re #19, at entry level you are probably less likely to have opportunity to interview that engineering grad from North Dakota , to find out what a great person he/she is and ultimately hire him/her, if your firm doesn’t recruit and interview at North Dakota.
I believe the various colleges probably differ in level of access to out of region on-campus recruiting.
I share the experience that after entry level it becomes a non-issue, compared to other considerations (particularly work experience).
You have to dig down and find the rankings for the field you want to go into. There were some on CC that I used for my field and checked against US News. Lots of surprises there. But I recently found an industry magazine list that confirmed my choices. Some of the top ones on US news weren’t there because those ppl go in to academia- MIT, Caltech, etc. Most all the places they recruited from were big state schools.
So I guess what I wanted to say is that US news was actually not really accurate.
Wait, are you asking do colleges consider aaplicants from certain schools over others, OR are you asking do colleges pay attention to rankings of outside sources?
@emptyMT How does what you say make us news rankings inaccurate???
Engineers are in short supply, relative to demand anyway, and it is not an elitist industry. As such, most entry-level engineering jobs are filled locally. Some firms recruit nationally for some jobs, and in such cases, they will have a preferred list of programs, based more on speciality than overall ranking. Chemical Engineers at Delaware and Minnesota will have outstanding opportunities, as will Aerospace Engineers at Arkansas and Maryland. Engineering program rankings do not usually translate into better employment opportunities. They are more a function of the strength of the faculty and of its research output.
@IsaacTheFuture From what I have read the top schools for US News are not always the most heavily recruited for industry. US News doesn’t ask employers where they hire from. Like @Alexandre said, that is list is more a reflection of research & other academic stuff, and industry jobs can be more local or maybe a company just likes certain schools. For example, I saw a industry list and Michigan, Stanford, MIT, UIUC and Caltech were not in there but U Colorado, Penn State and U Florida were. I have seen Iowa State and Cal Poly mentioned in other places as having a good reputation. I don’t think US News list is wrong, just not that accurate there are lots of places you can go.
For instance there is actually a pretty big & growing aerospace industry in Denver, they hire grads from U Colorado, and that is a school OOS ppl don’t always think about.
Probably in the future the schools in the southwest are going to be good places because the new space companies are there, but of course they recruit nationally too.
anyway if you dig around the internet I bet most people can come up with lists of schools companies like, one of the ones I used was posted right here on CC by someone from an aerospace company
My husband and oldest son are both chemEs. Neither work for regional companies, but top global chemical companies. Even as a co-op student, my ds, who attended a state’s small public tech university, worked for a top global chemical company alongside co-op students from top tier engineering schools. At graduation, that company offered him a job. Obviously, they didn’t care about USNWR rankings. 
Both work alongside grads from a full spectrum of universities. At one point, my ds recruited/interviewed co-op students during career fairs on local college campuses that his company had a good rapport/experience with. These were not “powerhouse” engineering schools and again, it is a top gloabal chemical company, not a small regional company. Ranking of school is not something either of them have run into.
Re: post # 16 - ABET certified programs will produce qualified graduates. Kennesaw merged with Southern Polytech, and has an ABET certified program (as well as a cool robotics team) . But no, a community college is not going to produce a student with similar skills. There are some certification programs at 2 year technical schools like Chattahoochee Tech that will offer associate degrees and technology training, but no way are they considered equivalent to a student graduating from an ABET certified program. If there is a “startup in Kennesaw”, it is not going to hire students from these 2 programs for equivalent positions.
Engineers are in short supply? Really? It doesn’t at all seem like it, lol. Seems like everyone wants to be an engineer, lol.
@emptyMT Oh okay, I see what you’re saying. However, it’s important that when looking at the schools with the most alumni in a certain industry, we take into account the school’s size. My HS has twice as many students than Cal Tech has undergrads, which only has around 1000 iirc. Other larger private schools are still small in comparison to many state schools. For example, Duke has about 1200 engineering students, composed to 6300 undergrad engineers at Michigan (no doubt Michigan has an overall better engineering program, buy I’m just using this as an example. Roll with it, lol). In just pure amount of employees and recruited students in engineering fields, OF COURSE Michigan will have more and thus will be better represented. However, if you account for the size of the schools, then you’ll see that it tells a much different story.
Now of course the individual is FAR more important than the college they attended (I can attest to this, lol), but due to pure resources, ON AVERAGE a student from a flagship engineering school (GT, MIT, UMich, Stanford) typically will be more prepared than that from your average state school. Also, schools with more resources can also give their students more exposure. I mean just check the employment rates at these different schools, it tells the whole story. Another important factor is location. Being near big corporations or startup heavy areas make it easier to find a job.
“Flagship schools” usually refer to public/state institutions, not private schools like MIT. And while many may aspire to be an engineer, many cannot handle the rigorous coursework.
@IsaacTheFuture The survey I was talking about had three different lists:
-where companies would LIKE to hire from,
-where hires actually come from (that accounts for the numbers effect you are talking about) and
-which schools young professionals thought really had helped them get jobs by having a good reputation.
The info I mentioned came from that first list. Those are the schools people in aerospace would prefer to hire from if possible. The results were different from US News rankings. The third list was even MORE different from US News.
It doesn’t really have too much to do with how many grads they turn out (that’s the second list).
The survey was done by an industry magazine. I think a pretty important one because my dad recognized it & he’s not in aerospace, haha
That’s the kind of thing that people can look for if they dig around.
Also, the NRC publishes really detailed list every few years that take into account student opinions (it’s for grad schools though) http://www.chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-Physics/124754/
So lots of sources are out there. I am the third kid in my family to go to college, the second in engineering and we have gotten pretty good at searching around for other sources besides US News because my parents have to pay private or OOS tuition and there’s a lot of difference in costs with these schools.
@jym626 I used flagship in the more traditional sense, not in the CC sense, my bad. But my message is essentially the same.
What “traditional” sense is that? It not the correct term. Cal Tech, MIT, etc are premier schools. Not flagships.
@jym626 Flagship: the finest, largest, or most important one of a series, network, or chain
Basically, flagship means the best of a particular group.
The manner in which I used the word is correct.
It’s not used that way when talking about colleges. It’s commonly used in the context of colleges, to describe the top state schools (like UGA and Ga Tech). Emory is an excellent school but it’s not a flagship school. See the difference? This is a college website, so am suggesting that in the context here, the term is used to describe top state schools. Words have different meanings in different contexts.
@jym626 No, I understand that I used it in the incorrect context of this website.
Maybe you mean yes? Or maybe now (not no). Regardless, glad you understand the difference. Wouldn’t want some poor person new to the college process reading here to inadvertently think MIT is a flagship (i.e. State) school in MA.
Even though companies might not “recruit” at a particular school, all applications are done on the company website, and qualified applicants from any accredited school will get a look. Once you get the interview, it’s all about what you know and what you can do for the company.
re#38, I imagine it depends on the company. Yes they got sent resumes, but the two I worked for were too cheap to pay to fly in students for initial screening interviews. Most of their new hires straight from college came via their on-campus recruiting processes.