I am interested in going to ASU Barrett’s biomed, chemical, or maybe aerospace engineering program. I would be instate with a fair amount of scholarship money. What is job placement and the courses like at ASU for engineering? Would you say it’s worth spending an extra 30,000 dollars a year to go to Texas A&M instead? Like I said, job placement is very important to me. Thanks
The reputation of Texas A&M engineering is powerful but probably not worth the extra expense/tuition over Arizona State.
Where do you ideally want to settle? If TX, A&M may have some extra weight. But it does not seem like that could be worth an extra $120K, especially if some of it is loans.
ASU Engineering has a very good reputation even if not as high as Texas A&M. Because of their size, both schools will have large companies from all over the country recruiting on campus. Smaller companies will tend to recruit more locally so TA&M may get more Texas companies (esp. oil companies) recruiting on campus. Both states have a strong aerospace company presence. That said, you can always make the first move and contact companies who do not recruit on campus.
I would guess that engineering classes are very similar because they are both ABET accredited so I personally would not pay more simply for a higher USNews ranking. However, I might be inclined to pay a reasonable amount more if my kid really felt A&M was a better fit for a good reason. And I would suggest taking a close look to see how the degrees are structured at both schools. There can be a difference in emphasis (design vs theory, number of required vs elective classes, what electives are available) even between curricula that are both ABET accredited.
ASU ranked very highly in 2010 on a Wall Street Journal survey of companies regarding new hire recruiting:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704358904575477643369663352
This is a bad assumption. ABET just means that the core classes are going to be nearly the same. The type and breadth of electives offered will depend on the faculty at each school and will often vary pretty substantially.
OK I probably should have said core classes but in fact those classes make up a significant part any engineering curriculum anyway. I do agree with you about the electives as I also stated.
ASU’s engineering department is pretty solid overall. A&M’s aerospace program is probably a bit stronger, but other than that, I would say both schools are very good.
From a simple return-on-investment point of view though, no, I don’t think A&M is worth $30k/year more.
As an Aggie, I can say that A&M’s engineering program is very good, but it isn’t 120 more G’s good.