Where to go to college?

It'd be helpful if you said why you listed those four out of the hundreds possible. CC or HS counselors can be helpful as well as a campus visit, but that depends on where you're located because it could be pricey to travel (although the PA, NY and NH schools are within reasonable distance of one another).
 
First visit them and get as much info as you can trust me when I say my order (of which I wanted to attend) changed once I visited any/all of the schools. Apply to all of them. It is not easy to get into college especially these days when schools are raising standards due to limited funding.
 
I have worked with a couple of Cornell alumni engineers and they are both top-notch.

The most important thing for undergraduate engineering is that you strongly learn the fundamental theories. When I went to Iowa State University, we didn't have all the latest gee-whiz equipment or the latest high-tech subjects. We learned the fundamentals and we learned them well. And those fundamentals have served me well.

yesterday was the one-year service aniversary of a new-grad engineer I hired one year ago. He has done very well. He is from Perdue, by the way. Hiring for that position was very difficult. I was amazed by young people from well-known universities who would sit in my office and stare at a very simple circuit drawn on my whiteboard and just not know where to even start. Wow. One of them called me up afterwards to ask why he hadn't gotten the job. I asked why, in light of the fact that he had not correctly answered a single technical question during our interview, he thougt he should get the job. He asked what I would recommend that he do. I told him to repeat his freshman and sophamore years.... at Iowa State. So, look for a school where the undergraduate courses are still taugt mostly by professors and where they still pound on the fundamentals.
 
If you can get into one of the two Ivy League schools and are able to afford it, a degree from that level of school will help open doors more easily. Once hired it won't do you a lot of good if you can't perform but it does help to increase your odds of getting the interview/job.

DancesWithKnives
 
I have no experience with those schools but will throw out a few things to think about.

Ask about internships when you visit the schools. Even a little experience with some hands-on engineering work can be a gold mine when looking for the first job.

Ask about engineering/physics related projects that you can volunteer for. I went to Western Michigan (Applied Math) and worked on their solar car during my junior and senior years. Again, hands-on experience working on real life problems and honing problem solving skills.

Ask who teaches the freshmen and soph classes. I had a Ph.d in 98% of my classes at WMU. A few of my early year classes were Ph.d students. I know some folks who went to bigger name schools and had Ph.d students teach much of the first two years. The big name Ph.d professors were concentrating on research and higher lvl undergrads. Budget problems are also putting more grad students in the classroom as of late. Nothing against Ph.d students, but a difference in who teaches the early stuff might help me sway my decision.

Best of luck.
 
+1 basic fundamentals are the important thing. You can apply those to any specialties.

Read Feynman's Lectures on Physics.
 
Look seriously at the money situation. If you can get into a top top program great. But if a good solid school is offering a good scholarship or grant package, you have to consider the cost. Coming out of school with $100,000 in student loans is a real possibility these days (especially if you go to grad school).

Minimizing your student loans maximizes your flexibility in where you can work, what fields you can go into, etc. If you have crushing debt, you're going to have to look for a job first and foremost that can pay your bills. That might mean working somewhere you don't want to be because the pay scale is higher or working in a field that is lucrative but not what you wanted to be doing.
 
Gollnick said:
I have worked with a couple of Cornell alumni engineers and they are both top-notch.

The most important thing for undergraduate engineering is that you strongly learn the fundamental theories. When I went to Iowa State University, we didn't have all the latest gee-whiz equipment or the latest high-tech subjects. We learned the fundamentals and we learned them well. And those fundamentals have served me well.

yesterday was the one-year service aniversary of a new-grad engineer I hired one year ago. He has done very well. He is from Perdue, by the way. Hiring for that position was very difficult. I was amazed by young people from well-known universities who would sit in my office and stare at a very simple circuit drawn on my whiteboard and just not know where to even start. Wow. One of them called me up afterwards to ask why he hadn't gotten the job. I asked why, in light of the fact that he had not correctly answered a single technical question during our interview, he thougt he should get the job. He asked what I would recommend that he do. I told him to repeat his freshman and sophamore years.... at Iowa State. So, look for a school where the undergraduate courses are still taugt mostly by professors and where they still pound on the fundamentals.
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That is great advice Gollnick. I did a minor in Landscape Irrigation Design at Cal Poly Pomona through Ag. Engineering, and I still retain all the fundamentals of a great instructor that was there at the time. He was a fundamentalist!:D I gain the respect of the field guys when they know that I know as much if not more about design principles as they do the install or repair of irrigation delivery systems.
 
Take a look at the industry that you are most passionate about and check out how the curriculums satisfy the needs of that industry. As another said look at the special project teams that offered and how they position you for an internship. But the biggest thing is the fundamentals. Learn how to analyze problems, learn to look at something and see how it works or should work. you will have many projects in your career, they will look different, but each will require an analysis and proper decision making. When I look at a resume, I look at projects and teaming. What Gollnick stated about his whiteboard is very true, the ones that I want are the ones that will stare at the design when they walk in and I can see them start to figure out what the design does, if they glance at it and then show no interest, the interview could be very short.
 
There are a lot more schools out there especially if you are going to travel/live on campus. Keep looking and decide wisely. The only one I recognize is Cornell which I know has a good engineering program.
 
Ask about the hiring rate for those graduating with your speciality.

Visit and pay attention to the people you meet. Ask about number of adjunct professors who teach the intro courses since they generally have experience but get little money and no benefits, which tells you something about the school, who'll often use a series of adjuncts so they don't have to pay the salary of a full-time prof. Deviate on the visit to talk with anybody you want about quality of the teachers, not just the students who take you on the tour.

All things being equal, like somebody said above - there is no substitute for an Ivy League school to open doors for you...including graduate school should you go that way. Do not underestimate this factor.

And if you do all that and it's close go with the one who wants you the most, which is the school that makes you the best offer in terms of money.
Good luck (from a former higher ed prof and administrator)!
Steve
 
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My only advice would be to make sure to make a visit to the campus before you would apply, preferably on a specific campus-visit day. Sure, colleges will put on their best face, but you can also get a glimpse at your potential classmates and the facilities you'd be going to for the next four to six years. When I was college-shopping, I made a visit to a campus that I thought I would like, but my visit totally changed my mind. The campus set-up, the faculty, and the potential classmates all turned me off. While you can always transfer away, why put yourself through that hassle and be miserable in the process.

I also agree that finding a school with an established internship program is a good idea, especially for engineers. I am friends with many engineers from my own alma mater, and they all benefited from the co-ops that they participated in.
 
Rose-Hulman in Indiana is a small engineering school that usually ranks very high nationally for schools that have Masters and Bachelors as their degree offerings. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is similarly ranked, but with the way California's budget problems are, I'd have a hard time recommending some one from out of state come here.
 
RancidSumo said:
About placement rates-
When I visited CSM, I was told that they have a 98% (I am pretty sure that was the number) job placement rate. My plan though is to go on to grad school. That is one reason I like engineering physics; it opens up all kinds of doors for grad school in many areas of engineering.
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Placement rates are designed to be misleading ad-copy not a true reflection of the school or the quality of the education. Follow the advice of people here: visit the schools, book an appointment with a department head and ask questions about class sizes, laboratories, are there co-op programs, do faculty routinely hire students for summer as research assistants, are there opportunities for undergraduate research/thesis projects.

Figure out whether the profs teaching are active in research. Use google scholar to look up their research productivity. If they haven't published more than 10 papers in the past 5 years they are decidedly deadwood. Some folks have let on that research faculty are not good teachers. I suggest it tends to be the opposite. Research faculty are engaged in their subject matter. Sure, they may find teaching 1st and 2nd year a bit boring to teach. However, it keeps you grounded and in touch with the student body. As a professor myself, I can say that teaching lower years has only helped my research career. It helps you take off the blinders of your own specialization. For this reason, a government scientist is rarely able to compete with an academic when it comes to asking fundamental questions.

How many graduate students are in the department? I agree, it isn't good when the grad students are saddled with too much teaching. That said, a healthy department has a healthy compliment of graduate students. Graduate students are the bread and butter of research and their presence means research is going on. It also means that there are likely opportunities to work in a research lab as an undergrad student because there are active research programs going on. I.e. the money is flying in the department because of the success of the faculty. I know things are a bit different between Science (my discipline) and engineering, but for science students, being able to work in a functioning research lab over one or two summers is worth far more than the little bit of paltry pay you get. You get real experience to put on your CV and you get the ability to have a prof. give you a reference that is based on direct evaluation of your work in a real work environment. I refuse to give students reference letters simply because they took one course with me, whether they did well or not.

Touchy subject, but a common issue in engineering - what proportion of students in the department and faculty are American versus visa-students? What proportion of faculty are American versus from out of country? That may sound racist, but it isn't. I'm not talking colour of skin or gender, I'm simply asking has the school been able to draw talent from within the country which produces some of the finest engineers in the world?

Good luck.
 
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