Program Search](<a href=“http://main.abet.org/aps/Accreditedprogramsearch.aspx]Accredited”>http://main.abet.org/aps/Accreditedprogramsearch.aspx) . Schools are not accredited per se: their individual programs are.</p>
<p>Also, couple of questions for OP. I see that your student is undecided about which branch of eng’g to study. What is it about the entire eng’g field that appeals to him? Where does he see himself in 5 years’ time? What are some of his goals outside of education, in life? For your decision between the 2 schools (especially since he is undecided eng’g-wise), the FIT of that school is more important than anything else right now. By USC, did you mean South Carolina, or Uni of Southern California? Believe it or not, UA’s engineering dept is almost 2x that of USC, and 1.5x that of USoCal. And, I thought UA’s department was small (by national comparisons)…</p>
<p>She must mean USC (calif) because she mentioned a much higher eng’g ranking (altho I don’t know where she got those rankings from because they don’t match USNEWS.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the replies so far. We have plenty to think about and your input is valuable, thanks for all the additional links which we will look at tonight. </p>
<p>To respond to Aeromom, he has always excelled in science & math (esp. physics), participated in extra-curricular science & math clubs etc., so that is where his interests lie. Apart from that, he is undecided on a specific career at this point. His goals are to get a good university education in a setting that will allow him to grow personally, and then almost certainly go to grad school. He definitely wants to study abroad. Keeping as many options open as possible is going to be good for him.
By USC I meant U of Southern Cal.</p>
<p>Also just a little fyi, I don’t have enough posts yet to reply to PMs Will get there soon I am sure</p>
<p>USoCal is NOT cheap. [USC</a> Financial Aid - Applying & Receiving Financial Aid - Undergraduate - Costs](<a href=“http://www.usc.edu/admission/fa/applying_receiving/undergraduates2/costs.html]USC”>http://www.usc.edu/admission/fa/applying_receiving/undergraduates2/costs.html)
One could go to UA eng’g school 2x over for what you would pay at USoCal. And that’s withOUT the great UA scholarships! Add those in and you can use the money saved at UA to buy a new house once you graduate. A lot of people still believe that you get what you pay for from expensive colleges. Education is not always the same as buying a car or a commodity. But I will say that a Honda Accord CAN get you to the same destinations as a Bugatti Veyron.</p>
<p>I can’t find the exact link right now, things are getting a little stressful around here and we have been looking at a lot of different sources so please excuse me if I got the ranking wrong or can’t post the link I was looking at before. It is however a significant gap, even if 9th and 112th aren’t the exact numbers, and the main point is that Alabama’s rank took us by surprise.</p>
<p>and the main point is that Alabama’s rank took us by surprise.</p>
<p>It shouldn’t. Again, there are hundreds of CoE in the US. In the state of Calif alone, there are at least 25 very good eng’g programs. There are 50 states. All, or nearly all, have some very good eng’g programs…many have several very good eng’g programs.</p>
<p>And, if the rankings are by peer assessment, then they might not be as meaningful anyway.</p>
<p>We did not look at USC when DS was college shopping. However, we did visit the science center a number of times that is on campus. One of the retired space shuttles is now there.</p>
<p>You will find that USC is not in the safest part of Los Angeles county. Best to visit campus and have your student talk with current students to determine comfort level.</p>
<p>I was indeed looking at the wrong list. I was looking at the rankings for engineering grad schools. My mistake. So the US News rankings I should have taken into account are 23 for U of So. Cal and 96 for Alabama, as mom2collegekids says.</p>
<p>We really LOVED USC. But when crunch time came, DS did not apply to USC. Although he loved Southern California, the ease and type of off-campus housing at Bama sealed the deal. We heard quite a bit about the area not being safe, but, I found it better than expected. The campus police patrol a 2 mile radius. Of course, I’m from Philly suburbs and my kids have routinely taken the train to programs on Temple and Drexel’s campuses over the years, so my comfort level is very different from most folks.</p>
<p>For my son, he felt that although USC permits cross registration and ability to take courses in the different colleges, it was much more competitive to get into the program and actually take the classes then admissions led us to believe. The generous AP credits at Bama was also a consideration.</p>
<p>IMO, both campus are beautiful. I agree with aeromom, it really should come down to where he feels he fits and his academic goals will be met.</p>
<p>Why are we comparing these two ? They are not even peer school. If Alabama is cheaper, then fine, go there. You will save money. </p>
<p>University of Southern California is superior to Bama in every major. Its up to you to decide whether you should pay more or get education at another school for less.</p>
Will get there soon I am sure</p>