<p>“If you want to impress employers get an engineering degree from a top engineering school.”</p>
<p>I totally disagree with this. It depends on what type of engineering you are going to do - Buildings, computers, cars? Also if you decide (like many before you) that engineering is not for you, you have just spent $60,000-100,000 to find out. Unless your parents are willing to foot this kind of a bill, you should consider going to a state university or another school that won’t send your family to the poorhouse. </p>
<p>All a 4 year degree implies is that you can do something for 4 years, you can read, write, do most of whatever math is required, and have some (repeat SOME) skills in your chosen field. </p>
<p>The drawback of the “large top tier university” is: You will never have the opportunity to get your hands dirty. You will not have the opportunity to actually contribute to a real life project (that’s for the grad students). Unless you were to go to a University where you could be assigned, as an undergrad, to a research project or be part of the design/build team specific competition (the battery powered car competition that’s going on now comes to mind) or find that particular prof who is not only famous but will write you one hell of a recommendation for grad school (which you are going to need eventually if you don’t want to live as a faceless drone) you should save your money. </p>
<p>The 3 instances above are all friends went to smaller, liberal arts, state universities and have entry level jobs in their chosen fields (you know: go get the coffee, sharpen the pencils, pay student loans down) and admission dates for really top tier grad schools (NYU, Columbia, & MIT).</p>
<p>They also have really good liberal arts educations and can hold an intelligent conversation with anyone, in at least one foreign language, on a large number of subjects from Aristotle to Zanzibar.</p>
<p>Upshot: Don’t waste your money unless a brand name is more important than $250,000 of debt.</p>