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Thanks. I'd like to send you a private message if possible - I have to think about what I really want to say. I agree, especially with what I'm looking for, that Colorado School of Mines is not necessarily better than NM Tech. It's actually about 2.5 times as much, not to mention Golden is a pretty expensive place to live.
Also, Colorado School of Mines has a reputation of being needlessly hard and demanding, which might not be the right fit for me. It may create future employees extraordinarily well, but my understanding is students from NM Tech - especially those who do internships, etc - do just fine themselves, and can get jobs in California or Pennsylvania or wherever.
Feel free to send me a PM but before you do, I just want to point out say that all Engineering schools are incredibly demanding, and there is no such thing as an easy Engineering school because ABET sets the standards.
Even though some schools may have different policies, for example. some require a 2.0 to graduate, others a 2.5, I never heard of an "easy" Engineering school
With that being said, I attended Iowa State University which in my area(Industrial Engineering) is ranked top 20. I am not going to BS you, one of the hardest things I have ever done and the dropout rate for the College of Engineering at Iowa State was about 50% which is pretty standard for second tier state universities.
I've attended New Mexico Tech in the past and know all about Socorro. The school has a well deserved reputation as challenging. In the past their best programs were geoscience, hydrology, and physics. I believe their Mechanical Engineering program has exploded in the past decade, which is funny since a decade ago that program barely existed in terms of enrollment. Electrical Engineering and CS were kings back then. The college has a very quirky vibe full of "techies" as they are known. They range from genius programmers to rock climbers who hang out in vans outside of town in places like Box Canyon. The town of Socorro is known for 2 things, it either sucks you in or it spits you out. There are techies and townies, and in my opinion plenty of drifters as well. The social mix is unlike that of any other college town I've seen and believe that's part of the experience there. Being around techies and then living in a relatively poor southwestern town is too much for many people, which is why it really does spit you out if your accustomed to strip malls and sports bars. However, there is also something about the place, much like NM as a whole in that despite the initial appearance really does have a charm to it. It is a place I love to visit when I can but not sure if I could live there again long term.
As far as Albuquerque is concerned, it has the same problem the rest of the state has: lack of real leadership. Until this actually changes and more ambitious people start to make something happen as opposed to letting the same old families continuing to rip the rest of the state off it will be business as usual. That's the real difference between NM and CO.
So, as an engineering alumnus from Iowa State who has since defected to urban planning (U. of Washington) and am now back in Albuquerque, I have to say that this city is always on the verge of "something." With Denver and Austin prices and Phoenix's...Phoenixness, Albuquerque seems well positioned to take off. I'm involved in a lot of urban development and I'm pretty certain that in the next couple of years the area will begin to attract national attention again, just like in the mid 90's and before. I, personally, prefer ABQ grit over Denver's polish but I'm biased. Also note that UNM's graduate engineering school is strong. I have plenty of friends working all over the US that graduated from UNM so do not discount the local engineering program. My only hesitation comes from the OP saying that the area around Nob Hill scares him...
So, as an engineering alumnus from Iowa State who has since defected to urban planning (U. of Washington) and am now back in Albuquerque, I have to say that this city is always on the verge of "something." With Denver and Austin prices and Phoenix's...Phoenixness, Albuquerque seems well positioned to take off. I'm involved in a lot of urban development and I'm pretty certain that in the next couple of years the area will begin to attract national attention again, just like in the mid 90's and before. I, personally, prefer ABQ grit over Denver's polish but I'm biased. Also note that UNM's graduate engineering school is strong. I have plenty of friends working all over the US that graduated from UNM so do not discount the local engineering program. My only hesitation comes from the OP saying that the area around Nob Hill scares him...
New Mexico is not Colorado, nor will it ever be. For me, that's a plus. I don't live in Albuquerque now, but I lived there several times, and studied art at UNM in the 80's (which was a waste of time and money, but I liked the town and loved the art scene). All the things that seem to bother you are basically just how New Mexico in general is. And like your girlfriend, all the things you like about Denver are all the reasons why I wouldn't like to be there. To me, Colorado is the West, while New Mexico is 100% the Southwest. Totally different ethnicity thing going on, totally different priorities.
My wife's sister is in Denver, and when we visited, I didn't care for the place much. People seemed a little plastic compared to NM, and more conservative. I applaud the progress on the pot initiative in the state (who knew Washington and Colorado, of all places, would lead the way on this?), and NM could, and should, follow their lead, as NM is a cash strapped state that could use some more ways to get money. Anything to get people away from killing themselves w/ alcohol and hard drugs too.
As for the engineering career, it depends. A degree from somewhere like Cal Poly or MIT is obviously worth a lot more than one from NM Tech, but again, it depends on what you plan on doing w/ that degree. If you want to work w/ the best of the best in the top fields, you have to go to the right place for school, just like in any field. If you just want to get working as an engineer, then it's not such a big deal.
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