USC vs Purdue

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Southern California
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<p>My son has been accepted at USC Viterbi School of Engineering and Purdue School of Engineering. We live in in the midwest so we will pay OOS tuition at Purdue. Purdue gave him $10k merit scholarship but unfortunately at this point he has not received any USC merit scholarships. His USC financial aid package is pending because they needed more tax information. </p>

<p>If USC's FC comes in at around $30K it will be competitive with Purdue's cost. </p>

<p>I understand that USC has got the weather over Purdue. USN&R ranks Purdue's Engineering in the top 15 and USC in the top 25. Purdue seems to have a pretty extensive cooperative program where students can start working as early as their freshman/sophomore summer. I really don't have any info on USC internship and cooperative.</p>

<p>Besides engineering, my son is interested marching band and playing jazz guitar. USC has a great music and marching band program and Purdue has a pretty good marching band and a few music classes. </p>

<p>My question is about job placement and internships/cooperatives. Has anyone have information on how successful USC Viterbi students were in getting a hired into a internship/cooperative? How has Viterbi grads fared in getting hired after graduation?</p>

2

<p>I dont know the answer to your question, but i live in indiana and purdue is a great school. Howeveer, one thing that is important to keep in mind is that at USC your son will be surrounded by kids that have tried hard their whole lives and have the test scores and resumes to prove it. At purdue your son will be surrounded by instate students that skated through high school (I know a lot of kids from my high school with lower than a 3.0 GPA that are going to Purdue). Even though the engineering students are top-tier students at purdue, the networking will be a lot better at USC.
Also both my parents are engineers from purdue and it has not helped them in the job market. My dad (who also has his MBA from nd) has lost his job a lot and his purdue degree has not helped him. Hope that kinda of helps you know more about purdue</p>

3

<p>Thanks, Schredder.
You make a valid point about entrance standards and I believe that Purdue washes out many engineering students the first year. Sorry that your dad lost his job. It is a brutal job market.</p>

4

<p>As far as I know, Viterbi does not release statistics like the ones you are looking for. USC does have a TON of career-related resources however. First, there is the Engineering Career Fair, held every semester. Here’s the list of companies that attended this spring: <a href=“http://viterbi.usc.edu/assets/121/73055.pdf[/url]”>http://viterbi.usc.edu/assets/121/73055.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Those places are all looking for students for internships and co-ops. Viterbi also has extensive career counseling services, including resume reviews, interview training, and many other topics. In addition, there is a program called On-Campus Recruiting that facilitates interviews with companies for possible positions. Honestly, there are so many career resources to take advantage of that it’s a bit overwhelming. The thing is though, nobody is going to hand your son a job on a silver platter. If you’re looking for a school like that, you’re not going to find one. However hard he works in this is how likely he is to find an internship. The school can only help, but the student has to do the legwork.</p>

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<p>Hawkwings thanks for the info.
The co op list was helpful to see which engineering disciplines were being recruited. </p>

<p>Also, as with admission to USC, my son expects that the application for internships/co-ops and job placement will always be highly competitive. I was just inquiring on the number or types of companies that offer these opportunities to USC Viterbi students.</p>

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<p>I don’t live in Indiana (never have) but I did go to Purdue and graduated with a EE. I also have an MBA. Granted this was in the 1970s but when looking for a job, being from Purdue definitely helped. I got some interviews just because I graduated from Purdue.</p>

<p>Remember Purdue is a public university and USC is private so Purdue will take more instate students. For in state Indiana students, if you want to major in engineering you go to Purdue as IU does not have engineering. </p>

<p>While I may be biased toward Purdue, my son goes to USC (in architecture). Purdue’s engineering coop program is one of the best in the country.</p>

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<p>A friend of mine went to Viterbi and got a job (not internship) at Cisco for the summer after Freshman year and then worked part time (over the internet) throughout the rest of his time at USC (still maintained a stellar GPA in EE) and now works full time at Cisco. He got the job because a friend of his dad’s friend was a higher up at Cisco. The point is, regardless of where you go, your success relies on networking/connections and I think that USC is better for that, I don’t know what type of engineer he wants to be, but if it is EE that he wants to go into, Silicon Valley is a whole lot closer.</p>

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<p>One of the great things about the Viterbi School of Engineering is its location in Los Angeles. The city and the surrounding Southern California area have a large population of engineering and technology companies across a variety of industries. I have had numerous opportunities at USC to meet and network with recruiters and full-time employees from companies such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Jet Propulsion Lab, and SpaceX. In fact, I took a semester-long spacecraft propulsion class that is taught by a full-time employee at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works - Lockheed Martin’s advanced development facility. I am an aerospace engineering major, so I have concentrated on networking with companies that have a heavy need for aerospace/mechanical engineers. However, a lot of my friends in other engineering disciplines have had similar successes networking with companies in their field. USC Viterbi takes full advantage of its geographic position in LA.</p>

<p>I terms of my success obtaining work, I have had two engineering co-ops/internships during my time at USC: During my junior year, I spent nine months as a co-op with NASA at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. I worked at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (astronaut spacewalk training facility with full-scale mockups of the ISS) as well as in the propulsion systems group during my time at JSC. This summer, I will be working as a propulsion design intern at SpaceX in Los Angeles (I’m hoping to work on some version of the Falcon 9 rocket).</p>

<p>USC and Viterbi really helped me gain both of these engineering positions. The Viterbi Career Services office hosts several career fairs throughout the year, and I was able to talk to recruiters from both NASA and SpaceX at previous career fairs. Recruiters from most engineering companies will set up a table on campus during these events, so it is pretty easy to stop by with your resume in between classes. Recruiters usually visit campus many times for various events, so I have found that a lot of recruiters know USC students by name - which makes it a whole lot easier to obtain jobs and internships.</p>

<p>That being said, the best formula to obtain an engineering internship or co-op, regardless of what university you attend, is to work hard and gain a lot of engineering project experience through class projects, on-campus research, and student design groups. There are a lot of USC students that take advantage of these “hands-on” experiences, and the Viterbi school provides them with opportunities to showcase what they have done to recruiters.</p>

<p>Best,
Pat</p>

9

<p>Wow - Congratulations on two great choices! </p>

<p>Of course, in the current economy, I think family finances should be a serious factor in all of our decisions. We have similar issues with selecting schools right now.</p>

<p>Beyond money, my son has been accepted to Viterbi and here are my thoughts. </p>

<p>First, my son is so excited about going somewhere warm and different (We live on the east coast). So, USC meets that goal more than an in-state school. What are your child’s dreamsvisions about college?</p>

<p>Second, your child will likely meet smart kids from all over the US and the world at USC, whereas Purdue will have a large percentage from your own state. Because Purdue engineering is so well-regarded, your child will be surrounded by motivated kids just like at USC, so that is good.</p>

<p>Third, where does he think he wants to work after? Sometimes it is best to go in-state for networking if he wants to settle in your area.</p>

<p>Fourth, I am a little worried that Viterbi could be too challenging for my child. Looking at the SATs and GPAs of the Viterbi kids vs. Purdue, I would say that the peer competition could be stiffer at USC, which could make it hard if your child is not a genious (Mine is not). </p>

<p>Fifth, of course, there is the distance from home. I am fine with it, but my spouse is a little worried. How do you feel?</p>

<p>Anyway - Just some thoughts that we have had - We are going to do our best to try to send him to USC, in the end, because that is the school out he is most excited about.</p>

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<p>PS - I didn’t mean to say “from your state;” I meant to say “from Indiana” above, as you are not in-state for Purdue. Also, I know from close friends who are USC grads that Trojan alumni are very enthusiastic and like to help each other in job networking. I don’t know anything about Purdue alumni. Could be the same.</p>

11

<p>Wow, thanks Momandboystwo, VitberiStudent, Starchild87 and msheft for all the great info. </p>

<p>Momandboystwo congrats on your son’s acceptance to Viterbi and for listing some great questions ! I’ll try to answer them in order.</p>

<p>What are your child’s dreams/visions about college? Besides USC, my son was also very interested in Harvey Mudd. I believe he liked the small campus vibe and the academical challenge atmosphere. He didn’t get into Mudd but USC offers a much smaller campus than Purdue. He has done well with jazz guitar and wants to continue learning and performing> USC offers a great opportunity for him to pursue his passion in music.</p>

<p>Second, my child will likely meet smart kids from all over the US and the world at USC, and Purdue engineering. I agree! I also believe that USC will offer more in terms of better selection of minors and to take classes within the highly regarded Arts and Sciences departments.</p>

<p>Third, where does he think he wants to work after? He is undecided at this point but has talked about working at Disney as an imagineer. So he understands that he would be living in California or Florida.</p>

<p>Fourth, Viterbi could be too challenging. Academically my son has done well. Illinois students usually take the ACT and he scored a 34. He was in the top 5% of his class but I know that he will be surrounded with some brilliant USC students and at Purdue Engineering. At Purdue, he was accepted into their honors engineering program. I do believe that USC will provide a much more competitive atmosphere. </p>

<p>Fifth, of course, there is the distance from home. His mom and I are concerned that we will miss him and he will be homesick. I think it will be initially difficult for him but if he gets involved in USC’s marching band, he will have so much going on he will be less home sick. We have been preparing since September that he would be going to college somewhere in California. </p>

<p>We live in the Chicago area and he enjoys living in a large urban area but is looking for a new town. We figured this out after he was also accepted to Northwestern’s engineering program but immediately told us he was not interested in attending. I have always kidded him about going somewhere were his dad (me) could enjoy parents weekend in a warmer climate. LOL</p>

<p>We are all excited about him having the opportunity to choose between three great engineering schools. Him and his mom will be going to Explore USC on April 17th so hopefully he can get more of a complete understanding of what USC will offer. </p>

<p>Best wishes to your son on his acceptance!</p>