Electrical engineering with a minor in economics. Overall preferable choice?
Both excellent schools. I wouldn’t pay out of state tuition for either.
I’m an international student, so I anyway have to pay out of state tuition. What are the pros and cons according to you?
UC Davis has the #1 veterinary school in the world and belongs to a system world-renowned for its medical program. It works on the quarter system.
Penn State is TECHNICALLY (and I mean very technically) Ivy League so you’ll be under that banner if you choose Penn State. It works on the semester system.
That’s all the international branding I can tell you of both.
@collegemotivator Please don’t confuse people by making incorrect claims. Penn state is not an Ivy League. You are thinking of UPenn.
Furthermore, he said that he would like to major in EE with a minor in economics. Why on earth would having a great veterinary department help him make a decision?
To OP, I am currently a freshman EE major at UC Davis. I haven’t taken any engineering courses yet (I am taking my prerequisites), so you can ask me questions about that if you want.
So far Davis is alright. I would say classes aren’t too rigorous if you are quantitatively oriented. Professors at Davis come from respectable schools/background so if you are into research, you will find great opportunities.
Why am I even commenting on this thread? It’s a year old…
Hi @iamjack , I have been selected in Penn State, Virginia Tech and UC Davis for EE for Fall 2016. Which uni you will advice to join. I am an international student…Thx
Things to look at
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Cost. All schools are on similar prestige levels, so going to any school won’t put you at any immediate disadvantage for job opportunities.
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If cost is not an issue: I would probably choose Virginia Tech just because during the first year, you are admitted as a general engineering major and you choose your speciality your 2nd year. This is only a benefit in my books because I’m not 100% sure whether or not I like EE yet (taking my first EE course next quarter). If you are 100 percent enthusiastic/certain about EE, then this would not be a benefit in your case.
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If you have plans to go into research or grad school, I would choose UC Davis or Penn state because they are research schools and they will prove you with ample opportunities to work with professors if you can provide to them you are capable
I wouldn’t be stressed too much on prestige and job opportunities of the 3 schools you’ve listed because all of them are more or less leveled. I would also take into consideration which city you’d enjoy the most, what type of people you want to be surrounded by, class size, etc.
UC Davis is in the middle of nowhere and the only place to go to if you want to enjoy the Big City lifestyle would be San Francisco. It’s about an hour drive away from davis.
I’ll also tag @PhantomVirgo because he’s been here at Davis longer and is more qualified to give you information. He is a CS major however.
@iamjack I’m a she, for what it’s worth 
@newaspirant98 Prestige wise, the three are approximately equal. @iamjack covered the main points, so I just want to add one thing: Think about where you’d like to work, if you want to work in the US after graduation. If there’s a specific area you’d like to work, it’s usually better to go to school in that area if you can afford to do so. So if for example you want to work in Silicon Valley, Davis is your best bet. But if you want to work in the northeast or on the east coast, one of the other two would be a better choice.
That said, where you get your degree doesn’t limit where you can work. You can get a degree anywhere in the country and end up working anywhere else if you want. It’s just that companies tend to like recruiting from schools that are more local to them, partly because of general proximity and partly because they’re more familiar with nearby schools.
And of course, if you plan to go back to your home country to work after graduation, it doesn’t particularly matter where you go between those three. In that case, I would mostly go by cost.
Oh, another thing with Davis is that it’s very easy to switch majors here, should you decide to. I’m not sure how true that is at Virginia Tech or Penn State, but look into that. Even if you think you’re sure of your major now, you could discover after taking classes that you’re more interested in another field. It’s good to at least know what the process for switching majors is like in case you do end up switching.
@iamjack and @PhantomVirgo Thx a lot for the reply. Very helpful indeed. In terms of the location, I guess all three of them are university town and one has to move out in case someone wants to enjoy city life. So I guess that will not be differentiating factor.
Given this situation, I would like to consider
- class size ( I prefer small classes and more personalised attention from the teachers)
- diverse group of students
- opportunity to have other activities - sports, music , volunteer groups etc besides academics - Penn state seems to be an advantage here
- opportunity of industry internship ,the job on campus opportunity in the final year
- importance of alumni network - Penn state seems to be an advantage here
- Availability of off campus housing ( accessibility/affordability) as one may have to move out after first year from campus housing
If you can help with your comments on these for all three campuses, it would be helpful.
From what I have gathered from various forums/comments till now, the feedback is that
- The professors at Davis are not very approachable and helpful outside the class.
- The no of students doing engineering and EE is very less. ( Someone mentioned 150 engineering students in a year and only 8 in EE).
- The quarterly system also puts a lot of pressure on students.
The above may be completely wrong feedback but just wanted to gather your feedback also on this.
Once again , thanks for help. Have a good day. All the best with your studies.
- Class sizes can get pretty big here, but I'm not sure about EE specifically. The prerequisite classes will be pretty big at any of those three schools, as far as I'm aware. I don't know about upper level major classes though.
- Davis has a very diverse population, but I can't speak to how diverse it is in relation to Virginia Tech or Penn State.
- If you want a big sports school, Penn State does have the advantage. Davis has Division I sports, but frankly most people don't care about them too much. Virginia Tech is also Division I, but I'm not sure about the culture of sports on campus there.
- Davis has proximity to Silicon Valley, which has a good number of opportunities for EE internships. I can't speak to the other two.
- Alumni network is definitely there at any of the three schools.
- Most people going to UCD live in off-campus apartments around town, and our rents are among the lowest of the UCs.
- I'm not sure where you heard that the professors are unapproachable. Some individual ones may be unapproachable, but on the whole I consider the professors here pretty approachable. What is true is that they won't be able to give you individual attention in the larger classes. That's what office hours are for.
- Those numbers are completely off. There are over 400 EE majors, and over 4000 engineering majors overall (as of Fall 2015). Check here: http://budget.ucdavis.edu/data-reports/documents/enrollment-reports/emjudsc_fcurr.pdf
- The quarter system is definitely fast paced, and unforgiving if you start to get behind. It's more a matter of personality and work style though; I personally love the quarter system, and just the thought of the semester system sounds terrible to me with how long the classes drag on. But I've heard the exact opposite complaints from different people, so again it really depends on you. Most people adjust to whatever system their school is on within a couple quarters/semesters. I will admit that quarters will probably have a longer initial adjustment period than semesters, though.
@PhantomVirgo . Thx for taking time out of your busy schedule to provide so much details. It has been really helpful.I will get back in case I have any more question. Hope to see you on Davis campus probably soon. if not would be good to stay in touch and we can exchange our contact details if you will not mind…
Thx once again.
Is there some information/data available regarding campus interview at Davis for undergraduate students mainly for electrical engg. Not able to find anything on the university website while a lot of other university seems to have. Can someone share this info.
Campus interview? I’ve never heard of there being any kind of interview for any major.
I second @PhantomVirgo’s comment that I have never seen interviews conducted for specific majors at any of the UC campuses. Interviews for Regent scholarships and Alumni scholarships etc… yes, but not for all undergraduates. What exactly would your purpose to be interviewing?
@PhantomVirgo and @Gumbymom , probably I did not articulate my query properly. I meant the campus interviews for jobs at the completion of under graduation… Some of the university have the details of the company who came to campus to hire undergraduates…Hope I am clear now…
Oh, it sounds like you’re asking about what companies recruit here?
I don’t know offhand for EE, but the internship and career center has information on what companies go to career fairs. You can’t access it unless you’re a student or alumni, so I’ll type down some for reference:
There’s actually quite a few mid-sized and smaller companies listed, so I think I’ll stick to listing the more well-known ones. I’m only listing well-known companies that specifically list electrical engineering under the majors they’re recruiting.
Amazon
Hewlett Packard (HP)
Intel
Keysight Technologies
And like I said, a bunch of smaller and mid-sized companies as well.
In general, Davis gets a lot of Bay Area companies recruiting. And thanks to Silicon Valley, most of those companies are tech companies.
Thx @PhantomVirgo quite helpful…