I am debating between a few schools: Alabama, UT, A&M, Rice, Georgia Tech, and SMU.
How important is it to have a large budget for research in terms of engineering?
For example, Alabama spends a measly 53 million while UT spends 585. There would be a 40k gap between going to these schools. Is that amount worth the fact that there is a lot more money floating around for projects, ect?
For undergrad? I wouldn’t worry about it. For grad school, I would.
@MaineLonghorn thanks for the insight.
Is research important at all for undergrad? I don’t plan on pursuing past undergrad MAYBE masters.
I’m looking into the STEM MBA 5 year program. Would an MBA without any prior work experience be worth it? I want the MBA, but I don’t want to take a break mid career to get it.
I plan on going into more of the business side of engineering.
I have heard first-hand good things from students in the current STEM->MBA program. UA handles the no-prior-work-experience issue very well, apparently. It is a highly regarded program. If/when you visit, be sure to ask to speak to some of those students or professors in the program.
@Jpgranier , which branch of engineering are you interested in? Just a feeling I have, that there are different levels of graduate research funding, depending on which area you are in, in the COE.
@aeromom I’m eyeballing mechanical as of now. Can’t be for sure that’s what I’m graduating in, but I applied for it.
As an undergrad, you should be focusing on getting internships and co-ops, not doing research. That’s what employers will be looking for when you are ready to graduate.
I’d be interested in hearing about ]b]any** UA engineering student who wanted to do research and was unable to find a project to work on. My student was offered an opportunity last year - didn’t have time to pursue it. He’s been offered two opportunities so far this year, wants to pursue one of them - but still hasn’t figured out where he’d find the time to do it.
These were faculty-sponsored projects, but there are also students pursuing their own, independent R&D projects. (How do I know this? My kid’s got one project of his own, and has also helped out on a friend’s project.)
My son is the one I’ve written about who fell ill with schizophrenia his freshman year at UT-Austin. Before he had to withdraw, he did research with a post-grad student in the biomedical engineering lab at UT.
When I was in grad school at UT, I had a couple of work study undergrads who helped me. Well, “help” is probably too generous - they didn’t have the best work ethic!
R&D spending is a good indicator of the amount of research taking place. A school like UT-Austin or GT will offer far more options for undergraduates to get involved in, than UA. Yes, an Aerospace Engineer (AE) major at UA would be able to get involved in research, but one at GT will have far more areas of research to choose from.
But how much does that matter?
Most engineering undergraduates do not get involved in research. (Most also don’t complete an internship/co-op before graduation, but that’s another issue). While undergraduate research is important to those seeking grad school, it isn’t for those seeking employment after graduation.
If you do want to get involved in research, then the amount of R&D spending is something to consider. You’ll also want to consider what type of research is actually taking place on campus. If UA offers research in a field you’re interested in, then that could meet your need.
I wouldn’t pick GT over UA, based on R&D funding alone, but if I was an AE that wanted to do research in Rotary Wing Aircraft, then that could be a solid reason for choosing GT (which does extensive research in the field) over UA.
If you’re not really interested in research, but would like an internship/co-op, then look into a school’s career services and job fairs. How well recruited is the school? Keep in mind that internships/co-ops could also be gotten via networking (Uncle Phil’s friend has a sister that works at CSX) or by applying on-line (and doing phone interviews).
A third option to consider; engineering design teams. An AE at UA could, for example, join the Drone Team. Or perhaps an engineering student would want to join the UA Formula SAE Crimson Racing team. UA (and other engineering schools) would have several “design teams” to consider. Employers put a lot of value on these design teams (it shows teamwork, builds skills, etc.). I can easily see why a student would rather work on the racing team, than do basic research.
http://news.eng.ua.edu/2016/01/lifting-off-ua-engineering-drone-team-forms-looking-expand/
Good Luck!
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you should be focusing on getting internships and co-ops, not doing research.
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^^^^ This!!! And getting summer REUs which give you experience and research.
Employers AND grad schools will care about internships, co-OP’s and REUs
what @Gator88NE has to say is 100% right-on for Aero at UA and at GT. The wind-tunnel testing and rotary work done at GT cannot be beat. OP is not aero, but anyone reading this who is interested in aero should heed this advice. It is difficult for an incoming freshman to know what they want to focus on, but if you are one of those rare kids who DOES know, and wants to do research, then it is IMPERATIVE that you look carefully at research funding before making your decisions.
what @Gator88NE says about the myriad eng’g teams on campus is also great advice, and often overlooked. At UA, it is relatively easy to join these teams, even as a freshman (and it is probably imperative that you DO get involved as a freshman). On other campuses, it might be more difficult to get involved if these teams are ‘highly competitive’ in their selection for the younger students. If a student doesn’t like design and/or team work, and hesitates to get involved in these campus teams, I would question why that student is interested in engineering. Employers look for this, as @Gator88NE said. Can’t emphasise this enough!
@mom2collegekids Do students participating in the STEN MBA have time to participate in summer internships? I briefly read that two summers you have to take 9 hours I think.
How would 9 hours over summer work with an internship ?
Here’s the FAQ on the program. I can’t find anything about a summer requirement. However, based on the response to the Co-Op question (in the FAQ), I would think internships are encouraged (as are Co-Ops).
My DD is in the STEM MBA. 9 hours MBA courses on-line between junior and senior year. Doesn’t affect first two summers. Also students that co-op can be in the STEM MBA if they time things early enough (as one needs to get three work terms in). Each semester is a 1.5 STEM seminar type course (so one takes this all 8 semesters of UG), but Co-op can do it on-line - professor works it out with student. During Junior year, student takes GMAT (before Nov), there is an interview. Formally advance in the program. Then after senior year is the 9 hours MBA, two semesters and the student completes one year after their 4 years of UG.
Super bright students have actually done the MBA while completing Master’s in Engineering too. Spelled out in catalog.
@SOSConcern What was the cost like?
I assume the 1.5 hours are free because you can have up to 20 hours a semester.
Would the two summer sessions be charged as two semesters on the MBA pricing and the final year being another two semesters? That would total about 60k tuition for the MBA, am I right?
@Gator88NE is spot on.
This matters more if you want to go to graduate school than if you want to get a job though. But research does also add to the visibility of the college. NOTE: It’s not that you can’t get into a top grad school from Alabama, but you’ll have to work a bit harder to stand out.
University of Alabama is not seen as a major research center. This doesn’t mean there aren’t research opportunities, but that there is not the breadth of research exploration you would find at a Research I university. University of Alabama is classified as a Research II Doctoral University. For most undergrads, this doesn’t matter. But the fact that professors are less research active does have some influence on the quality of the graduate programs, and subsequently the quality of the TAs, and this factor does trickle down into the undergraduate programs.
As far as research goes, Alabama is not yet comparable MIT. It’s not Cornell, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia Tech, Tufts, Rutgers, or UW either. But this doesn’t mean that you can’t do research with professors at Alabama. There are just fewer options to get involved, and you might not get to choose among several projects. There is also always the REU, which allows you to do research wherever you want (given good grades) and to gain exposure to other research that way.
As OOS, during your UG 8 terms, it is covered. However summers and the extra year MBA does cost - you can find it on-line at the UA site using the search engine; it is less costly than the regular MBA program from what I saw. Since DD will cross the bridge with the 9 hours summer 2017, and she is in-state (and she has PACT - prepaid AL college tuition funds), I don’t know what the cost is for the 9 hours next summer as far as what the OOS cost will be, but I suspect it will be how UA typically does summer hours, each credit is $X for in-state and $X for OOS; there may be $X for on-line credit fee, IDK. Last summer DD took a 3 credit on-line course and it was $1230 (and our PACT contract paid $1230).
Students get approval for ‘course overload’ above 18 hours, and Presidential pays tuition for all the hours for those 8 semesters.
After someone is in a FT job, it is more difficult to go through a MBA program IMHO (and UA listened to companies/alum requesting a STEM MBA program); there are executive MBA programs, which do tend to be more expensive - unless a company pays, between the time and still having a foot in academia…the UA STEM MBA program is a workable plan. One has to decide if they can afford to do it, and if it will pay off for them in their career. I had a non-business UG, and I completed a MBA at TAMU - and it was a 2 year FT program (50 hours plus 5 hours of pre-reqs).
Some may complete a technical graduate degree if they are in a city where that is possible - 36 hours; sometimes it is related enough to the job that it isn’t as complicated an endeavor. Some may even find on-line programs that they like.
Can someone please clarify what is meant by Research expenditure? Does this mean all the government or other types of grants that professors at a school are able to get, or is this solely the amount of money the school spends to fund research by their profs? Isn’t most research funded by grants external to a school?
@Atlanta68 Research awards refers to grants and research expenditure refers to all money spent on research, whether from the endowment, grants, or specific institutional funds for professors to bootstrap their research program from.
The fact that grants are involved with both makes it confusing, but thanks!
Hopefully, when UA conducts its next capital campaign, it will make funding research a bigger priority than it has been in the past.