Why is this your fear? Your son just might switch majors…many college students do.
Sample of one…one of my kids did a double major starting off in bioengineering. The kid loved the coursework, but decided they never wanted to work at all in the field of engineering (and they knew plenty about it…DH is an EE). Double major picked up in biology which most folks here will tell you is a very NOT good ROI for a college major. This kid is doing just fine in a high level STEM field that is not engineering, and mire suited to their interests.
DH hired engineers for his company. He was looking for people who were willing to be learners as much of engineering jobs is learning the ways a company does things, as well as that company’s culture. There were some grads from very elite engineering programs who didn’t make it to the end of the probationary period because they thought they knew it all…and didn’t take constructive criticism or direction well.
Sorry @tsbna44 this was not meant to be directed to you. I think we actually agree on this.
An elite school grad does not necessarily mean a strong engineer. And graduating from less than an elite school might be a terrific and willing learner engineer.
Totally understand. We went to visit and it’s like a high school. It’s small but some like that. Great outcomes.
When my son got hired in IOE his international company only took 8 US students out of 45 his year. Michigan. GT, UIUC, Penn State, University of Cincinnati, Ohio State, and some college no one ever heard before. Lol.
They all had to pass several tests and interviews out of 3,000 applications.
My point is smart students are smart student’s and capable no matter where they were educated. Now yes, certain schools have a list of advantages in my opinion. But they aren’t the only ones out there.
Due to my son working in Sweden currently he works side by side from peers from many different countries. They are all capable.
Yes NC State is glaringly missing from the original list.
I am not sure but I have a vague idea that Duke’s Electrical and Computer Engineering is more chip and computer focused. Maybe we have someone on here who is more familiar with the program?
NC State is a great school for a wide variety of engineering disciplines.
Switching majors isn’t a problem, it’s him committing to an intensive engineering school like Olin and realizing he has to transfer out to pursue his desired major - just a hypothetical for students who aren’t 100% certain, and, even with 100% certainty, things can change.
When it comes to institutional reputation, attending a better school is a massive head start because there are built-in resources and connections. I went to a UC (not Berkeley) and had to chase opportunities by the tail. That UC is several grades above most regional schools, including many of the ones I listed. My colleague went to Caltech and worked his way into my lab with virtually no effort.
Thank you for admitting this. Regional schools do a perfectly good job at getting people jobs in engineering - it’s a great field when it comes to getting hired. However, prominent research opportunities are only really open to the top schools. We had applicants from Caltech and UMich (a great school for engineering and most else), with better hands-on experience, but we took the Caltech applicant and it wasn’t even close. Caltech graduates pro researchers.
Engineering is moving towards R&D due to AI and way more candidates.
My EE husband says…not in his field of engineering. He is a design consultant specializing in BIG power. AI can’t do field visits, and anticipate unknown issues and resolve them on the spot. This is work a person needs to be available to do.
And even IF AI is involved…everything needs to be checked, and checked again. And last I heard, AI wasn’t being given a free PE license so AI could stamp documents, and this is still a requirement for many jobs, especially government and municipal jobs.
My double major engineering kid wanted to do research and development of durable medical equipment. But in the end, decided working with people was their thing.
This could happen to your kid also. They might decide that research isn’t their thing.
I think most families “should” research schools with the idea that their kid might change majors. My daughter did 3 times. Lol.
This is why I put emphasis on fit. What are the qualities of X school that I can get at Y school? Most Big Ten Engineering schools do great research. Research and Development Expenditure | Big Ten Academic Alliance Research and Development Expenditure | Big Ten Academic Alliance
I’m looking past the very top schools (MIT, Caltech, Stanford, Berkeley, Cornell) to advise a good student (my son) who is not exactly set on the public powerhouses like GT, Purdue, UIUC due to low scholarship potential. When it comes to this type of student, what does a better job? Regional schools or top schools without particular EE distinction - Northwestern, Duke, JHU, etc. And how do those top schools compare to the public powerhouses?
I’m not familiar with the programs at these T20 schools that aren’t really known for engineering.
Which of these do you think has scholarship potential? Their aid is primarily need based…not merit.
Is he looking for an engineering program where he can get a large merit scholarship?
Another college you should look at is University of Massachusetts. Fine engineering. We don’t know anything about your son, but this school does offer some merit aid for out of state students.
My son’s been into computers and programming for many years. He’s under the impression CompE and EE are essentially the same thing. Are they really? CompE wasn’t a big thing when I went to school. Regardless, I’ve urged him to apply to schools with strong CS departments as well as EE. CS is an important skill for EE majors. Berkeley does an amazing job at this.
They tend to be very generous with need-based grants. JHU is tuition-free under 200K. My wife’s not working as of now, so we’re giving more thought to this.
Thanks, I wasn’t aware of merit aid at UMass. Are you referring to a specific campus?
How do you know your son will want to work in a lab ?
You seem to feature schools that have higher still seeking employment rates as superior to others -who report grads finding jobs at a higher level (not more money) - Ga Tech and UCB.
Be very careful with tuition free under Xx$ which is often marketing and not a change. They all disclaim based on assets. We had a school that at my income should have provided $38k in need aid. We got $0. I asked why. Assets. Avg was 2x salary so less than $400k. It’s 7 years ago now but Cornell said if you’re worth $1 million, you will get nothing anywhere.
Run the net price calculator. Don’t trust a marketing slogan.
@salrossi if you want decent info about college options for your kid, please do a chance me/match me thread, and answer all of the questions in the template. This will help guide posters. Right now…all we know is you are looking at top engineering programs only.
When you add financial considerations to the mix, that changes a lot in terms of recommendations.
So…do that chance me/match me. It Includes budget considerations.
2x salary for assets is a joke. Never knew this about Cornell; that would be a no-go with Ivys pushing astronomical tuition. I’ll have to look further into finaid. I was under the impression under 200 meant under 200 - this would change things a great deal.
Assets matter. The schools say “with typical assets” because they want to award their need based aid to folks who do not have the assets to fully fund their costs. Colleges are not in the business of giving aid to families with very high assets.
So at Michigan my son left knowing 6 programming languages. That was 2021 when he graduated. He was in IOE. Never said he mastered them but…
It seems today every phase of engineer just about gets CS.
He shouldn’t make assumptions. He really needs to look at each major side by side at the class work. Every school could be different in this regard.
Again. Have some good regionals /home state programs that he can get accepted to. The schools you mention are long shots for anyone. Have the safeties also.
Personally I posted the Big Ten on purpose. There are some fantastic program in there. Don’t worry about the school overall rank. Look more into the majors rank if you will. That should open up more schools to you that you’re probably not thinking of.
Also.
Don’t keep up with the Joneses. Few families really know about which schools are good for engineering vs name brand schools. This takes parents something different to get used to.