I’m an international student currently studying at a school in North Carolina. Since I’m more of a city-person, can’t wait to get out of NC for good tbh lol
I applied for 13 school:
• MIT - deferred EA, rejected RD
• Oxford - got my interview, rejected lolll (the interview was HORRIBLE)
• Imperial - unconditional for 4 yr-MEng
• UIUC - accepted EA
• U Manchester - unconditional for 4 yr-MEng
• Georgia Tech - deferred EA, accepted RD
• Penn State - accepted
Still waiting to hear back from …
• Columbia
• UPenn
• UofT
• UC Berkeley
• UCLA
• UMich - deferred EA
While I would probably hear back from all the schools by Apr. 1 (maybe except UMich and UofT), I would like to consider where to attend for undergrad/grad for Materials Science and Engineering.
In general, in the US and Canada:
• I can make more connections through clubs, etc. And can potentially get a job after graduation
• Math competitions such as Putnam
• Greek life
• Larger campus and more people (more friends options lol)
• GenEd (not a history person at all, so I’d prefer the UK system here)
• Many on and off-campus research internship opportunities
In the UK:
• Fortunately I won’t have Trump for president (I’m not a US citizen but I do have a very strong political preference)
• 4 yrs for an MEng instead of 6 yrs in the US (save time & $$$)
• Very focused curriculum
• Fixed schedule (packed w/ lectures and labs) thus not that much free-time
• Difficult to stay in the UK after graduation (though PhD at MIT for Materials sounds amazing, but I’m not sure I want to go into pure academic research)
• Not quite strong in terms of UG research and not a lot of research internship opportunities (PLS CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG)
• Easy to travel to Europe (I’ve been wanting to visit French)
Regarding each college,
• Manchester is the home for graphene - one of my fav materials. But not very strong academically and is located in a very industrial city (ugh)
• Imperial has a high ranking (but not necessarily very recognized in the US to my knowledge) and is located in London. Imperial also has UROP (s/o to imperial!!)
• UIUC - forget about it, I’m not going there
• GT is very strong in engineering; but prob not attending bc of its location
• Penn State is a big school, more like a party school which would be fun to experience; but its location would not be ideal for me personally
Basically, these are just some of my thoughts.
Please give me some advice on this (US or UK? which school? why?). I’ll update my upcoming college decisions so I can look at the big picture and decide where I want to attend.
. . . . .Not in the US, as an international student.
Labor and immigration laws are strict. An employer has to employ US candidates or declare that there are no US candidates available before it can employ an international candidate.
Most US employers, with engineering needs, are posting on their websites that they cannot sponsor international candidates.
If you are admitted in Canada and can afford it, go there. Their immigration and post-university employment policies are much friendlier than the US or UK.
@bouders, there’s typically not much in the way of Gen Ed requirements (at least at American publics) for engineering majors because engineering takes up so much room in the schedule anyway.
That’s nowhere near universally true. In fact, engineering majors frequently face more general education requirements in the humanities and social sciences, than humanities + social science majors face in the sciences + engineering. Here are a subset of the general education requirements for engineering majors at a few universities on the OP’s list:
Berkeley: 6 humanities and social science courses, plus 2 writing courses
UIUC: 18 credits in the humanities and social sciences (~6 courses), three semesters of a foreign language, 1 writing course
MIT: 8 courses in the humanities, arts and social sciences, including 2 “communication-intensive” courses; 4 PE courses
I remember resenting the two humanities courses I had to take in college (for a liberal arts degree). I would have been miserable had I been forced to take even more…
@“b@r!um”: Please explain how stating something is “not much” can be “nowhere near universally true” when the definition of “not much” is subjective. I didn’t realize that subjective opinions could be true or false.
In any case, at UIUC, you don’t have to take a foreign language and at UToronto,at least for CompE, you have to take an “econ for engineers” class and 2 more humanities/social science electives.
So that ends up being a difference of 3 more humanities/social science classes + 1 or 2 writing classes for engineers (who did not come in with AP or other humanities/social science credit) at an American public vs. Toronto.
Out of 40+ classes.
You seemed to say that engineering majors face fewer general education requirements than majors in other fields. I disagreed with that. On average, it seems that engineering majors have the highest burden of general education requirements of any major discipline out there.
Of course you are right that “not much” is subjective. When I was in college, a single writing-intensive humanities class ruined my entire semester. Two humanities classes over 4 years were a lot; four or eight required classes would have been a deal-breaker for me.
My husband attended Revelle at UCSD many moons ago. He hated the humanities requirements as an engineering major.
He had taken classes in Music at crosstown SDSU while in high school, and those units didn’t transfer to UCSD so he had to take more music, english and foreign language classes during his engineering classes.
He did it, but grudgingly and then found that he wanted/needed more coursework in engineering, so he went to grad school.
@“aunt bea” so would you suggest going to the UK for a more focused curriculum for Materials Science and Engineering? Imperial has an “Imperial Horizon” programme where I can choose to take one extra course per semester related to foreign languages, globalization, business, and innovation. Would this work in my favor as a prospective MS-Engineer?
@BHan98, I don’t know the UK system.
I’m familiar with the California schools and some of the big corp US engineering firms.
Husband and daughter work for two of those firms. They aren’t hiring international candidates at either firm.
The UK is in flux right now. Scotland is poised to leave and Northern Ireland will have to negotiate something to avoid getting a border with Ireland again, but you cannot count on England and Wales to remain the same. If things remain the same, administrative obstacles are lower in the UK, I don’t know about the odds of actually finding a job.
Canada is the most stable.
I’d say the US is best for your studies, if you can go look for work elsewhere. But if you want to prepare for the business world, go to a place where your odds of finding a job after graduation are better. That means Canada.