<p>I graduate with my AA Summer of 2011 and want to move to Alaska and become a PE. I am 37 and have a Certified General Contractors license for the State of Florida. Is UAF a good school for PE? I really want to live in Alaska for the rest of my life and would like to hear from any one who attends UAF. Also my wife has a BSBA from UF and was wondering what her degree would be worth in Alaska.</p>
<p>I am transferring to UAF this Fall to study Petroleum Engineering. I visited a few weeks ago and met with faculty, students and professors and I can assure you it is has a great petroleum engineering program. I wouldn’t go there for anything else but Petroleum, Mining, geological, arctic engineering but in those specific engineering disciplines they have state of the art programs. </p>
<p>They are also well recruited from oil companies like BP, Shell, Exxon, ConocoPhilips, Haliburton and a few other oil related companies. In fact they are having an energy fair in the 3rd week of September when all the big energy companies will be recruiting for all sorts of positions. There are plenty internship opportunities in the summer and research opportunities throughout the year in the geophysical research institute which is on campus. </p>
<p>The campus has great facilities for engineers like separate computer labs for each engineering discipline. They also have dorm levels just for engineers. They even have tutoring centers like if you are having trouble understanding math concepts. They have many petroleum engineering related labs.
Besides the college Alaska in general is a wonderful place to live. The culture is different in a good way. The people are very friendly and simple compared to the east coast. Alaska has an amazing environment and culture!</p>
<p>UAF has an Outdoor adventures association which organizes all sorts of adventure trips from glacier climbing to river rafting. </p>
<p>Their Petroleum engineering program is also ABET accredited and they have yearly trips to Kenai and Prudhoe bay oil fields.</p>
<p>Although, you must realize that Fairbanks can be a very tough place to live in the winter because the sun is only up for a short amount of time and the temperatures will easily fall below -20 or -30 degrees.</p>
<p>They have a 98% job placement rate amount Petroleum Engineers at UAF and starting salaries on average are $99,000. Another thing to keep in mind is that Alaska has a very high cost of living. For example, a bag of potato chips in Alaska that would normally cost $2 in Florida will be $4 dollars in Alaska but items like eggs, milk will be subsidized and cheaper.</p>
<p>Anchorage has one of BPs Headquarters and so there are a lot of PE office jobs available there. Plenty of field jobs on the North Slope and a lot of exploration is going on in ANWR for possibility of future drilling. There are teams going north of Alaska into the Arctic to explore for new oil fields. Many opportunities in Alaska no matter what PE specialization you choose to pursue. </p>
<p>Some links for you:
There PE specific labs:
[Petroleum</a> Development Laboratory](<a href=“College of Engineering and Mines | College of Engineering and Mines”>College of Engineering and Mines | College of Engineering and Mines)</p>
<p>PETE website of UAF:
[Petroleum</a> Engineering](<a href=“College of Engineering and Mines | College of Engineering and Mines”>College of Engineering and Mines | College of Engineering and Mines)</p>
<p>How many credits do you have? I would like to stay in touch and hear about the school once you start.</p>
<p>I have earned 41 credits from University of Maryland now transferred to UAF. I am going into my second year of college and taking 16 credits from UAF this Fall.</p>
<p>Sure, I would be glad to keep in touch with you and let you know how UAF is after I have attended for a few months.</p>
<p>Sounds good, thanks for the info.</p>
<p>@ alchemist007
How is UAF when it comes to financial aid? How good is good for merit scholarships? </p>
<p>How much could you get for the Student Support Services Program (SSSP) Grants and FSEOG?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
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<p>This is a very important point! That’s why I chuckle sometimes when people are so fixated on starting salaries. It makes such a HUGE difference depending on the area of the country you work in! If I’d done more homework before accepting a job in Maine, I would have asked for a higher starting salary. I had no idea that housing, utilities, and taxes were so high here.</p>
<p>At least that experience smartened me up. When my husband and I were offered the opportunity to start up an engineering branch office in London, it sounded wonderful until we heard what they expected to pay us! They said they couldn’t offer more since that’s what British engineers were being paid. Our standard of living would have decreased drastically, so we turned the offer down.</p>
<p>Yes, UAF has a very high starting salary for PetE partly due to its location LSU, UT, and TAMU are around 83-85k. Not only is it more expensive up in Alaska, but it’s also a very harsh place to live. You would think global warming would have made things better, lol… but the weather can drop to as low as 30 deg F.</p>
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Have you ever been to Alaska? Have you ever been to Fairbanks? Have you ever been to Fairbanks in the winter?</p>
<p>He’s 37 years old. I’m pretty sure he already knows his choices and options.</p>
<p>Hey alchemist007. this maybe a bit late but Ill appreciate it if you could answer for me. What is the career perspective like for international graduate of petroleum engineering? I heard some of them are unable to find work due to their nationality. Is that true? whats job placement rate for intls in petroleum engineering at UAF?</p>
<p>Thanks very very much for your answers</p>