<p>All to say that Duke isn't that great for EE, lol, not necessary.</p>
<p>Duke sucks at everything, in general</p>
<p>I can tell from my experience since graduation. Unless you go to IVY, name of school you went to for your BS EE doesn't matter much. You start your career after the graduation as entry-level engineer 1. You get paid the same salary and you work the same hrs. If you go to IVY, I recommend that you go to graduate school. Some of my friends went to purdue, GAtech, and etc. They all ended up finding entry-level jobs. Work experience is very important and unless you worked in the industry for 3-5 years, you will find entry-level jobs. EE is a very difficult major and if you are able to attain a BSEE from any school, you have a bright future.</p>
<p>hey DCguy, what did you specialize in, for EE?</p>
<p>these are the areas of concentration in my EE Dept.</p>
<p>COMMUNICATIONS
COMPUTER HARDWARE
COMPUTER SOFTWARE
CONTROL SYSTEMS
ELECTROMAGNETICS
ELECTRONIC DESIGN
OPTICS
POWER SYSTEMS
REMOTE SENSING AND SPACE SYSTEMS
SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES
SIGNAL & IMAGE PROCESSING (DSP)</p>
<p>Which ones are the one in demand?</p>
<p>I got a specialized degree in DSP. But your specialization doesn't matter much if you got a BSEE. Unless you graduated from IVY or graduate school, I think it's a good idea to take only easy classes for good GPA.</p>
<p>DCguy,</p>
<p>i currently go to UMD-CP, turned down cornell for undergrad, and i have to disagree with you.</p>
<p>a lot of people go to top30 schools, get high gpa's 3.5+ and go to grad school. people of about the same aptitude who go to ivies, end up around 3.0+ and they work (engineering/consulting/banking).</p>
<p>if you are going to grad school (once you are in grad school, the name of your undergrad matters a bit less) then your undergrad does not need to be as prestigious. i mean seriously, if you go to MIT for undergrad, all these companies would wanna hire you. besides, if you paid $45k a year for 4 years, you want to make some $.</p>
<p>this is what a senior at cornell told me when i visited. "do you wanna go to grad school?" i said yes. he said "go to UMD-CP, my friends there all have 4.0's and are going to MIT for grad, after 4 years of cornell, i want a job, im getting recruited like crazy evne though my gpa is a 3.2."</p>
<p>thanks DCguy</p>
<p>well, IVY name scares ppl including hiring managers. IVY grads work for a few years and leave for better jobs, or often they go back to school for masters or PHD. And most fortune 1000 companies can't afford to hire a IVY grad because they only care about how much they can save each year to increase profit. An engineer from tier 4 school works as hard as or harder than an IVY grad for less money. Why pay $80k to IVY grad when you can hire 2 for the price of one IVY? They can't afford to pay you more than other engineers because you paid $45k a year to get a degree from IVY. As I said b4, you work the same hrs and get paid the same salary (+- 1~5%). Big companies like Microsoft or Google may hire IVY grads and pay $80-90k, but there are always more IVY grads, including those who got experience in the industry, than # of ppl these companies want to hire. If you want to work, you shouldn't go to IVY. But if you go to IVY, then I think you should go to grad school for teaching license or research. Ppl like Einstein and Newton are famouse for their theories and discoveries, but they weren't rich.</p>
<p>ivies grad go to engineering firms, nasa, banking, finance.</p>
<p>im sorry but ivy grad schools -> research.</p>
<p>ivy undergrad -> kickass jobs in engineering, as well as in consulting, banking, etc. being from an ivy will get you the job over the tier 4 people. who says an ivy grad would demand $80k and that tier 4 people what $40k?</p>
<p>ivy grads want jobs too, they know $60k a year is better than no job at all. ;)</p>
<p>USC should be considered for future EE majors. Not only does President Sample teach in the department, but it received what I believe is the largest departmental gift in history for $35 million, so no other department, nor anyone else, gets to touch that money.</p>
<p>
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Unless you go to IVY, name of school you went to for your BS EE doesn't matter much.
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</p>
<p>
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well, IVY name scares ppl including hiring managers. IVY grads work for a few years and leave for better jobs, or often they go back to school for masters or PHD.
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</p>
<p>I don't know about that. Seems to me that places like MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Berkeley, and several other schools are killer places to go for EE, despite the fact that none of them are Ivies. And it certainly seems to me that EE alumni from these schools are highly likely to switch jobs or go back to graduate school. </p>
<p>
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this is what a senior at cornell told me when i visited. "do you wanna go to grad school?" i said yes. he said "go to UMD-CP, my friends there all have 4.0's and are going to MIT for grad
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</p>
<p>Certainly that's a facetious statement. Surely not everybody at UMD-CP, and probably not even all the friends of a particular person at UMD-CP all have 4.0's and are going to MIT for grad school. Granted, some of them probably are. But ALL of them? </p>
<p>I'll tell you this. Of all the EE graduate students I know at MIT, not a single one came from UMD-CP. Now, granted, I don't know everyone in the department (it's a big department), so if I'm sure that if I look around hard enough, I'll probably find some. Nevertheless, that just shows that there aren't THAT many UMD-CP people at MIT. </p>
<p>The largest contingent of MIT EE grad students did their undergrad at, unsurprisingly, MIT itself. If for no other reason, that's because of the special MEng (which is obviously a graduate) program that MIT runs that is reserved only for MIT undergrads. Something like 75% of MIT EE undergrads are eligible for the program, and well over half of them choose to take it. That is perfectly consonant with the old saying that the easiest way to get into MIT for graduate school is to go there for undergrad and just stay there. </p>
<p>
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And most fortune 1000 companies can't afford to hire a IVY grad because they only care about how much they can save each year to increase profit.
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</p>
<p>This part is partially true, but I think that just speaks to the level of disinterest that many of the top engineering students have for working for the Fortune 1000. I'll tell you this. I don't want to work for the Fortune 1000. Most of the engineering students I know don't want to either. The engineering work that they really like are joining startup companies, or perhaps creating their own startup company. Either that or going to consulting or banking. </p>
<p>Let's be perfectly honest. A lot of Fortune 1000 is screwed up. As a case in point, look at the US auto industry. Be honest, who really wants to work there? Sure, those are a bunch of Fortune 1000 companies there (including both the manufacturers and parts suppliers), but so what? I know i don't want to work for Ford, or Visteon or companies like that. Heck even most Ford employees don't even want to work for Ford. For example, when Ford offered a buyout package to its US unionized employees last year, the majority of them took it. </p>
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An engineer from tier 4 school works as hard as or harder than an IVY grad for less money
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</p>
<p>Really? I don't know that you can make such a blanket statement. I've seen plenty of lazy graduates from lower-tier engineering schools. </p>
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They can't afford to pay you more than other engineers because you paid $45k a year to get a degree from IVY. As I said b4, you work the same hrs and get paid the same salary (+- 1~5%). Big companies like Microsoft or Google may hire IVY grads and pay $80-90k, but there are always more IVY grads, including those who got experience in the industry, than # of ppl these companies want to hire. If you want to work, you shouldn't go to IVY.
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</p>
<p>Well, it certainly seems to me that Ivy EE grads do quite well for themselves. You ask why do firms pay a lot of money for an Ivy EE grads if they can hire 2 cheaper engineers. Why indeed? Good question. But it doesn't matter why, all that matters is * that they do it*. Maybe they shouldn't be doing it. But they are doing it, whether we like it or not. </p>
<p>Let me ask you this. Why do the Wall Street investment banks hire plenty of MIT and Stanford engineers and pay them $150k (salary + bonus) in their first year, when they could hire a bunch of cheapo engineers from low-tier schools instead? I don't know. But it doesn't matter. The fact is, Goldman Sachs is recruiting at MIT and Stanford, but is not recruiting at, say, SW Missouri State University. Whether GS is being dumb or not, it doesn't matter. What matters is who they are giving jobs to. Maybe GS is being dumb. But those hirees are laughing all the way to the bank. </p>
<p>Similarly, consider the startup environment. The truth is, startups dont do national recruiting because they don't have the resources or the time. When a company is founded, the founders inevitably end up hiring all of their friends because that's at least they know who they are and can assess their skill level. Hence, the bulk of the early employees at Google were old Stanford pals of Brin and Page. Just like Steve Ballmer got hired into Microsoft because he just so happened to be Bill Gates's old poker-playing buddy at Currier House at Harvard. If you had been one of the first employees at Google, and you stayed for the IPO, you'd easily be a millionaire many times over now. And of course Ballmer is worth well over a billion dollars. None of this would have happened if they had not gone to the schools that they did, because that's where the made the crucial contacts that made them what they are today.</p>
<p>It's been 3 years since I graduated and I can tell that chances of all MIT grads going to Goldman Sachs is very slim. And Goldman Sachs doesn't care about the type of degree you got from MIT. I hear they hire 10-15 a year. They just want MIT grads, who can talk. You can have any type of degree, including art, and apply for a job at GS. Believe me I know.. And after tech bubble burst in 90's and recent years, they won't pay you $150k (salary+bonus) right after college. It takes time and experience (got to know ppl in the industry). You said you will join startup companies.. I did exactly that right after graduation. It went bankrupt in about 7 months..., and I didn't even get my last pay check.. 2 in 10 startups survive. You are dreaming and need to wake up. Life is not simple. Google and Microsoft can pay $80k to new grad only because they only hire a few. I did a phone interview 3 years ago with tech director for Google IT position. They only want to hire the best of the best. You don't even see their faces unless they like your transcript, resume, and phone interview #1-? (I did 2 times). And I heard they do the real interview for almost whole day. And they do the interview again and again until they like you. Getting a job at their field offices is much easier. You can't expect to go to thier main office with just a diploma.</p>
<p>how was the "job-hunting" process after graduation w/ BSEE?</p>
<p>Is it difficult to find jobs w/ a decent salary?</p>
<p>BSEE is good because if you have it, you can look for a job in computer programming, chip design, IT, circuit analysis, etc. You can do everything. You can even do accounting if you want. Finding the job is easy for EE's. But the problem is HR ppl don't know if you are a right person for the job if you haven't worked b4. You tell them you did this and that in school, but they don't care unless you have experience in the industry. You tell them you want $50k salary, but they'll ask you "What have you done in the industry to prove you are worth $50k?" As my friend always says, there's always one more EE waiting in line for an interview.</p>
<p>I see.</p>
<p>when exactly did you start you're co-op?</p>
<p>I think for me, its going to be after my junior year (I could try after my soph yr)</p>
<p>I could get atleast 12 to 16 months of exp. through the coop....</p>
<p>
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It's been 3 years since I graduated and I can tell that chances of all MIT grads going to Goldman Sachs is very slim
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<p>Indeed. It is slim for everybody. But that's not the point. The point is, relatively speaking, who has the better shot, somebody from MIT, or somebody from, say, Idaho State? </p>
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And after tech bubble burst in 90's and recent years, they won't pay you $150k (salary+bonus) right after college. Believe me I know..
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</p>
<p>Really? Is that right? Maybe you better tell these guys all about it.</p>
<p>*And this piece on WallStreetPrep.com gives the typical first year salary for analysts as being in the $55-70K range, with a signing bonus of about $10k. So, adding it all up. total first year compensation (not counting signing bonus) ends up around $145-$180K.</p>
<p>These are for analyst positions, which are the likely spot that an undergrad would start (the associates are usually MBAs). *</p>
<p><a href="http://financialrounds.blogspot.com/search/label/Salaries%5B/url%5D">http://financialrounds.blogspot.com/search/label/Salaries</a>
<a href="http://www.wallstreetprep.com/content/extrafiles/ibsalaries.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.wallstreetprep.com/content/extrafiles/ibsalaries.pdf</a></p>
<p>Bottom line. I've seen the first year compensation packages this year for myself. I know people who have gotten it. And the figures are consistent - for 1st year analyst, expect an average $150k for Wall Street bulge bracket, of which GS is clearly one. </p>
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You said you will join startup companies.. I did exactly that right after graduation. It went bankrupt in about 7 months..., and I didn't even get my last pay check.. 2 in 10 startups survive
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</p>
<p>Nobody's ever said the startup lifestyle is easy. Indeed, most do indeed go bankrupt. So what? You find another one. Or when you need to become more stable (i.e. you marry and have kids), then you get a more stable job. But at least you * tried *. </p>
<p>
[quote]
You are dreaming and need to wake up. Life is not simple.
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</p>
<p>Uh, I am hardly "dreaming", and trust me, I know EXACTLY how complicated life is. However, if you honestly believe that going to a low-tier school is just as good as going to a top school, who here is dreaming? </p>
<p>
[quote]
Google and Microsoft can pay $80k to new grad only because they only hire a few. I did a phone interview 3 years ago with tech director for Google IT position. They only want to hire the best of the best. You don't even see their faces unless they like your transcript, resume, and phone interview #1-? (I did 2 times). And I heard they do the real interview for almost whole day. And they do the interview again and again until they like you. Getting a job at their field offices is much easier. You can't expect to go to thier main office with just a diploma.
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</p>
<p>Of course! Nobody ever said that you can just expect to get a job handed to you just because you go to a top school. When did I ever say that?</p>
<p>What I said was that going to a top school IMPROVES YOUR ODDS because it gets you better access to better recruiting, and to a better network. OF course nothing is guaranteed. All you can do is improve your odds. The better schools do indeed improve your odds.</p>
<p>"An electrical engineer can expect to earn around $50,000 to $60,000 straight out of school, while an engineer hired on Wall Street can expect to earn two or three times that amount in salary, with the possibility of substantial performance bonuses, according to Lo."</p>