Hello guys
I have narrowed my options to two schools RPI and USC. I am a transfer student.
USC
the city is nice and warm
major Mechanical engineering Petroleum Concentration
Loans 20k a year
RPI
The loction not so good and very cold at winter
Major Mechanical engineering
Loans 7k per year
I want to work right after graduation, I am not thinking of doing master for now.
I applied for Mechanical engineering Petroleum Concentration because I want to work as a mechanical engineer at a gas company. I still could work anywhere as a Mechanical engineer.
USC is higher in the ranking than RPI ( i am not eve sure if that would matter to get a job??)
here is the question
Is USC’s degree worth 13k extra per year than RPI’s degree???
I would appericate your help
In USNWR’s engineering category USC and RPI rank nearly identically (with PA scores of 3.5 and 3.4, respectively). However, RPI rates highly in USA Today as well:
The answer to this, generally and in a vacuum, would be “No Way!”. But it’s a close enough amount that fit is a factor that would be fair to consider, as mentioned.
RPI has a very strong engineering reputation - I don’t think you’ll see any difference after college by attending one over the other.
Personally, all this points to RPI - is there any reason besides academics that would make you consider paying more for USC?
Petroleum is cyclical. Jobs are hard to come by right now as there is a glut of engineers looking with oil prices so low. Make sure it’s more than money motivating you, because the money isn’t there right now.
As for “is it worth it?” I too would say no, unless there are some non-academic reasons why you strongly prefer USC. $40k in debt service is nothing to sneeze at. Plus, I don’t trust the rankings anyway, especially USNWR engineering where the methodology is based 100% on institutional reputation.
I’d expect they’ll give you equivalent educations.
Have you visited them? The campuses are very different. I know a few people who graduated from RPI and they all seemed happy with the school, but I think it’s an incredibly ugly campus. On the other hand, USC is very cramped so I can understand why some people might not find it to their liking.
Also, sometimes it takes longer than expected to get a degree as a transfer, especially when you need to take some courses in sequence. If you take a third year, you may have loans of $60K plus interest that would be growing from when you took out each loan (except those loans that are subsidized). Graduating with significant debt is something to carefully consider.
It’s pretty well known that for STEM majors, which school you go to makes little difference on salary pay. The only thing that does effect which school you go to is which employer you will work for. It’s not set in stone that you can’t get a job at xyz job but you have more of a chance of getting that job if they scout a certain school regularly.
A second thing I wanted to mention, I’d suggest from my own opinion that you consider not looking at a school romantically as so many people here do, and consider it instead as 4 years of work. That said, RPI may not be as beautiful as Pepperdine or some of the other more lovely campuses, but it is a great school where you WILL get a great education. You’re paying tuition for the best education you can, not for cobblestone pathways between beautiful rose bushes. The winter is the only down vote for RPI, as a native New Yorker and resident New Jerseyian, the cold is not of concern to me.
Lastly, the money situation is absolutely a definite no to California, if RPI is as cheap as you say it will be for you, there is no question RPI is most assuredly the only choice to consider.
@simba9 I got to Case Western as well
but I piked RPI over Case and BU because I thought RPI is better for Engineering??
I also was accpeted to WPI but I was not given enough aid
