<p>The title pretty much says it all. Considering the number of high-tech jobs in the Northwest, why are there so few good engineering schools in the area? The University of Washington - Seattle is the only one I know of. The Oregon Institute of Technology is not well-known and lets almost anyone in - and it's the only real tech-specific college around! Oregon State is okay for engineering, but not great. What's going on?</p>
<p>Maybe because Stanford and Cal are somewhat close, so recruiters can just go down there.</p>
<p>Just my speculation----
You could just as well ask why the state universities in the Northwest are not very strong overall, with the exception of U Washington. This will affect engineering depts. since these fields tend to be offered primarily at the state universities in the region. </p>
<p>Also, the relative proximity of CA makes it unnecessary to establish local programs to recruit qualified people. The region doesn’t seem to have any difficulty recruiting qualified people from elsewhere. (Don’t a lot of people want to bail from CA?)</p>
<p>^ I guess it’s the California influence, even though California schools are ridiculously expensive for OOS applicants.</p>
<p>UW has several excellent engineering programs. </p>
<p>I think there are fewer schools out here (PNW) because it hasn’t been populated and established as long as other parts of the country. The oldest schools have the biggest endowments and get the most research money and as time goes on, they keep getting better reputations and more of everything. Obviously this is not specific to engineering programs. Our big engineering companies like Boeing and Microsoft are fairly new (in terms of higher education) and we haven’t grown any big tech schools that quickly. Microsoft gets people from all over the world and doesn’t need to look in their backyard.</p>
<p>We do have one of the best two-year colleges in the nation for technical stuff, Bellevue (Community) College. Part of the reason for that is all the tech workers around to teach courses part-time.</p>
<p>Well, there’s definitely out-of-state recruitment, but as an Oregon resident, I can tell you that UO, OSU and PSU grads get the jobs around here. There’s an extremely strong alumni network, which is never something to be underestimated – people like to see their fellow alumni get jobs. That said, I know many California grads around here too. Between OSU and PSU for tech-y majors like CS and Engineering, and UO for pretty much everything else (it does everything else better than the two aforementioned schools), there’s not huge demand for a tech school or even tech school grads.</p>
<p>As far as Washington goes, I dunno. I suspect UW fulfills that need.</p>
<p>^is PSU Puget Sound? or Portland State? or soemthing else?</p>
<p>Can any Washington residents speak to the quality of Washington State in engineering and science? I know a huge number of people from up here in AK who headed there for engineering…</p>
<p>I’ve always been surprised at the lack of a top-tier private school in the northwest. I’m sure its some combination of not being populated as long and having California so close, but every other part of the country has one.</p>
<p>What are the top tier privates in the Lousiana, Mississippi, Kansas, Nebraska, Arkansas, Oklahoma, South Dakota, North Dakota range?</p>
<p>Tulane and Tulsa.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m a Seattle kid going to Cornell next year and I refused to apply in state. There really is a lack of top tier schools, with the exception of UW I guess, around this area. You’d think there would be more, Seattle is supposedly the smartest city in the U.S with all these fledgling companies like Microsoft, Boeing, Starbucks, Amazon, etc…</p>
<p>
Portland State University.</p>
<p>bjmountsi09, you should consider yourself lucky that you live in a state with 3 good public schools. You have the University of Washington, Evergreen State and Washington State while all I have in Massachusetts is UMass which is on par with Washington State</p>
<p>Louisiana-Tulane
Mississippi-Millsaps</p>
<p>Not sure about the others</p>
<p>I’m a student in Washington, what’s the University of Washington?</p>
<p>^ Eh? Is that a rhetorical question?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I would consider Louisiana/Oklahoma/etc. to be with Texas and therefore have Rice and SMU. Mississippi is close enough to Georgia, Texas, and Tennessee for me to count Rice, Vanderbilt, and Emory. Most of the others have close proximity to Washington University in St Louis.</p>
<p>The Pacific Northwest, on the other hand, has nothing north of California.</p>
<p>Seattle University has a pretty strong Engineering Dept. If you are one of those people who only looks for name brand top 20 schools, then you wont find those in the Northwest. But that would be superficial and wrong. </p>
<p>Boeing and Boeing Computer Services has been hiring from UW, Western Washington, Washington State and Seattle University, among others for years.</p>
<p>So has Microsoft and all its vendor progeny in the area.</p>
<p>“The Pacific Northwest, on the other hand, has nothing north of California.”</p>
<p>so are you telling me that Reed College, Lewis & Clark College, University of Oregon, Willamette University, The Evergreen State College, Gonzaga University, Seattle University, University of Puget Sound, University of Washington, Washington State University, and Whitman College = nothing???</p>
<p>sorry but the Pacific Northwest states of Oregon and Washington are not at all like Nevada, West Virginia, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Delaware, where there is at most 1 good college.</p>
<p>As with the Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana region, there are some great colleges too such as Auburn University, Birmingham-Southern College, Samford University, Tuskegee University, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa, Millsaps College, University of Mississippi, Centenary College of Louisiana, Louisiana State University, Loyola University - New Orleans, Tulane University, University of Louisiana At Lafayette, University of New Orleans and Xavier University of Louisiana.</p>