Engineering career and college choice

[Michelle in AL]

Hi all, I thought I'd ask this over here since it seems like there are quite a few engineering folks around.

 

Dd wants to go into Aeronautical Engineering. She also wants to stay in the Southeast. Does the reputation of the college make that big of a difference in finding a job after school?

 

Here are her choices:

Mississippi State: this to me looks to be the best personality fit for her. Not too greek, student reviews are excellent, not too preppy of a school and seems to be me to be pretty laid back. However, I'm not sure what kind of job you could get from Miss St?

 

Univ of Alabama-her first choice. But I don't see it as a good fit due to the emphasis on greek life and drinking, which she doesn't take part in.

 

Georgia Tech-would love this if she could get enough scholarships to afford it. Ave ACT is >30. Also has a reputation for being extremely difficult. Not sure how I feel about that.

 

Univ of AL Huntsville-NASA is here. I assume there would be great job opportunities if you shine, but the place has TERRIBLE student reviews.

 

Would any of these offer more opportunities?

 

Any other good choices in the SE?

[aggieamy]

I'm not familiar with any of those schools but I can comment on how employers view different schools. You want her to get into a school that has a well-known and respected engineering school. The places I've worked have looked at what schools people have listed on their resume and rule people out based just on that. They aren't looking for only the people coming from the top ten schools but they also are ruling people out that went to the local state school that doesn't have a well rated engineering school.

 

If you're daughter wants to head west just a bit then Texas A&M and University of Texas are great engineering schools. Well known and respected all over the country.

[Michelle in AL]

She would actually love Texas A&M, but they have a rule that they have to take a certain percentage of in-state students, I think 80%, so OOS would be really competitive. We were shying away because of that.

[Dobela]

She would actually love Texas A&M, but they have a rule that they have to take a certain percentage of in-state students, I think 80%, so OOS would be really competitive. We were shying away because of that.

Don't limit your options. She may be just what they are looking for and be one of the OOS students picked. It never hurts to try, especially when it comes to college admissions. By not even giving it a chance you are subconsciously saying that your dd is 'not good enough'. Do you really want her to think that?

[Kathleen in VA]

I'm not an engineer but I have a friend who's dh went to Embrey-Riddle Aeronautical University.

[GWOB]

 

Here is a link to the top 100 enginering schools. University of Alabama, UAB, and Auburn are all listed, though I'm going to guess since your dd wants Bama, Auburn is out of the question. The link doesn't list them according to rank. There are quite a few schools listed that are located in the South. HTH.

[Kathleen in VA]

Here is a link to the top 100 enginering schools. University of Alabama, UAB, and Auburn are all listed, though I'm going to guess since your dd wants Bama, Auburn is out of the question. The link doesn't list them according to rank. There are quite a few schools listed that are located in the South. HTH.

 

The link doesn't work because there is one too many "http" prefixes in it. Here it is again:

 

http://education-portal.com/top_100_engineering_schools.html

[patchfire]

Hi all, I thought I'd ask this over here since it seems like there are quite a few engineering folks around.

 

Dd wants to go into Aeronautical Engineering. She also wants to stay in the Southeast. Does the reputation of the college make that big of a difference in finding a job after school?

 

Georgia Tech-would love this if she could get enough scholarships to afford it. Ave ACT is >30. Also has a reputation for being extremely difficult. Not sure how I feel about that.

 

The AE program at Tech is outstanding. The co-op program is an excellent complement to the degree, too. A good friend of mine was AE at Tech, co-op'd in Huntsville with NASA, and was hired directly out of school with a NASA contractor. He's now with yet another company doing something with satellites (that satellite that went rogue back in the spring, that made them have to transfer cable signals or something? Yeah, that was his :tongue_smilie:)

 

I admit to being prejudiced towards Tech since dh and I both went there, but yes, he encounters a number of Tech grads daily in his field.

 

And, yes, the ratio is skewed towards boys, but it's getting better, supposed (not quite 3 to 1 anymore!). Still... the odds are good, but the goods are odd, as we used to say. ;)

[aggieamy]

I wouldn't be turned off by a school with a skewed ratio of boys to girls. When I was in engineering school that's the way it was and you get used to it. I became really good friends with the girls that were there because you have so much in common. Not to mention that when she starts working she'll probably be working with a lot of men. In my classes there were about four gals and forty guys. In my department at work there are two of us gals and twelve men.

[snickelfritz]

Is she set on aeronautical or open to many types of engineering? Want to go into research? Aiming for a doctorate?

 

The type of engineering really will determine how elite she should aim for. I have a degree in Biosystems engineering from Oklahoma State. Couldn't open the list to see if we made it into the top 100. But within Biosystems fields(Traditionally agriculture, though they are diversifying. My focus was environmental,) our department was well known. A girl in my class was president of the national student organization. Typical grads went to work for John Deere or the NRCS. The infamous peanut butter slices were developed by one of our professors (sidenote-- I participated in a taste test panel.) Department size was low and scholarship level was high.

 

Dh graduated in mechanical engineering, which was much larger and more competitive. Still, as a non- elite student with decent grades... He has an excellent job and is the COO for his company. His work ethic, ability to apply knowledge, management skills, etc... Have let him work his way up.

 

When I graduated, there was a glut of aeronautical engineers. Which means a more prestigious university might be an edge but so might campus involvement, summer internships, etc....

 

Neither of us were on track to be high level research engineers. But that's ok.

[Michelle in AL]

Thanks all, your posts are very helpful. She is stuck on Aeronautical now. She's taking aviation science this yr and that should help her decide if that's where her heart is.

 

I'm off to check the link of top 100 schools.

[dirty ethel rackham]

Being skewed towards boys will work in her favor as far as consideration for scholarship money. Colleges and universities are always looking for ways to "diversify" the student body.

 

One caution about AE, it is a very up and down business. The space and defense programs are dependent on government money, so when funding dries up, so do jobs. The aircraft industry has similar problems. My BIL is an AE for Boeing (was McDonnell Douglas) with several masters degrees. He has been laid off at least 5 times. He has been rehired each time, but it was stressful for his family. He is constantly going back to school to stay marketable.

[GWOB]

The link doesn't work because there is one too many "http" prefixes in it. Here it is again:

 

http://education-portal.com/top_100_engineering_schools.html

 

Oops! Chalk that up to lack of caffeine.

[Annie]

In a specialized field like AE, I think it really depends on the reputation of that individual department rather than the school as a whole. The employers will know where they want to recruit from.

 

I would ask the departments for their placement statistics. Look at the percentage of people who are employed before graduation, starting salary, and list of companies the students ended up going to. University career centers are usually happy to provide this information, and it should really give your daughter a good idea of what she's in for. When I was in school, my department had a 100% placement rate, and they were very eager to keep that statistic. This meant tons of support from the faculty while you were searching for jobs.

 

I'm from the great up north ( ;) ), so I'm not that familiar with the schools you listed. I worked with one guy from Georgia Tech, however, and he was darn good at what he did. I wouldn't be that afraid of a party school like Alabama. I'm LDS, and I managed to graduate from one of the biggest "work hard and party hard" schools in the country without much trouble. It's a big enough school that there will be tons of other students with similar values. She just needs to seek them out.

 

Lastly, has she considered nuclear engineering? I've been told that similar students tend to be drawn to the two fields. It's more stable career wise since utilities are fairly resistant to recession, and the population of nuclear engineers is aging quickly. My husband works with a couple of people who retired more than a decade ago but are still working on a contract basis due to demand for their skills.

Edited September 10, 2010 by Annie

[Mama Geek]

Yes, the school does make a difference. In addition to that the particular engineering program makes a difference. Just in doing a quick search the top 21 AE programs from US news and world reports are:

 

U.S. News Rank University

1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2 Stanford University (CA)

3 California Institute of Technology

4 University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

5 Georgia Institute of Technology

6 Purdue University–West Lafayette (IN)

7 Princeton University (NJ)

8 University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign

9 University of Texas–Austin

10 Cornell University (NY)

10 Penn State University–University Park

12 University of California–Los Angeles

12 Virginia Tech

14 University of Maryland–College Park

15 University of Colorado–Boulder

16 Texas A&M University–College Station

17 Ohio State University

18 University of Washington

18 University of California–Berkeley

20 University of Minnesota–Twin Cities

21 University of Southern California

 

However I would completely agree with the PP that said that AE engineering is very cyclical and right now there is pretty much no work in that field.

 

Would you guys consider a mechanical engineering program that would allow you to take vibrations, FEA, aerodynamics, etc. so that you would have the background to work in AE and still have a lot of other options left open to you?

 

ETA: That list was ranked the graduate schools, you can search and find a list for undergrad schools, but I would bet it doesn't vary much.

Edited September 10, 2010 by Mama Geek

[lynn]

Do I dare mention Auburn University? lol....please don't take offense if you are an Alabama fan. Auburn has a great engineering school.

[Michelle in AL]

Thanks all, she is also considering mechanical. She's always been an "engineering" kind of kid. Excellent analytical skills, very logical, has always loved puzzles, and played with mostly building toys as a kid. Where the preference for aero comes from I don't know.

 

We are Auburn fans, but she has dissented and gone to the Alabama side on her own. We'll look at Auburn anyway.

 

We'll for sure look at Georgia Tech and perhaps Texas A&M too. It's 10 hrs from here, which is a long and expensive drive for nothing. I guess she could always apply without looking.

 

Thanks for the recommendation about asking for job stats too.