I would strongly suggest you put your own workplace biases aside as you look for EE programs for your son. Yours is a very narrow view of this field.
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I’m unable to understand how you can major in pure “Engineering.” Do you have any experience with this? I know Dartmouth does this too. Surely these students are compelled to attend grad school if they’re coming out of “Engineering” programs.
Well, I like career reports. Others don’t but I do:
Georgia Tech reports they have knowledge of about 35% of kids - they don’t list by major. They don’t list all the categories like continuing education. They show % of kids who want a job who found one. They don’t show a timeline but the standard is 6 months after graduation. They show 22.6% can’t find a job. UCB was 13%.
Purdue shows 4.6% (7 of 151). Alabama has a 94% knowledge rate so they are dialed in with their kids - so almost 3x the amount that Ga Tech knows about (but we don’t know their knowledge rate by major). Bama is 4.6% still seeking. Uconn 8.2%. Va Tech 8.3%. Rose Hulman is down but they have an article that says 98% placement for EE (might be grad school too) - and I remember they have a high knowledge rate. Pitt - 2.7% still looking - 80% knowledge rate.
Not everyone likes the statistics reported as I do but - it’s a baseline for something. No doubt UCB and Ga Tech salaries are higher - is that location or jobs, etc?
Every school is different and I suspect it’s the student more than anything.
If you find out you are full pay and you only are willing to pay $50K, that limits your options anyway.
Not all schools provide detailed data but the ones I listed do.
Thanks
If these have low scholarship potential, the “top 20” private schools have even lower. As in, zero. They only offer need-based aid.
Many “public powerhouses” have highly ranked engineering programs. Engineering employers know them well, and in that sense, they are “elite.”
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I understand that your son is actively exploring EE programs but if he has broader STEM interests, then he needs to target schools that are flexible enough in case he decides to switch majors, not just within engineering, but to science within the same school without needing to transfer to a different school. He may ultimately decide to major in mathematics and/or physics instead & just take a few engineering classes or minor instead. He can still pursue engineering graduate study w/o the ugrad degree in engineering.
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Typically, but you should check each school, it’s easy to go from engineering to A&S but not vice versa.
CS may be different but some CS programs are co-located - sometimes in their own school, the engineering school with arts and sciences too.
You can always look at an LAC like Bucknell or Lafayette or Union - an LAC - asking about transferability or perhaps a Rose Hulman or RPI type could work too.
Your student should start visiting campuses to get a feel for what he likes. It’s great to find things on the web but you will be somewhere four years day after day - so near home, start exploring - forget the name - but small, mid, large, urban, suburban, rural, etc.
Get a feel for what he likes. It may differ than what he thinks.
Even some large schools aren’t large campus wise (UCF, Purdue) and some small population schools are spread out campus wise - it wouldn’t be on your list but I was floored by the size of Denison, as an example, when we visited.
My husband is a graduate of UC and Stanford EECS.
He is on the interview panel for his large international engineering and aerospace firm.
He no longer is impressed by the elite names of colleges.
He prefers regional Cal State students because he’s found over the years that they come with great internship experiences, programs and good attitudes.
Also, he has lately noticed that a lot of these students, from your great schools, are not satisfied with “learning the ropes” about the work and contractual responsibilities which leads them to skip steps. They don’t ask for help and delay the timelines, with errors that cause big monetary losses. In other words, they don’t listen.
Our Caltech son works for the same company, but in a different division and in CSE. While in HS and college, he listened to Dad’s comments about work ethic and learning how to problem solve. He didn’t tell his Dad he was applying to the company and had his interview in another city.
Was hired, had great reviews and he rarely lets people know who his Dad is.
Oh and Caltech is full fees unless you qualify for need based aid. Every student there would qualify for merit. It’s a research institution and not a regular university experience. It’s currently way over your budget.
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There is some discussion of EE and CS. Let me mention one interesting difference. We went to an open house for EE at Austin, and this became apparent.
EE has long pre-req chains, sometimes as many as 10 courses long. CS is more atomic. So you can meander through a CS major, like an itinerant. The majors offers a lot of flexibility, almost like a liberal arts major. EE will be very structured with only modest flexibility.
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Seems doubtful, since a student at a semester system school has only 8 semesters of normal attendance that course plans generally assume. Here is the UT Austin ECE course plan: Box . On the second page, it lists subareas and courses for them (which are effectively in-major elective choices) – this may be of interest to the OP in showing the subarea breadth that exists within the subject.
The profs that was running the open house mentioned this. This is not my inference after looking at the course syllabus. And the kid that went to this open house ended up taking CS, and there were very few pre-req requirements that he faced. You could pretty much go talk to the prof and take whatever you want (different school). Of course this may not matter to the OP.