<p>My 11th-grader is beginning to discuss Chemical Engineering as a college major. We live in Georgia, so he could go to Georgia Tech - with the 9th-ranked ChemE program in the U.S. (according to USNews) - for very little money.</p>
<p>But Tech isn’t the type of college environment that I’d pick out for him as his father. I’d be more enthusiastic about a campus with a student body that reflects a diverse range of academic fields and intellectual passions. Vanderbilt, for instance, has a School of Engineering and a ChemE program. I could see him really thriving at a school like Vandy, hanging out with engineering friends and then taking percussion performance lessons in the School of Music with friends who are music majors. There’s no music instruction at Tech (unless you’re talking about acoustics ).</p>
<p>I’ve seen Vandy’s Engineering School ranked in the 30s nationally, compared to Tech’s which is in the top 5. Vandy’s ChemE program doesn’t make any of the rankings lists I’ve seen. So if my son chooses the more well-rounded college experience, what might he be sacrificing in his Chemical Engineering experience?</p>
<p>In my experience not a whole lot. Engineers are in big demand and employers are very egalatarian when it comes to pay… Vanderbilt’s chemical engineering program is ABET accredited, so it meets standards.</p>
<p>The biggest difference though is on-campus recruiting. I’m not that familiar with Vanderbilt, but it probably is less targeted by engineering employers versus some of the bigger name engineering schools. Your son will still get a job with a Vandy ChemE degree…he just might have to do some more legwork to get the job. Check with Vanderbilt’s career office and compare to Georgia Tech.</p>
<p>Having said this, if you’re going to need to pay a huge premium for Vanderbilt over Georgia Tech, and your son wants to work as an engineer, the cost/benefit will clearly be in Georgia Tech’s favor.</p>
<p>I would definitely second that the on-campus recruiting is the biggest difference for an undergrad. In fact, this was the primary reason I chose Georgia Tech as a ChE major decades ago. I have worked in the chemical industry since and my very large company tends to recruit ChEs from certain higher rated schools for a wide variety of positions around the world while they recruit at lower rated schools to fill positions at plants that are nearby. For instance, we recruit grads from UT-Knoxville for plants in Tennessee but don’t recruit at Vandy. I wouldn’t say that those from the higher rated schools are ensured a better career than those from the lower rated ones, but they find it easier to get noticed for more opportunities.</p>
<p>If this is a concern I would suggest you ask the placement office what companies recruited ChEs over the past few years.</p>
<p>I’m more familiar with non-technical businesses that recruit on college campuses. They’re on campus more for marketing purposes; their visits don’t typically lead directly to employment, and applicants who don’t recruit on campus are not at any disadvantage. Is on-campus recruiting for Engineering grads a more direct line to a job offer?</p>
<p>Yes, if you are looking for the traditional jobs for that major. Granted, this was long ago, but when I was graduating from GT all of the major chemical companies, all of the major oil companies, all of the major engineering and construction firms, most of the largest paper companies, many leading consumer products companies, many leading pharmaceutical companies and the top computer chip manufacturers all recruited and hired chemical engineers from there. Typically there were on campus interviews from which the company would cull the list to those that they would fly out to their sites for second round interviews and then make job offers from those.</p>
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