Which is most attractive?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Envelopes are in, and S was admitted for several outstanding opportunities:</p>

<p>Georgia Tech for EE. Pros: Renowned and respected, top job or grad school placement, great co-op program. Cons: tech school vibe, m/f ratio, old freshman dorms. COA $40K.</p>

<p>Johns Hopkins for EE. Pros: Renowned and respected. Cons: intense/cutthroat reputation of students. I don’t know much about internship/co-op opportunities or placement for engineering grads. COA $57K.</p>

<p>Lehigh for Honors Integrated Business and Engineering. Pros: honors program with about 50 students per class year, supposedly highly respected within Lehigh. Closest choice to home, about 2 hrs drive. Cons: it’s actually an accredited business degree. Requires additional year for accredited engineering degree, though you do end up with two degrees. COA $53K.</p>

<p>University of Alabama Honors College for EE. Pros: full tuition scholarship, honors college prestige and perks (small classes, priority registration, mentoring, fantastic dorms, etc.), new engineering quad, generous AP credit, school spirit. Cons: travel, lack of prestige and uncertain job prospects outside the South (just my perception, not sure of reality). COA $10K. </p>

<p>Would love some opinions from the experts here. Please weigh in on these choices.</p>

2

<p>For EE, I’d nix Lehigh right off. Those hybrid degrees are strange, and send a mix message to potential employers; business or engineer, which is it? I like to see people who know what they want and go get it. </p>

<p>Johns Hopkins may be prestigous, but in my career I haven’t ran into any engineers from there. Maybe it’s because they are known for things other than engineering or their engineers go into non-engineering careers. Either way, I like JH, but not so much for engineering.</p>

<p>Georgia Tech is, IMO, the more prestigous school for engineering. I also think that the Altanta city life has a lot to offer to a young college student that will help them develop outside of school. In all, this a good well rounded choice.</p>

<p>With that said, I know plenty of people who went to Alabama and loved it (I am not from the south). I also know that they have a strong engineering program, and the engineer I have worked from there was good. Much of schooling is what you make of it, not what they have to offer. I think being a big Div1 school coupled with the solid education and the full-ride make this my number one choice.</p>

<p>Of course the decision is up to your son. You could always get the prestige and wrack up those student loans at the Masters level.</p>

3

<p>^ interesting. Lehigh (and other schools with similar programs, including Penn/Wharton) claims that having the business training sets you apart from most engineering grads. Any others here who hire engineers care to weigh in on that?</p>

<p>Alabama also offers a STEM to MBA program. Qualified STEM majors take some MBA classes during undergrad, then need just a 5th year to complete the MBA. With all his AP credits, he should be able to manage the workload. End result is an accredited engineering (or other STEM) degree and an MBA. This would seem to be even more marketable than the Lehigh “hybrid”. Besides the MBA option, qualified students can also do a simultaneous BS and MS. That would, however, defeat the idea of getting the masters from a more prestigious engineering school.</p>

4

<p>I was a manager at a large aerospace company (before I retired) and hired many an engineer. I made the mistake of hiring a couple of kids out of school who had engineering and business degrees for engineering positions. Wasn’t too long after they started that they were asking why they weren’t being given any “managerial or business” tasks. I pointed out to them that they were hired as ENGINEERS. They were never satisfied and left after a short time in the job. From then on any resume that had more than a couple of business classes (or worse a double major in business) went straight to the round file.</p>

<p>It may be different for other companies (I would think small companies could be quite different) but enigneering and business are quite different fields. If your desire is to market engineering products then maybe the joint degree at Lehigh might work. Otherwise, forget it.</p>

<p>I might choose U of A based on the full ride. Forcasting now about job opportunities 4 years down the road is iffy. Job opportunities are what you do to sell yourself. The school helps, but you are the primary factor in getting that job. I worked in CA and worked with engineers from just about every school you could name.</p>

5

<p>In regards to the notion of getting a masters degree at a prestigious school, I agree with Japher that it is best to save that $30,000 per year to have it available for that prestigious school, whether for engineering or for an MBA. That will pay for an MBA from Harvard, Wharton, or Stanford. Furthermore, should MBA be the direction desired, your son will have had a chance to work for a few years in his desired field and that is what the elite MBA schools are looking for. They want people who know why they want an MBA and not think they want an MBA.</p>

6

<p>^ or a masters in engineering (rather than MBA) at a prestigious school.</p>

7

<p>Yes, I know and referenced. I just wanted to give you a little info regarding the best route for an MBA should that be a direction your son eventually desires, i.e. don’t get the MBA at UA.</p>

8

<p>Anyone else with opinions on these choices?</p>

9

<p>Nobody else has an opinion?</p>

10

<p>I would go for U of A. If your son works hard, makes good jobs, and gets some internships, he’ll do great. Don’t spend a lot of extra money for “prestige.” Save the money for grad school!</p>

<p>I would never hire a kid with engineering plus business. I, too, want an engineer!</p>

11

<p>GT: Know several graduates. Definitely the best engineering school, not knowing your son’s preferences. Expensive, but gives the most opportunities to be a top engineer.</p>

<p>JHU: Know a few graduates, got a masters there too. A good school but skewed towards the medical and defense industries - not as versatile as most other programs, and probably not worth the cost over GT unless your son is really interested in medicine or biomedical engineering.</p>

<p>Lehigh: I know a couple of graduates of that exact program, and they are decent engineers but are definitely management-focused. The program seems to produce program managers and people with strange titles in companies, like “director of IT innovation” or such. This is really a hedge for people who want to do management and think engineering is the best route. Personally, I would recommend just doing an engineering degree and addressing any management aspirations later.</p>

<p>Alabama: Know nothing about this program, don’t know any graduates. This program lacks the name recognition and reputation of the other programs, but it also lacks the expense. I do not think this program would offer the same opportunities as GT, but it won’t really stop a strong student from getting a good job or going to a good grad school. If expense is an issue, then this is the obvious choice.</p>

<p>So GT or Alabama - if cost is not really an issue, go GT, if cost IS an issue (and if it is going to be on your son in the form of loans, then it IS an issue) then Alabama.</p>

12

<p>Thanks, Maine and Cosmic (we’re on a first name basis, right?). How about ucbalumnus, boneh3ad, sakky, RacinReaver, and some of the other regulars–anyone else care to weigh in?</p>

13

<p>I would go Alabama unless you have a really compelling interest in a specific research area. For example, if you really like surgical robotics you should consider Johns Hopkins. Georgia Tech probably has a number of areas where it is very strong. </p>

<p>As much as I like Hopkins, I don’t think that it justifies an extra 200k over 4 years. Even if you really like Georgia Tech or Hopkins, I would advise you to consider attending Alabama for 1-2 years and then transferring.</p>

14

<p>I agree 100% with HPuck35 about hiring engineers with too many business credentials to be engineers. I see resumes with wall st jobs, financial engineering, etc, and I too want absolutely nothing to do with them. I just don’t bother. I’m nobody’s safety. There ARE people out there who do engineering for love. For us, there is no substitute. I still really love the technical work. I can’t believe they actually PAY me to do some of it. Sure I have management responsibilities, but deep down, I’m an engineer first and still do plenty of deep brainy technical stuff which gives me a great rush. </p>

<p>That said, I should point out that having an engineering background when applying for a business job is a huge win. People with the kind of sharp quantitative skills that engineering training provides are in very high demand in quantitative investment firms. In the long run, in terms of making money, this is an outstanding way to go. I can see that direction being very lucrative. </p>

<p>What should you do? </p>

<p>If your EFC is 0, Alabama sure looks attractive, but I would agree with your assessment of the cons. I never worked with an engineer from Alabama, and I have worked with folks from the other three. </p>

<p>If the others are affordable, I’d go with the others, given this particular choice. I’d even go into some debt to go to the other choices because I think the opportunities could be better, though they really aren’t unless you do really well. </p>

<p>If you want to go into business, that Lehigh option looks pretty good. </p>

<p>If you want to be an engineer, and you don’t want the cons of Georgia Tech (tech school vibe is a con? Ha! not for me), then either Hopkins or Lehigh looks good. Both are smaller and perhaps will give you a more personalized education. It’s hard for me to imagine too many cutthroat engineers once it becomes known that you’re not premed. I think the Hopkins mystique is overblown. </p>

<p>Georgia Tech is like MIT where they let in a lot more people in than can actually do the work and they practice Darwinism. Not too surprising that it’s not the happiest place for some, though the hardcore love it and for a good reason. In terms of the vastness of the engineering research going on there that you could get involved in, there is no parallel among the choices presented. </p>

<p>I assume that should you decide that you actually want to be an engineer, that Lehigh would let you drop the business stuff and just study engineering. </p>

<p>The other reason to study business with engineering is if you want to be an entrepreneur and do a startup. You can become rich beyond your wildest dreams. Understanding markets, strategy, and all of the other things you would learn along with understanding technology would help you develop and position your product. In this case you would be using the actual knowledge you learned in the courses and not necessarily the credentials. </p>

<p>I don’t know if this helps, but this is a great choice to have!</p>

15

<p>Don’t see the value in the Lehigh engineering / business double major, since plenty of engineers eventually move into engineering management without needing to get business degrees.</p>

<p>Don’t really see the value of JHU over somewhat less expensive GT.</p>

<p>So it really comes down to GT versus $30,000 per year less expensive UA. If you and your son visit each school, stop in the career center and ask what companies come recruiting students for his major for internships and jobs at graduation. If UA recruiting is noticeably weaker, then he may have to be more aggressive at looking for companies to apply to for internships and post-graduation jobs (to give an example, it seems that everyone posting about CS names the same four companies that s/he wants to work at after graduation – GAFM – so it would appear that many other companies in the industry get overlooked).</p>

<p>Career surveys from GT and UA:
[Georgia</a> Institute of Technology :: Salary Reports](<a href=“Georgia Tech | External Redirect Landing Page”>Georgia Tech | External Redirect Landing Page)
[Student</a> Affairs | Career Center](<a href=“http://career.ua.edu/students/firstDestination.cfm]Student”>http://career.ua.edu/students/firstDestination.cfm)</p>

<p>Other schools:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys.html&lt;/a&gt;
(Note: Berkeley, Cal Poly, and Virginia Tech have good detail, including names of employers.)</p>

16

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<p>The engineering business double major is not for the purpose of being an engineering manager. It’s for the purpose of being a manager with an engineer’s quantitative skills. There are a bunch of graduates of this program working as quantitative fixed income portfolio managers at DW’s investment management firm. They are in demand. They can easily earn a lot more than engineers and even engineering managers.</p>

17

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Sure, but if that is your interest, isn’t it a better idea to do the engineering undergrad and then look (once you KNOW that is what you want) at either an MBA or a masters in quantitative finance or the like?</p>

18

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<p>But wouldn’t some other major or combination doable in four years work just as well for this purpose? I.e. some combination of math / statistics / economics / finance / operations research?</p>

19

<p>Don’t those financial companies hire many engineering grads even without a business double/minor?</p>

20

<p>Probably more so at high prestige schools like MIT:
[Survey</a> Data | MIT Global Education & Career Development](<a href=“http://gecd.mit.edu/resources/data]Survey”>http://gecd.mit.edu/resources/data)</p>

<p>However, more generally, it seems that applied math, statistics, and economics majors are among those who are more likely to go into the finance industry after graduation; many engineering majors go work in engineering after graduation (imagine that).</p>