<p>I was about to mention UAH! Everything is dead out there, but there is an abundance of tech companies. I don't know how much Marshall recruits locally, or if there is a "feeder" school.</p>
<p>I think any good engineering program will give you about the same chance at NASA, Boeing, Lockheed, etc. Look into internships at the NASA centers. I know JPL offers various summer opportunities.</p>
<p>Have you considered UCLA? I have a friend at Chico State in California that swears JPL recruits a lot there.</p>
<p>Here is the key-school list (most heavily recruited):</p>
<p>Iowa State
Texas A & M
University of Arizona
University of Colorado - Boulder
University of Texas - Austin
Howard
Carnegie Mellon
Ohio State
Purdue
University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign)
University of Michigan
Cornell
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Penn State
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
University of Pennsylvania
Georgia Tech
University of Florida
University of Maryland - College Park
University of Virginia
Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech)
Stanford
University of California - Berkeley
University of California - Los Angeles
University of Southern California
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo</p>
<p>Here is the Target School list:</p>
<p>Colorado State
Southern Methodist University
University of Texas - El Paso
Kansas State University
Oklahoma State University
University of New Mexico
Texas Tech
Colorado School of Mines
Texas Christian University
Hampton
Morehouse
Tuskegee
North Carolina State University
Mississippi State
Alabama A and M
Florida State
University of Arkansas
Spelman
Florida International University
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Florida)
University of Central Florida
George Mason University
James Madison University
Michigan State University
Notre Dame
University of Minnesota
University of Missouri - Rolla
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Florida Atlantic University
Old Dominion University
Rutgers - New Brunswick
Clarkson
Drexel
Lehigh
Rochester Institute of Technology
SUNY Binghamton
SUNY Buffalo
Syracuse
Villanova
University of Maryland - Baltimore County
Arizona State
Brigham Young University
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
San Jose State University
University of Washington
University of California - Davis
University of California - San Diego
University of Hawaii
Santa Clara University</p>
<p>Thanks for the list Rogracer. I reordered the list of key schools in alphabetical order.</p>
<p>There are no real suprises here. I was surprised not to see Caltech or Princeton. Perhaps they are too small. Otherwise, the list had no surprises.</p>
<p>California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo
Carnegie Mellon University
Cornell University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Howard University
Iowa State
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ohio State University-Columbus
PennSylvania State University-University Park
Purdue University-West Lafayette
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Stanford University
Texas A & M University-College Station
University of Arizona
University of California - Berkeley
University of California - Los Angeles
University of Colorado-Boulder
University of Florida
University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign
University of Maryland - College Park
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
University of Pennsylvania
University of Southern California
University of Texas-Austin
University of Virginia
Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech)</p>
<p>That's actually kind of disturbing, rogracer... I'd heard in the past that Lockheed "only hires from a certain number of schools", and to not see Caltech, Princeton, Rice, Olin, or Harvey Mudd on there kind of makes me think y'all are shooting yourselves in the foot.</p>
<p>Is it true that you only recruit from that list of schools? Do you accept resumes from graduates from other schools and actually lend them consideration? If not, how do you all justify that decision?</p>
<p>Our list of schools is based on actual performance metrics of 10s of thousands of employees, as well as other considerations that are important to our business...things like diversity and employee cross-section.</p>
<p>I am sorry if you don't see your favorite school on the list. But that certainly does <em>not</em> mean we don't hire students from your school. In fact, we hire from lots of schools not on the list. And of course we hire from Caltech and Princeton, even if they are not identified as Key or Target schools. In posting this information, I was hoping to make the point that the potential of the student trumps the school, and people shouldn't over-analyze this data. Five years into your career and your school will make little difference in our hiring decision.</p>
<p>As a note, I have friends that went to work at Lockheed, Boeing, and NASA, but all of them were in materials science. I know MSE tends to send a lot of people to the aerospace industry, so that might be boosting CMU's stats since we don't actually have an aeronautical engineering program.</p>
<p>I went to Olin and have had internships at both Lockheed and Boeing so it's definitely possible to get hired even if you aren't on the preferred list of schools.</p>
<p>Also, many students at Olin have had internships with NASA or JPL.</p>
<p>rogracer, do you guys mostly recruit people from mechanical engineering at Berkeley? How about UCLA? (UCLA does have an aerospace engineering program, but I'm thinking of going into mechanical, because in the event that I don't get a job in the aerospace industry I'll have job opportunities elsewhere.)</p>
<p>
[quote]
I went to Olin and have had internships at both Lockheed and Boeing so it's definitely possible to get hired even if you aren't on the preferred list of schools.</p>
<p>Also, many students at Olin have had internships with NASA or JPL.
[/quote]
Regardless of the quality of the program, it's still very new and very small. It would've been shocking for Olin to be on that list since it's based on the performance metrics of current and past employees.</p>
<p>I too would be surprised if Olin is on any such lists. And when I interned at Lockheed, I found out once I got there Olin is not on their list, but I did not expect it would be.</p>
<p>For small schools like Olin, it's more about luck, <em>networking</em>, or having something eye-catching on your resume.</p>
<p>One thing I should mention about "Key Schools"...it isn't simply about recruitment. Those are the schools we develop relationships with to cultivate talent....we will sponsor engineering society dinners, senior projects, DARPA challenge events, Formula SAE competitions, etc. It gives us a chance to "get inside" the schools and find the best students...the ones that are exceptionally smart and work well as organizers and as part of productive teams....those are skills that are very important for a career in engineering. Schools with small programs, although they may be deemed elite by some folks on these boards, sometimes do not produce a good return on our recruitment investment in finding suitable talent.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Schools with small programs, although they may be deemed “elite” by some folks on these boards, sometimes do not produce a good return on our recruitment investment in finding suitable talent.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>...because there aren't enough people in the smaller programs to justify the expense of supporting them, or because y'all think they're overrated?</p>
<p>I can understand the former, but I think it's a mistake to assume that those programs are overrated and not worth the investment.</p>
<p>
[quote]
...because there aren't enough people in the smaller programs to justify the expense of supporting them, or because y'all think they're overrated?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Why can't it simply be that they want someone who will be a good engineer? Not a good entrepeneur, not a good theoretician. Some engineering schools send a lot of people to academia.</p>
<p>Why do people from small schools have to be lousy practitioners?</p>
<p>Most smaller schools have a pretty heavy practical program, in addition to the theory and business elements. Mudd and Olin focus specifically on hands-on engineering. My Mudd-grad brother and his graduate research group were looking at various parts for a network switch they're developing and they needed a simple metal piece that they were going to have custom-made. My brother offered to go into the machine shop and make it himself. His elec brethren stared at him and asked, "Where'd you learn to do metalwork??" He stared back and said, "At engineering school! What did you guys learn in undergrad...??"</p>
<p>I've been to a small program, and I've been to a big powerhouse program. From what I've seen, there are as many excellent candidates at the smaller program as there are at the bigger programs. </p>
<p>If the justification is that there aren't enough students to choose from and that they can't recruit as many people from the smaller programs as they can from the bigger programs, I can understand that. If the idea is that these smaller, "elite" programs churn out theoretical drones who can't function in the working world, I think that they're incredibly mistaken in their assumptions about folks from those programs.</p>
<p>
[quote]
My Mudd-grad brother and his graduate research group were looking at various parts for a network switch they're developing and they needed a simple metal piece that they were going to have custom-made.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Read what you wrote in bold. You're proving my point that people like your brother are uninterested in the people Lockheed is looking for: BS-level engineers. Yes they recruit MS/PhD people but in much smaller quantities. Those 25 schools rogracer listed pump out a lot of people who stop their education at the BS-level, so it makes sense for Lockheed to get their name out there in those schools they have identified that produce quality people for what they want are looking forward to that Lockheed job when they get out.</p>
<p>I went to a small school. Exactly 1 out of 18 in my class applied for a PhD program, and the rest went into industry and a handful went on for a terminal masters program while working part-time.</p>
<p>The class as a whole wasn't too interested in theory. It was actually a common complaint we had about some classes; theory was emphasized too much and practical problems weren't emphasized enough.</p>
<p>Our key school list is all about return-on-investment. The schools listed have depth of programs across a range of departments and have talented students that are as good as those anywhere (trust me, this is a true statement). You will notice a lot of public universities on the list...and I am willing to bet that stuns a lot to see that especially when many ivies and so-called elite schools are missing. But we can harvest more talent typically at the schools listed for every dollar spent. And again, at our Key schools we have deep involvement with professors, projects and students that is simply not possible with small programs that don't have the resources to field, for example, a DARPA challenge team.</p>
<p>Also, at the schools listed we can get BS, MS and PhD students engaged...and get to know these students at a working level....which again is not always possible with smaller programs. Do we think some of these smaller schools are "over-rated"? No, not really. But I do think there is a perception on these boards that underrates many of the quality public school programs that are out there.</p>
<p>
[quote]
But I do think there is a perception on these boards that underrates many of the quality public school programs that are out there.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That's probably fair.</p>
<p>I just know that at the smaller schools, it was a lot more difficult to get the attention of key companies, and it would often feel like we had to jump up and down, waving our resumes over our heads in order to get someone to talk to us. </p>
<p>My school wasn't particularly well-known for the program that I attended outside of the school's geographic region, and though those of us who chose to stay in the field (there were a few engineers-turned-lawyers/businessmen) ended up at the top two or three grad programs in the field, some of us only went to grad school because we had a terrible time attracting the attention of companies we actually wanted to work for. </p>
<p>Now that we have degrees from those "powerhouse" schools, everyone wants to hire us, but we wouldn't even <em>get</em> recruiters in our field at our career fairs when I was an undergrad. It was a little frustrating-- we were supposed to have these degrees from a really great school and nobody wanted to talk to us.</p>
<p>
[quote]
now I'd like to know what the key schools of Boeing and NASA are.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I'm almost certain that they're similar, if they have "key schools". I've only specifically heard of Lockheed having a "key school" list, but I'm sure if the others have like-purposed lists (and they probably do), that they look extremely similar.</p>