<p>If you reread my post, it’s not the salary that is $200K, but rather the stock options. I realize it’s not normal to make that much elsewhere but this is Silicon Valley we are talking about, not some aerospace industry or utility company. In Silicon Valley, the salary is only the stipend for you to live on until your stock options is worth something. The point is not to set the limit on what you can earn, not to be a bean counter(yes, I have minor in accounting, and MBA from a Cal State) that you want to limit your earning potential. Being at the right place at the right time will certainly worth a lot more than $150K in 10 years as one poster calculated. A lot of my coworkers and neighbors accumulated a lot more through stock options than $150K just because they were in Silicon Valley and not elsewhere. Do you think WhatsApp worth $19 billion if it was not located elsewhere?
So my advice to OP is to pick Cal Poly SLO because of it’s proximity to Silicon Valley for that reason and because it’s an excellent school that is well proven in Silicon Valley despite that fact that might cost $70K more. Go where you have to the potential and opportunity to earn more money because normally it’s not easy to make that kind of money elsewhere.</p>
<p>The real point is that it doesn’t matter if it’s salary or stock options, most engineers still don’t make that much.</p>
<p>Further, not every engineer’s goal is Silicon Valley so blanket statements about being closer are not necessarily relevant. Suppose then OP’s son wants to do aerospace engineering, for example. There’s not much there for him in that case.</p>
<p>If the OP’s son’s interests are in computer science or engineering or electrical engineering, then sure, going to a school with good connections to Silicon Valley seems like a pretty good idea, even if he doesn’t end up desiring that route. On the other hand, if he wants to study mechanical engineering and work on cars or something, that’s not really relevant.</p>
<p>Well, I’m not the one that brought up money. I agree not every engineer’s goal is to work at Silicon Valley, except in this case the OP is asking about these colleges. I don’t know if you can say it’s not relevant or who are you to say it’s not relevant base on your experience. Last post.</p>
<p>I think it’s relevant, but only to a small degree. Employability, in general, might be more apt. </p>
<p>He was leaning Cal Poly from the very beginning, but turned up a list of eight that he was intrigued by and ultimately narrowed it to the three discussed here. He had a pretty good understanding of the pros and cons of each institution from HIS (I stress his, because as you all know, that’s the most important point of view in any college search), but was still a bit conflicted. In the end he sorted it out for himself without any addition from me.</p>
<p>thanks again for all the insight!</p>
<p>The “chump change” thing is too subjective and can seriously offend people. I consider my wage (just slightly into 6 figures) to be very good, especially for the area I live in (which is not Silicon Valley/Bay Area, Seattle, Austin, Chicago, or NYC), my roommate who works at the same company and makes slightly more than me, thinks the wage is really low and everyone else makes more. His stock comes from elite stock, getting a job like this with pay like this is a failure to him. To me, I’m very happy with it, I never expected I’d get this much coming right out of college. It seriously annoys me sometimes when he talks about it. </p>
<p>So, Dr. Google, go easy on it because a lot of us aren’t the type who are gonna get something like that. Don’t call something “chump change” just because you/your associates make more, because it can seriously be offensive to people here. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Fixed that for you.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>$70k in silicon valley is barely enough to buy a modest house. These silicon valley salaries need to be put in context… SV is a very expensive place to live.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Money is really irrelevant to many people past a certain point. An engineer can live a pretty nice lifestyle on $100-150k, which is the range <em>most</em> engineers top out in. Yes, that’s right, most engineers TOP OUT within that range, despite the bogus claims that are often made on this forum. Take aero engineers for example… one of the highest paid fields in engineering. [Aero</a> Engineer V Salary Breakdown](<a href=“http://www1.salary.com/Aerospace-Engineer-V-Salary.html]Aero”>http://www1.salary.com/Aerospace-Engineer-V-Salary.html). [And</a> here’s the breakdown for ChemE’s](<a href=“http://www1.salary.com/Chemical-Engineer-V-Salary.html]And”>Chemical Engineer V Salary | Salary.com)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No, it’s okay to offend other people, they’re not worthy of consideration.;p</p>
<p>Dr Google never ceases to amaze me. Even if an engineer starts making 150K in SV which is probably the exception, you still have to consider the cost of living. </p>
<p>The average home price in a place like San Jose is 800 K. Even with a nice down payment, your monthly mortgage payment would be 4000 dollars not including PMI. Ridiculous!</p>
<p>Here in Iowa, or any Midwestern state or Southern state, an Engineer could easily start at 65 K a year and in some smaller markets, you can still buy a pretty decent home for under 100K. You do the math!</p>
<p>at OP: Got to the school that is the cheapest and ABET accredited, and the environment your kid is most likely to succeed in. Don’t matter where you get your degree, as longs as you do internships and get your name out there. Engineering is a MERIT based profession.</p>
<p>I think OP and his son did a fine job sorting through the options and picking the best choice for their situation. It’s a bit like picking a car (except committing to 4 new cars in a row). Different families will have different priorities and end up driving different cars. The important thing is to not splurge if it causes financial strain or excess debt. </p>
<p>You guys seem to misread what I wrote. I didn’t write an engineer starts out making $150K, the $150K refers to 10 year with interest that bschoolwiz was calculating to come up with $150K(that was his figure not mine). So even with zero interest that is $15K of savings so that is chum change. When I refers to chum change, I refer to the potential money an engineer could make in 10 years through stock options, not salary. Most of my coworkers average between 5-10 million at the last bubble provided some of them are engineers as a couple.</p>
<p>BTW, Aerospace engineers do not make a lot of money, rather Chemical Engineer.
I did some research on Quora an a fresh new CS graduate makes $100K at Google with some stock options and bonus. For a startup like DropBox, a fresh new CS graduate makes $120K. </p>
<p>I meant to write $15K savings per year, CC did not let me edit.
So what for the $4000 PMI, if your salary can cover it then it’s not a big deal. People that rent one of my rentals pays nearly $5000 a month but they can afford it because the wife gets paid $165K from Google + options and bonus and her husband makes under $100K from a small start up.</p>