<p>I want to be a chemical engineer major and want to know how these two engineering schools compare. I know UT is ranked higher but I have a better scholarship at Alabama and like both schools ni want to decide based on the quality of their engineering progeams.</p>
<p>In the end money talks (scholarship, merit aid, grants, etc) rather than school ranking unless you have been accepted at MIT, Stanford, Cal-Tech, etc., you certainly dont want to end up with huge student loan as it is not worth it at all.</p>
<p>What you can do also if you think UT is ranked higher but you have better money from Alabama, you go to Alabama then go for Grad School at UT. I am sure their Grad School (UT) also will pay for your education just check it out their programs. Good luck.</p>
<p>I agree with Jan, and I’ve got my BS and MS from UT in engineering. Just study hard at Alabama so you’ll be prepared for grad school at UT - it’s challenging!</p>
<p>I disagree with the previous two… partially. You can’t count on going to graduate school. You may end up not wanting to go, you may end up not being able to get in or any other number of things. Therefore, you really ought to make sure that your undergraduate institution can get you where you want to go. Check with their career services and see who recruits each school. UT will have a much larger national recruiting footprint, but Bama may have the kind of companies you are looking for anyway so it won’t matter.</p>
<p>money isn’t really an issue, because I could easily afford to go to UT. Also I’m just worried about getting a bachelors degrees. So academically, how do the undergraduate engineering programs compare?</p>
<p>@boneh3ad how can I view the companies that recruit each school?</p>
<p>Search for their career center and there should be links to career fair information on those sites. Those aren’t typically exhaustive lists, but they are a good indicator of the types of companies recruiting there.</p>
<p>Bonehead, sounds like you are saying that the recruiters have the best feel for which university prepares the ideal engineer employee. That does make sense. Otherwise, how else could you really know? Inspecting the college catalog for classes offered? Those engineering rankings put out by USN&WR–what do they really mean anyway?</p>
<p>I don’t know that companies know which university “prepares ideal engineers” the best, but companies know which universities tend to produce graduate that they want or consider valuable. For example, you will see people like Google recruiting at MIT, but probably not Chicago Bridge and Iron, who also need engineers, because MIT grads are not who they are looking for and if you are looking to get into the manufacturing type positions, maybe you ought to look somewhere else. The bottom line is that it is simply smart to attend a school with a track record of sending engineers to the types of jobs and/or graduate schools in which you are interested.</p>
<p>If money isn’t an issue, I think it’s worth considering UT. I have a lot of coworkers from UT Austin including the gal I currently share an office with (our division outgrew our building and we’ve had to double up). I hear UT is one of our main recruiting schools, and we even have a small office out there, specifically because of the school (Google does as well). I’ve never met any engineers from University of Alabama. I have one coworker who came from Alabama, but he went to Vandy for school.</p>
<p>From what I understand UT is still one of the most affordable schools in the country. I would seriously consider going there instead, since it may offer more opportunities after you graduate.</p>
<p>In terms of a job out of school UT Austin will definitely look better to recruiters than University of Alabama. UT Austin wins that hands down. UT Austin is considered among the tiers that recruiters nationwide will look at. Alabama is not in that tier</p>
<p>However if money and location and atmosphere are more important then go to Alabama. After your first job out of school people don’t look at school prestige as much. They will look more at what you did at your first job.</p>
<p>1) How competitive are jobs for Chemical Engineers?</p>
<p>2) If the industry is very competitive (more candidates than jobs), then the undergrad school’s rep will matter more.</p>
<p>3) If there are more jobs than candidates (like CS or software engineering)…goto U-Alabama and save money.</p>
<p>So y’all are saying the an engineering degree is much more respectable from UT compared to Bama?</p>
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<p>Nationally, yes, by a lot. Really, Bama arguably isn’t even the best engineering school in its own state. Bama isn’t exactly known for academics. Good football team though, and some really good looking ladies, though UT has those, too.</p>