College with Engineering Program ... Smaller Town, Nice Place, With JOBS!? (Seattle: find a job, schools)

[Melissa E]

Hey, I've been obessing over moving to Oregon for about a year now, but I'm so frustrated now I'm getting over it. I'm setting my sites to check out Washington and possibly parts of California now. Here's what we need ... a place that has a 4 year college that has engineering programs; also would like maybe a small cozy town atmosphere out of and not connected to but close to a bigger city. I can't find a job in Oregon anywhere!!! =( And I'm an RN ... it should be easier. I'll look much more into things, but can anyone throw out some ideas to narrow my search?

[Dendrite]

Since this is a WA forum, I'll list your college of engineering options within the Evergreen State who offer 4 year programs (in alphabetical order):

Eastern Washington University
Gonzaga University
Pacific Lutheran University
Seattle Pacific University
Seattle University
University of Washington
Walla Walla University
Washington State University

Since you mentioned California, there is of course the Cal Tech program, which is consistently one of the highest ranked engineering programs in the country (if not the universe! ). The University of WA program tends to be the highest ranked program of those listed above but usually comes in at about the 30th or 35th for ranking amongst all programs nationwide.

[Melissa E]

Thank you very much! That narrows it for us. I try doing an internet search and can't find good sites to list them all. I've heard Cal Tech is very expensive. We need an average or inexpensive school (not that one exists, but the more inexpensive) for Mike. Good rankings would be nice, but he's got to be able to afford it most of all!

Originally Posted by Dendrite

Since this is a WA forum, I'll list your college of engineering options within the Evergreen State who offer 4 year programs (in alphabetical order):

Eastern Washington University
Gonzaga University
Pacific Lutheran University
Seattle Pacific University
Seattle University
University of Washington
Walla Walla University
Washington State University

Since you mentioned California, there is of course the Cal Tech program, which is consistently one of the highest ranked engineering programs in the country (if not the universe! ). The University of WA program tends to be the highest ranked program of those listed above but usually comes in at about the 30th or 35th for ranking amongst all programs nationwide.

[StealthRabbit]

What discipline of Engineering?

I too would 1st look to Cal Tech and Cal Poly; San Luis Obispo (my personal preference for a nice town!! and cheap school),

My engineering company had lots of grads from CAL schools as well as WSU (Pullman, WA). I worked with hundreds of (ME, CE, EE, CS) engineers and the absolute best were ex-farm kids. Try to get a gig living and working on a farm while attending school, it pays great dividends!!

Basically I've found PSU (Portland, OR) good for Architectural Eng. UW for CS, WSU for ME's, CAL Tech. GA tech, MIT, Penn State, and Stanford too. Also some good 'farm kid' engineers came from Iowa and ID. School of Mines in Colo is a good choice, as is CU and CSU. WWU in Bellingham has some engineering specialties too (Plastics is one !, & it is a nice city)

I would forget about OR, it is quite expensive to live and work there (Not that CA is cheap!!!). When you get to making the big bucks come to WA. Some nice 'smaller' WA towns / cities w/ medical facilities you might like are Bremerton (Harrison Hospital), Bellingham, Wenatchee, Spokane, Walla Walla, Vancouver,

[Melissa E]

Thanks . He is leaning towards mechanical engineering at this time. I've heard Cal tech is very expensive,though we haven't looked into it. I think we will look into the SLO and Washington State more first. I'll keep the towns in mind and research them, too! Thanks again.

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

What discipline of Engineering?

I too would 1st look to Cal Tech and Cal Poly; San Luis Obispo (my personal preference for a nice town!! and cheap school),

My engineering company had lots of grads from CAL schools as well as WSU (Pullman, WA). I worked with hundreds of (ME, CE, EE, CS) engineers and the absolute best were ex-farm kids. Try to get a gig living and working on a farm while attending school, it pays great dividends!!

Basically I've found PSU (Portland, OR) good for Architectural Eng. UW for CS, WSU for ME's, CAL Tech. GA tech, MIT, Penn State, and Stanford too. Also some good 'farm kid' engineers came from Iowa and ID. School of Mines in Colo is a good choice, as is CU and CSU. WWU in Bellingham has some engineering specialties too (Plastics is one !, & it is a nice city)

I would forget about OR, it is quite expensive to live and work there (Not that CA is cheap!!!). When you get to making the big bucks come to WA. Some nice 'smaller' WA towns / cities w/ medical facilities you might like are Bremerton (Harrison Hospital), Bellingham, Wenatchee, Spokane, Walla Walla, Vancouver,