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<p>Yeah, well, how many people are like you? Seriously. I’ve known hiring engineering managers who didn’t even know that Berkeley offered engineering at all. Think about that - Berkeley. {In fairness, this was overseas, but still.} I know a girl who graduated from MIT and who works as an engineer at Harley Davidson (in Milwaukee) who to this day still encounters coworkers who think that MIT stands for the “Milwaukee Institute of Technology”. </p>
<p>Plenty of people just don’t know what we on CC might consider to be obvious. And, yes, that includes those with hiring power. I think you said it yourself on a prior thread - many (probably most) companies generally hire people who graduated from the local schools and therefore those are the only schools whose degree programs that they may know in detail. Outside of Texas, most people have never heard of Rice U at all, and they certainly won’t know that Rice offers alternative engineering degrees. </p>
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<p>And plenty of other schools ranked far lower. Again, Rice is one of the top ranked engineering schools in the world. I would consider somebody with a BA in EE from Rice to be a better job candidate than somebody with a BSEE from a no-name, low tier school. And most schools are no-name low-tier schools. </p>
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<p>I’m sure that Rice would agree with you, if for no other reason, possibly an extra semester’s worth of tuition for them. </p>
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<p>I would say that it’s as least as strong of a starting point as getting a BS engineering degree from a lower-tier school, which the vast majority of engineers out there do. Let’s face it. Most engineers in the country did not go to top schools. You’re no worse off than them.</p>