<p>I'm trying to figure out which school is the best for engineering and job opportunity after graduation.</p>
<p>I have a few specific questions for UCSD. I wasn't placed in my desired major at UCSD which was mechanical engineering. From what I understand, MechE is impacted (oversubscribed) and I would need a 3.7 or above my freshman year to transfer to the program. I was placed in environmental engineering, which I'm interested in, and was also wondering if that's a smart major choice for job opportunity. If not, is it worth going to UCSD and risking not getting into mechanical, and being a different engineer major, such as structural?</p>
<p>All three are good for engineering. I’d suggest either picking the least expensive option, or, if money isn’t a huge factor, picking the school closest to where you’d like to work as many engineering firms have their “local” favorites.</p>
<p>That said, I’d be VERY wary about going to UCSD if you aren’t in the discipline you like, but unless they’ve changed, VT has all their engineers come in as “general” and lets them pick their discipline sometimes sophomore year with slots allotted based upon GPA. (They MAY have changed as my direct knowledge info is older.) If they haven’t changed, what you actually get is still dependent upon how you do freshman year. Many incoming engineer wannabes end up changing majors (at any school). Engineering is not easy. (I’m NOT saying you expect it to be easy - just mentioning the facts based upon being married to an engineer.)</p>
Only you can answer that question. That you pose it, though, says to me you know little about what people with those 2 degrees do out in the workforce. I suggest you look into it before you decide, preferably by talking to people actually working as engineers in those fields to get a sense of what their job is like both day-to-day and career path.</p>