Does anyone actually care where I go to school (engineering)?

coralqueen
Sun, 22 Mar 2015 07:09:59 +0000

I started college in fall 2014 at Cornell. After doing some career research and shadowing over the summer, I decided to switch my major from physics to mechanical engineering before the year started. I went in knowing very little about Cornell engineering besides rankings. My first semester was alright; I was a bit disenchanted by the school’s focus on careers outside of science and engineering (finance, management, etc seem to be popular career choices among grads) as I intend to pursue a career in research.

Finances didn’t come through for the second semester, so I filed for a leave of absence. I’m taking classes at SUNY Buffalo, which from my understanding has no reputation outside of New York. It’s proving to be an awesome fit for my academic goals, and it’s very inexpensive. I’m losing my desire to return to Cornell. However, there’s a noticeable discrepancy in the difficulty of classes.

Optimally I’d like to complete a PhD, probably at another public school somewhere in the US or Canada. I know this is a tricky question to answer, but does it really matter where I complete my undergrad?