@MYOS I am looking for a mechanicals major , so can you tell me if that major is popular enough in that school
A lot of responses since you asked me about the schools you have selected. I would say that all of the private schools you have applied to (WPI, Stevens, NYU Poly, IIT Chicago) are part of the [url=“http://theaitu.org”]AITU[/url] and each is well regarded by employers. RHIT (mentioned by some) is also part of the AITU. In general, public universities such as the ones you have applied to are also quite good but the financial aid for international students is limited. Whichever one you choose will have plenty of opportunities for you to do internships and CPT/OPT.
As for the support that each university gives students in finding employment, I cannot speak for any one but my own school, Illinois Tech. I suspect it is very similar at the others. Our Career Management Center sponsors two job fairs each year and we generally have more companies than we can put in the Expo Center. However, the Career Services people tell me that most students don’t get internships or jobs from the job fairs. instead, it is the online resume postings that are more effective in giving students opportunities.
In your original post, you mention salary but then you go on to state that you want to get a M.S. and then Ph.D. First of all, if you eventually want a Ph.D. getting a M.S. first may not be the best option. If you are well prepared and have the opportunity to go right to a Ph.D. program, you might want to do so. Second, you don’t necessarily need to work before going for the Ph.D. since most program will support a Ph.D. candidate with tuition and stipend.
All of this will become more clear to you once you are in college and have a chance to speak with your mentors. Right now, you need to focus on which university to choose and i think that your decision should be largely financial. All the schools you have chosen are good so whichever one keeps your out of pocket expenses lowest should be your choice.
Now for your questions
The AITU schools are well known in the United States. Some of them have more of a regional presence but all three of the ones you mention have graduates all over the country (and world).
Most people in the United States don’t want to be engineers and these schools are primarily engineering. Consequently they are not as well known. Rankings are well known to be flawed in many ways so you should take them with a grain of salt. Remember that US News SELLS their rankings. They are not a philanthropic organization. As long as you are in an ABET accredited engineering program you can rest assured that you will get a good education if you put the effort in.
I am obviously biased as I have been teaching at IIT for 31 years and i have had 2 of my own chidren attend. When you say “bad reviews” what are you referring to? The neighborhood? The education? The lack of a party atmosphere? Yes, IIT and NYU Poly are both in an urban area as are Case Western and Carnegie Mellon and Columbia. You learn to deal with it and the fact that students can hop on the subway and have access to Chicago (IIT) and New York (NYU Poly) is a wonderful draw. That is one of the things IIT students like best about the campus. The education you get in an undergraduate institution is in large part determined by what you put into it. Suffice it to say that there are plenty of opportunities for students at both schools, if they choose to take them… All the AITU schools are the opposite of party schools. The students self-select for being serious students or they just wouldn’t make it in an engineering school. however, there are lots of clubs and opportunities for students at IIT and Iam sureat NYU Poly as well.
It is another AITU school and has many of the same features as the others I have been talking about. IIT, NYU Poly and Stevens all have Ph.D. programs in addition to undergraduate programs but they are relatively small compared to the huge programs at the big public institutions. You can find very good researchers at each of these schools but they just cannot cover their entire fields as the big schools can. For example, at IIT our physics department is 16 faculty. We specialize in a few areas of physics(High Energy, Condensed matter, Accelerator, Biophysics) and we do those well but we cannot cover Optics, Atomic, Plasma, and others that a Purdue can.
Hope this helps.
@xraymancs 
Thank You Sir , I am really glad that yo replied to this thread and cleared most of my doubts regarding the Institutes , That was a Top notch answer :-bd
And regard the bad reviews of IIT Chicago and NYU Poly , I would like to specify that these were the things i red -
- IIT Chicago- I have red that most of the equipments ,devices and laboratories at the IIT are outdated and eventhough they have good faculty , because of lack of good high tech labs , they are not able match modern engineering education
2)NYU “Poly” - I have heard that NY Poly is going to be merged with the NYU this year and thus there are alot of issues regarding that and since NYU was a completely Liberal Arts School and it never had a engineering school therefore the engineering education standards are not that good.
Also can you tell me something about “Virginia Tech” …
NYU once had an engineering division, which it sold to Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (later Polytechnic Institute of New York, then Polytechnic University). More recently, it was acquired by NYU, changing its name to Polytechnic Institute of New York University. It is now fully part of NYU as its engineering division.
Virginia Tech (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) is a large public university that emphasizes engineering.
Thank You @ucbalumnus for your response , Can you tell me how is Virginia Tech as compared to WPI , Stevens , NYU POLY and IIT Chicago
VT is a public university and is much larger than the the others. It is a research university and it’s program is good as well. However, because it is public, it is likely not to give as much aid (if any) to international students.
@xraymancs , @ucbalumnus , @TheDidactic , let me update this thread again
So I applied to the following universities -
1)Georgia Tech
2)Purdue University
3)Nyu Polytechnic School of Engineering
3)Virginia Tech
4)IIT Chicago
5)Stevens Institute of Technology
6)Worcestor Polytechnic Institute
7)Pennstate University - University Park
8)Michigan State University
I got the following results so far -
Rejections - 1) Georgia Tech (I was nearly crying for 2 days when i realized i was rejected)
Waitlisted - 2)WPI
Accepted - 3)IIT Chicago ,4) PennState(University Park) ,5)Virginia Tech , 6)Stevens Institute of Technology ,7)Michigan State University
Waiting for reply - 8)Purdue 9) Nyu Poly
Please come back and comment as soon as possible
Looks like you have some great options. You can’t get into all the most selective schools, after all.
You have until May 1 to make a decision and you should carefully weigh the costs and other factors before making your decision. If you have specific questions about Illinois Tech, feel free to PM me or post on the IIT Forum where there is a thread on which I answer questions about IIT.
You really do have some great options. Sorry about Georgia Tech but that is a reach for anyone. As xraymancs says, weigh the costs of each place. I don’t know if it’ll be possible for you to visit them all but if you can, squeeze that in! Really weigh and pros and cons.
Why did you apply to Michigan State University if you didn’t want to attend a very large school?
Does cost matter, and what are the net prices of each school after subtracting any scholarships and financial aid you may have gotten?
@rjkofnovi I do not think that the size of school would matter much now , that was only an intial thought …i wouldn’t take the size of school as the deciding factor
@ucbalumnus , Yes cost does matter according now what i have calculated and all i think that my family can pay a max of about 48K per year , But my father told me that he manage it somehow , and wanted me to concentrate on the best option availabe , that is the school with the best reputation and salary potential
@ucbalumnus and @TheDidactic the overall cost is like this in descending order from most expensive to the least (I am taking my scholarships in consideration) -
Please take a look-
1)Penn State University
2)Stevens Institute of Technology
3)Michigan State Univesity
4)Virginia Tech
5)IIT Chicago
Which of the schools fall under $48,000 (is that per year?) after accounting for scholarships?
Not going over budget will give both you and your family more financial flexibility in case of unexpected events.
@ucbalumnus IIT Chicago and Virginia Tech ,also Purdue if i get selected
@ucbalumnus , I am also leaning towards Stevens Institute because of its salary potential , and also because it was the toughest out of all of the other schols to get into
Since the other three are over budget, you may want to concentrate your decision on VT and IIT.
Purdue is also good, but you would only be admitted into “first year engineering” and need to make a high enough GPA to get into your desired engineering major.
Stevens may have a high average or median pay level for its graduates because it is mostly engineering majors, while the other schools have various other majors with lower average pay levels for graduates.