<p>I am a college transfer who is looking to major in Industrial Engineering; and I am trying to decide between Columbia University (SEAS) and Virginia Tech. </p>
<p>According to the US-News Ranking, VT ranked #4 in the nation, which is higher than SEAS’ #11. In addition, VT costs significantly less in comparison with SEAS. VT seems to be a better deal to me… </p>
<p>However, Columbia is after all an Ivy League school, and being in NYC offers more career developing opportunities than anywhere else. </p>
<p>My question is: does the US-News engineering program ranking matter for my undergraduate education? If I don’t want to attend grad school right after college, which school will better prepare me for the real world and give me an edge at the job market? </p>
<p>This is not a very objective opinion, Objective789.</p>
<p>Columbia is an overall better school. VT is, no question, the better engineering school, and that is much more important to an engineer than a school’s overall rank. In the engineering world, the Virginia Tech name carries more weight no question.</p>
<p>After all, how would you rank/evaluate the industrial engineering programs at each school? Could a Columbia diploma be a better “door-opener,” and thus make more opportunities available to me in the long-run?</p>
<p>Not in the engineering world it won’t. If you wanted to appl your engineering skills to business then maybe, but nit for actual engineering jobs.</p>
<p>If you want to work in engineering go to VT, if you want to use an engineering degree for a job in management/finances/etc. AND YOU CAN AFFORD IT go to Colombia.</p>
<p>If you can go to either with less than 20-30k in loans go to that one, period.</p>
<p>you will have more job opps from Columbia, but it might not matter depending on your desired career. if you want to do industrial engineering in practice, VT is probably better if finances are at all a concern</p>
<p>columbia will provide great job opportunities in engineering, but Vtech will provide even greater; I wouldn’t think about this in terms of rankings or even quality, I would think about it in terms of Vtech’s strong presence in all aspects of engineering (alumni, industry, research)…whereas Columbia engineering is oblivious in all aspects of engineering relative to Vtech.</p>
<p>Personally, I think it’s a dumb idea to max out on loans for a prestigious degree that’s not even as practical, but if your parents can cover it I personally would go to Columbia because it’s like Vtech only scaled down significantly, more intimate. And because I believe if you have passion, top gpa, impressive tech elective coursework, exceptional internship/research performance (good recs) you’ll go wherever you want to go whether ur coming from columbia or vtech. </p>
<p>Booted, if I visited Vtech and then Columbia…and I was a science/engineering type… I would think Columbia is a joke and the last school I would go to…columbia engineering is obviously not a joke at all but if visit you’ll only see what’s on the surface; a mix of pretentious rich kids and weirdos who spend 50k a year in tuition to study things like poetry. Take a senior in engineering from purdue on a tour of columbia campus and I assure you he’ll laugh at them. On the other hand if you take a senior in engineering from columbia to purdue he’ll wet his pants. </p>
<p>it’s up to you, based on the fact you want to do IE, which maybe you want to go then full on business and less so technical fields, Columbia is great for that…but like I said you should be loaded for 4.5-5 yrs of columbia tuition.</p>