<p>Agreed at COLLEGE! I was reading this thread and was about to post something, but you covered basically everything and more.</p>
<p>NextMikeSaid,</p>
<p>UCLA certainly has national recognition. You worked much outside of CA?</p>
<p>I have.</p>
<p>but UCSD isn't really internationally recognized as much though! so it would matter if you don't end up working in cali?</p>
<p>College, those rankings are BS.</p>
<p>They do not reflect the quality of undergraduate education. They simply measure the research dollars spent per faculty member.</p>
<p>slorg did you read a thing he said</p>
<p>Slorg,</p>
<p>You can say that those rankings are BS (even I might agree), but they are true to some degree. Maybe it doesn't matter whether your school is #10 or #50, but to be #10 just shows that there are people out there (people much much much more qualified than high school students) that believe your school is a good one. </p>
<p>In my honest opinion, it doesn't really matter where you get your education. A bioengineer at UCSD is going to be taking the same courses as a bioengineer from the University of Kansas. The only real difference is the faculty and the extracurricular opportunities. And you're right. Those rankings do heavily take into account the research dollars spent per faculty member. But the thing is this: better programs have better faculty. Better faculty go to places with more money. Places who can offer more money to faculty will most likely (but not always) have better programs.</p>
<p>And plus, like I said, your undergraduate education isn't based solely on your classes, but rather, also on what you do outside of class. If your school is able to attract better researchers, then you'll probably have a better chance of getting involved with solid laboratory research or making connections with some of the top engineering faculty in the country.</p>