Question about engineering degrees

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Ive noticed that some colleges offer majors in certain fields of engineering, but will only grant a degree in general engineering for such a field. Stanford for example will only give a degree in general engineering for undergrad majors in aerospace engineering. How much would it effect my chances at getting into a good grad school if i only have a degree in general engineering?</p>

2

<p>Well, the stanford degree in aerospace engineering concentration is designed for continuation into grad school. Also look at Harvey Mudd - most of its graduates end up in grad school even while ‘only’ offering a general engineering degree.</p>

<p>:)</p>

3

<p>Caltech too only offers degrees in “Engineering and Applied Sciences” (EAS) for all engineering disciplines except ME, ChemE, and EE. For example, Caltech has arguably the best aerospace engineering program in the world, but does not offer formal aerospace engineering degrees. Rather, they are offered as a concentration with EAS. But that hasn’t seemed to have hurt all of those Caltech engineering grads.</p>

4

<p>Nah, Caltech’s aerospace program does not compare to the likes of MIT, GT, Stanford, UMich, UIUC…etc at the undergraduate and Master’s levels.</p>

<p>Caltech <em>might</em> have the best doctorate-level aerospace research (though, again, I personally believe nothing beats MIT) but it just doesn’t have the breadth and resources that the other schools’ curriculums have.</p>

<p>I’d say it is generally better to go to a school that specializes in the major you wish to enroll in, than in one that doesn’t.</p>

<p>Go to Caltech if your ultimate goal is to go into academia or go into specialized research jobs at the Phd level… But if your plan is to go into industry, the other schools would be a better pick.</p>

5

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</p>

<p>Only <em>might</em>? According to the NRC, Caltech is actually on top.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/area19.html[/url]”>http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/area19.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>According to USNews, it is #3.</p>

<ol>
<li> Stanford University (CA) 4.9 </li>
<li> Massachusetts Institute of Technology 4.8 </li>
<li> California Institute of Technology 4.6 </li>
<li> Georgia Institute of Technology 4.2
University of Michigan–Ann Arbor 4.2 </li>
</ol>

<p><a href=“http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/eng/premium/specialties/engsp01.php[/url]”>http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/eng/premium/specialties/engsp01.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Oh come now. Who really is going to turn down Caltech for, say, UIUC, except perhaps to save money? </p>

<p>While I can’t speak for undergrad AA at Caltech specifically, it seems to me that Caltech grads in general seem to have little trouble finding industry employment.</p>

<p>The notion of ‘breadth’ is massively overrated. After all, all that basically does is reward sheer size. Georgia Tech has substantially more engineering students than does MIT, but you yourself admitted that you think MIT is the better aerospace school.</p>

6

<p>As I said on another thread, CalTech receives $1.4 billion a year to run JPL… a purely aerospace institution. </p>

<p>Johns Hopkins receives $100 million a year to run APL.</p>

<p>Now, clearly, JH does not have the strongest aerospace program in the country, but if you were to go there you would have some access to APL. </p>

<p>Aerospace peeps at CalTech have access to JPL. I believe it is fairly regular for grad students to have labs at JPL and such.</p>

7

<p>Uh-oh. Lancer, you’ve pushed Sakky’s “go” button…</p>

<p><em>pops some popcorn, stands back to watch</em></p>