MIT vs U-Mich vs Caltech vs Cornell University? For engineering emphasized in automotive

boneh3ad
Wed, 09 Jul 2014 21:34:05 +0000

enginestud:

and yeah, I have more than just a scholarly background, I am naturally keen to my field of study and literally all of the sciences and math out there and I am well aware of the competition that is why I just said at most, I had a good chance



And I am telling you that this is not only not likely true, but also completely unremarkable from the perspective of places like MIT, Stanford, or Caltech. They get 10,000 other applicants just like that. What makes you stand out from that crowd?



enginestud:

but those rankings do tell you as a matter in fact how successful their departments are to the general public and how well known they are



It really doesn’t though. It tells you who wins the popularity contest among other engineering departments and that’s about it. The real debate is then how well that popularity contest correlates to actual quality of the program. Really, those rankings end up placing each school in the correct rough tiers, so school #5 is very likely going to be better than #50, but not necessarily discernibly different from #8 in terms of program quality. This is without even addressing how you define “program quality.”



enginestud:

for example, not many people from the entire nation know that Caltech is a successful school, especially when it comes down to applicants from Caltech that are applying for law school or medicine, so if there are two applicants and one is from MIT and the other one is from Caltech and everything else equals, in terms of reputation and the weight that the MIT name carriers as opposed to Caltech, of course the employer would choose the MIT applicant, perhaps in the science department that would be a different story, but you get the idea form where I’m coming from



The problem here is that this is not true at all. The admissions committees from law schools and medical schools around the world know that both of these schools are renowned institutions and there wouldn’t be a clear cut favorite between two students, all else being held equal. That’s beside the fact, though, because we are talking about engineering here, not medical school or law school (unless you do have those goals and simply didn’t say that). Further, there is no guarantee that a Caltech or MIT graduate would get hired over, say, a Penn State graduate for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that once you get that interview, 90% of getting the job is your personality.



enginestud:

So I just want to know my best options right now so that I may know the best possible school to go for my degree and career



The problem is that there isn’t a correct answer here. It’s a big balancing act between cost, reputation, recruiting footprint, personal goals, and personality. You have a pretty specific idea for your end goal, so I think my previous advice still holds in terms of finding the departments who actually do work in that area. After you find a few that interest you, however, it comes down to the more subjective issues like personal fit or the money issue, which we can’t really help you with. You might also take a look at the list of companies coming to the recruiting fairs from the schools that interest you. That is generally a pretty good idea of which companies seek out that school’s graduates and should give you a rough idea of where you might be 4 or 5 years down the road.