<p>they are not even on the same level,Gtech all the way.</p>
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<p>That information comes from databases that you can purchase and most public libraries have available for free. </p>
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<p>No one said it was. But there’s a HUGE difference between being a target school and being a non-target school. </p>
<p>Let’s say Google comes to Georgia Tech to hire (which they do). Their people know Georgia Tech’s academics and programs. They come to campus with jobs to offer and select the best Georgia Tech students to interview (they might interview 48 out of 100 applicants or right around 50% which is the typical interview rate among qualified applicants at a target school). They have a Georgia Tech team to follow the applicants through their hiring process, and they have on-campus events to increase visibility, the number of people that meet the recruits, and to answer questions.</p>
<p>How is it different at a non-target school? Google has a “drop box” for resumes on their website. They probably receive thousands of resumes from students all across the country at schools of varying quality and applicants of varying qualifications. The slots allocated to non-target hiring is probably pretty limited because the recruiting managers at target schools have been jockeying for spots (usually there are less spots for the thousands of non-target applicants than there are for one target school). So out of the qualified applicants, maybe 5% or less are called for an interview (sometimes it’s only “by exception”). Considering that most of the other applicants are from similar state universities, simply being a UF graduate isn’t enough to make you “exceptional”.</p>
<p>So does attending a non-target school absoltely exclude you from being hired? No, it’s still possible. Then again it’s also possible be elected President of the United States running on the Communist Party ticket. </p>
<p>So what does that mean for college choice? If you attend a school that’s targeted by certain employers, you greatly increase your odds of being hired by a major employer. Who targets UF? Mostly Florida companies. That’s why there are so many UF grads still living in Florida. So if you want to live in Florida and be targeted by those companies, UF is a great option. </p>
<p>Now, that’s not to say that GT is targeted by every employer. If your goal is to be on Wall Street, I wouldn’t go to GT. Instead try Michigan, Columbia, MIT, etc. If your goal is to work as an analyst for a VC, don’t go to GT. Try Stanford or Berkeley. </p>
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<p>You don’t get the point - a “national company” like Exxon hiring for a position in Orlando isn’t the same thing as a Seattle company hiring for a position in Seattle.</p>
<p>“Florida is NOT the biggest school in the country, and isn’t even really that close to the top. The largest are Arizona State, Ohio State, Texas, Penn State”</p>
<p>They’re just shy of 50,000 for Fall 09’, that’s like huge, I’ve never seen a number much more than that. Yea I don’t know what Florida or anyplace like that is like, I’ve got these ideas of how it might be but I’m probably way off : )</p>
<p>I think I get what GP is saying from the last sentence in the last post above. That’s a good point. Though what companies are regional that are highly sought after by grads? I thought all the big names are national companies?</p>
<p>OP: D was in same boat last year, accpted at both UF and GaTech. She chose UF where she’s finishing her first year and all of her pre-engineering coursework (she came in using the max 45 hours of AP credit she’s allowed at UF). She’ll be a junior in the fall starting her ChemE engineering classes. After being admitted to GaTech, she was invited to enter for the Presidents Scholarship (I think that’s the name). However, she didn’t make it to the next round. At that point we couldn’t see paying the huge OOS fees for GaTech when she has Bright Futures here in FL. Combined with the Robert C Byrd she receives and a Siemens corporate scholarship, Florida’s an excellent bargain. Does it have the national prestige of GaTech when you mention ChemE, no, but as someone else says it rates very very high. Also, she’s going to move forward to either grad school or med school. Both her dad and I have graduate degrees (Ph.D for him and MS for me so are more concerned with her grad school than undergrad). We were paid to go to go to grad school by our respective departments. We expect the same will occur for her, either thru a teaching or research assistantship. Therefore, in order to maximize bang for our buck … it was an obvious choice for us, especially if she decides on med school … which will be financially challenging … no need to do extra debt on top for undergrad. She loves UF, loves being 2 hours from home, and loves her advisors, too, especially her ChemE advisor. She’s being encouraged to partipate in research in the chemE department, and she’s hopefully going to begin that soon. She didn’t start yet as she was debating between ME and ChemE and just made her final decision after taking an intro to engineering course that explores all engineering disciplines. Her fall schedule was Calc 3, Honors enriched physics (must be able to handle calc 2), history of architecture, some diversity class, and the intro to eng class. She’s now in honors enriched physics 2, chem 2 w/ lab, diffyq, tech writing for engineers and stats for engineers. So far her GPA is a 3.91, and she’s got straight A’s going this semester. </p>
<p>Can only speak to D’s experience and our way of thinking …</p>
<p>Good luck wherever you choose! :)</p>
<p>zebes</p>
<p>OK, GBP, you bring up Lockheed in your example, and I won’t let your comments go uncontested. UF, is in fact, a target school for LMT. Actually, if goes beyond that…it rises to the level of a Key recruitment school…the same as GaTech and a handful of others. Now, are you trying to tell me that UF’s Key-school status at LMT is only because we have operations in Florida? Or are you saying LMT is an anomaly?</p>
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<p>ASU, OSU and PSU all have 60,000-65,000 students not counting branch campuses.</p>
<p>Gainesville, FL is just about as far away from a beach as you can get in Florida, which is still probably only like a 2 hour drive. It is really right in the middle of the state just where the peninsula connects to the panhandle.</p>
<p>In regards to national companies not recruiting for out-of-state positions, that is not true.</p>
<p>I am an engineering student at UF and I have received offers from 3 large companies for summer internships this upcoming summer. All 3 positions are out of the state, one in Cincinnati, one in Minneapolis, and one in New York. I also know a few people who completed internships last summer and they have been all over the country with some great companies… A close friend of mine worked in California all summer.</p>
<p>At the same time, I do give Georgia Tech credit as they are a better ranked school in engineering. I was in this dilemma 2 years ago and chose UF for not only financial but also campus life reasons.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>I agree. Things on this board tend to get blown out of proportion. GT has more national recruiting for sure, but to say UF has none is just not true. Over the last 15 years or so UF has gone from a pretty mediocre academic school to a very selective school. Nearly every good student in the entire state has it on the top of their list - the in-state tuition is just too great to pass up in most cases. Average entering freshmen have weighted GPA’s around 4.2 I believe, SATs near 1300. </p>
<p>I know for a fact that a number of Wall Street banks were recruiting there before they went bust (surely there for the business school, but still.) It’s definitely a target for most defense contractors… On top of this, my brother and a number of his friends got jobs all over the country. Looking at the list of companies that recruit there, it doesn’t seem far off from the list that recruits at Purdue.</p>
<p>Out of the publics, UF is in the top 10-20 - not even remotely comparable to U of Houston (not in selectivity, rankings, quality, name recognition, etc.). Ten to fifteen years down the road it’ll be be in the top five(ish) most selective publics in the country - 20 million people live in Florida, and every year UFs reputation gets better, making more of the states best students consider going there.</p>
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<p>Yes. </p>
<p>And UH - UF is a very appropriate example because UH is the extreme case. It’s not a very highly ranked school or difficult school to get in, and yet it is highly recruited by many of the big companies in Houston, and it’s a target school for several of big oil and gas firms. Why? Well, first it’s close to those companies, so it’s cheap enough that many say “why not?”. Second, because it’s close to their facilities and has night and weekend classes (which Rice does not), it gets many of the engineering professionals in the area to attend. Those people work through the rankings, and suddenly there are more UH executives in Houston than Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, or any of the other big engineering schools (granted, most of those executives have UH degrees at the master’s level). It’s the same reason there are more Georgia State alumni CEO’s in Atlanta than Georgia Tech or UGA.</p>
<p>That’s great, right? Absolutely, if you want to stay in Houston (for UH) or Florida (for UF). The problem is, as soon as you leave that home area, the value of the degree drops substantially, quickly. Are you going to find managers in Orlando that say “Hmm. I need some entry level engineers. Let me make a call to UF to see if I can hire some”? Sure. Are you going to find managers in Seattle that say “Hmm. I need some entry level engineers. Let me make a call to UF.”? No. That’s what makes UF a regional school.</p>
<p>So, is Florida a bad school after which you are doomed to never be employed? Of course not. No one said that. But will you have less opportunities coming out of Florida vs. one of the top engineering programs that compete at a national level? Yes.</p>
<p>Also, someone mentioned the beach - it’s about 90 minutes to either the Atlantic or the Gulf, which really isn’t that bad. It’s not right on the water like Miami or the CA schools, but there is still access to beaches on the weekends.</p>
<p>^ Sorry GPB, you’ve discredited yourself regarding the hiring practices at LMT. I’ll bring up your comment at our next staff meeting…apparently we will have to re-write the process for determining key-school status. They will get quite a chuckle out of it.</p>
<p><em>cough</em> <em>cough</em></p>
<p>Man, I am choking on animosity. Come on people, let’s be civil.</p>
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<p>Or you’re jumping to conclusions you shouldn’t because you’ve decided to be adversarial rather than open to discussion. Is Maryland a “Key” school for LMT? Why not?</p>
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<p>That is not true. As I mentioned earlier, all the companies I received offers from are not based in Florida, and 3 of them don’t even have an office in Florida. This not only applies to me but also other to many people I know. Likewise, if you attend our career fair, you will see companies from all over the country recruiting and hiring.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>I have been to the UF career fair, several times, and my comments come partially from that experience.</p>
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<p>I just flipped a coin three times and got heads each time. I suppose that means that the probability of heads is 100%. </p>
<p>This is turning into a war of attrition.</p>
<p>GPB, it is quite odd you would now choose to pick on UMCP. UMCP, in fact, is also a key recruitment school for LMT….just like GaTech and UF (and it is not because our corporate headquarters is in Maryland). Key schools are not chosen based on geographic location. They are selected based on a cross-section of performance-based metrics, such as student quality, research and collaborative opportunities, and, most importantly, actual on-the-job performance records of 10s of thousands of employees spanning an almost endless cross-section of schools. There is no advantage given to graduates of one Key School over another.</p>
<p>At one time, LMT did include a few schools in our “Key” and “Target” school list for reasons of diversity and inclusion. However, we track those schools in a separate grouping now. For the Key Schools, the selection of schools is completely performance-based.</p>
<p>Further, I am only challenging you on your definitions of what constitutes a “national school” because I feel you are doing high school students a disservice with sweeping generalizations. I don’t personally care how you define these terms for yourself, but your comments could be interpreted by naive high schoolers that by attending UF or UMCP or Iowa State they will be somehow be categorized differently…and be limited in their career opportunities …than if they attended GaTech. And that is simply not the case.</p>
<p>At my school there a national companies like Lockheed, Boeing, Hali, Rolls Royce, etc…but they stand out, at MIT they wouldn’t stand out. Also there’s a additional reason why some companies come here and others don’t…for example the former CEO of LMT was an ISU grad and there’s history between these companies and ISU Aerospace, there’s even wall in Howe Hall of all the distinguished alumni at those companies mangement. Whereas at a school like MIT there need not to be some special connection, I’d imagine every big name is going to be at that CF. I can name a real good number of big companies that came here last fall, at MIT you wouldn’t have to name them, all of them were there. </p>
<p>If I just looked at Agriculture Industry it would be a similar analogy only in reverse, John Deere may go to school ‘A’ to recruit but over here every company that matters in the US for Agriculture comes here to recruit; they don’t stand out. </p>
<p>People seem to imply if you not at an elite school you can go places but it’s rare, well try sometime just looking up for example ‘director of aerospace NASA’, the first American I found was state school, or ‘Director of Biofuels research at Conoco Phillips’ or director of CFD research at Cornell, state schools again…try it, it is not rare by anymeans, but places like MIT are still indeed more distinguished in this regard…</p>
<p>So what did you decide? How did it turn out?</p>