I heard that TAMU is like the only engineering college you can go to if you want to have a decent job out of college and how studying engineering at other schools won’t be nearly as beneficial. My only question is: is it worth studying engineering at other schools that aren’t TAMU? I know they’re the best in state but I’m just wondering.
https://seekut.utsystem.edu/seekuttool has some post-graduation outcome information for the UT schools.
@rymose
“I heard that TAMU is like the only engineering college you can go to if you want to have a decent job out of college and how studying engineering at other schools won’t be nearly as beneficial.”
Not true!
The country if full of well developed engineering programs with excellent job opportunities, but they are not all the same. You can usually obtain actual job placement information by major from reputable reputable colleges/universities. I’m sure MIT, Caltech, RICE etc. graduates do not go unemployed in the CS field and many, many more do not go unemployed.
“Ucalumnus” has given you a good starting point.
Where did you “hear” no where else was good? And where did you hear TAMU was best in the state?
UT-Austin at #9 in the USNews Engineering rankings is hard to miss for a good Engineering College in Texas. I’d take it over TAMU. Rice is also top 20.
("I’m sure MIT, Caltech, RICE etc. graduates do not go unemployed in the CS field " - not sure this is really applicable to Engineering Colleges in Texas.)
I’m very very sorry as i didn’t clarify. I meant to say all that about the state of Texas. I know schools like Stanford and MIT and Harvard are stellar schools for engineering.
Pretty much every Engineer I know in the DFW area graduated from UTD over the years and immediately got great jobs with powerhouse companies in Dallas (Cisco, Samsung, MetroPCS, TMobile etc…) many UTD EE majors that I know in my age group (mid 40’s to 50’s) who graduated from UTD back in the 90’s are all making very handsome high six figure incomes as directors in their respective companies now so yea, as great as TAMU is for Engineering it’s certainly not the end all and be all in Texas.
There are colleges that have engineering departments in Texas. But there are no engineering colleges in Texas.
UT Austin and Rice have the top Texas departments, Texas AM and UTD are distant competitors.
If you are smart you can land a good engineering job from pretty much any university.
Here is a list of engineering colleges…
https://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report/best-schools-by-type/bachelors/engineering-schools
This is the type of comment on CC that drives me crazy. They are academic equals in engineering.
The comment that the OP heard is very common in Texas. That doesn’t make it true. The TAMU/UT (or t.u. In Aggie speak) rivalry is long and strong. If you talked to a UT grad, they may make the opposite comment.
However, students should be aware that UT Austin and Texas A&M handle capacity limitations in engineering programs differently.
UT Austin admits frosh directly to engineering majors. But since each major is “full”, changing to a different one can be difficult and highly competitive.
Texas A&M admits frosh to first year general engineering. After taking first year courses, students apply to their majors (must apply to at least three). 3.5 GPA automatically gets first choice major, but otherwise admission is competitive based on grades and essays.
Note that automatic admission to either campus does not mean automatic admission to major (UT Austin) or the engineering division (Texas A&M). Enrolling as a general undeclared student means that it will be difficult to change into an engineering major later.
A student who is certain of his/her major may find the UT Austin method favorable if s/he does get direct admission to the major. A student who is undecided on different kinds of engineering may find the Texas A&M method to be preferable if s/he is admitted to the engineering division.
^^ “They are academic equals in engineering.”
You’ll be hard pressed to find someone in the TAMU or UTD engineering results threads that says, “Darn. I got rejected now I have to go to UTA or Rice.”
Actually, there are lots of people who if you said, you can’t go to TAMU, but I can get you into UT, would respond no thanks. If you don’t get it, you don’t understand Texas.
FYI, UTA is the University of Texas at Arlington.
An Aggie must have gotten hold of the OP! Ha.
Rice University, TAMU-College Station and UT-Austin are all exceptional in Engineering. Anybody who suggests that one of those is better than the other two is either biased or ignorant.
Southern Methodist is not quite as good in Engineering, but it is very highly regarded in Dallas (and Texas), and graduates and alumni tend to do very well for themselves.