Georgia Tech: Best deal in the country

[MantaRay]

Originally Posted by rzzz

Do you even work as an engineer?

Yes. For a multinational company for almost two decades. In both individual contributor roles and supervisory roles. Now sitting in on and scoring interviews of potential hires. And my company currently hires engineers from GaTech, U of Florida, NC State, Mississppi State, University of Dayton, Iowa State University, etc. all making the same starting salary- no extra for a GaTech graduate just because GaTech is #4 on a list that is based on engineering research.

Originally Posted by rzzz

Almost everything you are saying is incorrect.

No, what I say is based on data and almost 20 years of real world experience.

Originally Posted by rzzz

Companies prefer top 10 engineering school grads because they are the hardest schools to get into in the world,

Not all companies, and for good reason- companies realize that they can get just as good talent at schools that aren't in the top 10. I'm speaking again more of manufacturers, not of R&D focused firms. My multinational employer and our competition hire more broadly than the top 10 engineering schools. And we have for decades.

So, as I said, students looking to go into research or looking to be hired by companies that are heavily focused on engineering R&D would be the ones who need to look for the top schools, since that list is based on research, and specifically look for the schools on the list which are doing big research in the field that they are interested in. Most students, however, can go to a variety of engineering schools and do well. Those engineers recently hired by my multinational employer and our competition with the same salries as the GaTech engineers hired can attest to that. And it's not JUST a recent thing, it's been that way for decades, and my employer has been multinational for decades. And my engineering peers at the various conferences I attend working for any number of companies are likewise from a broad array of engineering schools. That's simply the way industry is- not generally obsessed with top 10 engineering schools, not holding top 10 graduates in preference over other graduates.

Companies in Silicon Valley prefer Stanford grads, company in metro Atlanta prefer GaTech grads, and I would think companies in greater Boston prefer MIT grads. So my statement isn't that NO companies prefer grads from a top 10 school, but just that if they do, it's due to location or due to the research intensity of their company and the schools which do research in that field. But those are the exceptions on a macro scale. Most US manufacturers, with all their manufacturing locations across the US, aren't engineering school snobs. But you would like to take the exceptions, which as I indicated have other reasons for focus on those schools, and try to make it seem as if that is the norm. It is not. The norm is no preference for top 10 graduates, and the norm is a broad array of alma maters represented outside of the top 10 list at professional engineering trade shows and conferences, ie. when lots of companies converge on spot to discuss latest engineering trends in manufacturing industries.

[MantaRay]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

Again, the first thing that should be told to every entering freshman at Tech is that GT is a research, not a teaching, school. GT will help you with learning support but that doesn’t include the faculty. They have more important things to do than teach you.

EXACTLY. And GT has been that way for a very long time. It's so tough for parents to really know this sort of information without folks like us who have been there, done that, explaining the insider truth to them. Because GT sure as heck isn't going to tell prospective students and parents that truth. They leave it to students to be blindsided by it. No need to be blindsided in this information age. People should know the truth before making huge decisions like which university to apply to and enroll in.

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

From my experience, they go back to schools where they've gotten good people before regardless of what US News says.

Bullseye again! That is exactly how it is in industry on a macro scale.

[Galounger]

Quote:
Originally Posted by rzzz View Post
Companies prefer top 10 engineering school grads because they are the hardest schools to get into in the world,

Not all companies, and for good reason- companies realize that they can get just as good talent at schools that aren't in the top 10. I'm speaking again more of manufacturers, not of R&D focused firms. My multinational employer and our competition hire more broadly than the top 10 engineering schools. And we have for decades.

So, as I said, students looking to go into research or looking to be hired by companies that are heavily focused on engineering R&D would be the ones who need to look for the top schools, since that list is based on research, and specifically look for the schools on the list which are doing big research in the field that they are interested in. Most students, however, can go to a variety of engineering schools and do well. Those engineers recently hired by my multinational employer and our competition with the same salries as the GaTech engineers hired can attest to that. And it's not JUST a recent thing, it's been that way for decades, and my employer has been multinational for decades. And my engineering peers at the various conferences I attend working for any number of companies are likewise from a broad array of engineering schools. That's simply the way industry is- not generally obsessed with top 10 engineering schools, not holding top 10 graduates in preference over other graduates.

Companies in Silicon Valley prefer Stanford grads, company in metro Atlanta prefer GaTech grads, and I would think companies in greater Boston prefer MIT grads. So my statement isn't that NO companies prefer grads from a top 10 school, but just that if they do, it's due to location or due to the research intensity of their company and the schools which do research in that field. But those are the exceptions on a macro scale. Most US manufacturers, with all their manufacturing locations across the US, aren't engineering school snobs. But you would like to take the exceptions, which as I indicated have other reasons for focus on those schools, and try to make it seem as if that is the norm. It is not. The norm is no preference for top 10 graduates, and the norm is a broad array of alma maters represented outside of the top 10 list at professional engineering trade shows and conferences, ie. when lots of companies converge on spot to discuss latest engineering trends in manufacturing industries.

Just the response I was about to make. When I first searched for an engineering school I thought it was necessary to get into a top school because that would get you the "best" jobs or you might have trouble getting any job otherwise.

But, since having been in the real Engineering world and checked out schools carefully I realized two things.

1.) All accredited American colleges offering four year bachelors degrees in Engineering follow the same or very similar curriculum and it is very rigorous and demanding compared to most college degrees.

To get a four year engineering degree from most any U.S. engineering school requires a very dedicated person that is very skilled with math and knowledgeable of a broad area of science demonstrating the ability to master technical information and use that information to solve challenging problems.

If you don't fit the above description you are not going to get a four year engineering degree from any accredited U.S. college.

2.) Employers recognize this and that's why it's only the ones that require someone to do advanced research of a certain type (a small percent) that demand to see a degree from MIT or Stanford or the like.

Also an Engineering degree doesn't make you an Engineer anyway. This is because no four year or six year education is going to prepare you for all the huge number of possible jobs you may wind up in. It's impossible. For instance, a School could spend four years teaching a Mechanical Engineering student to be the perfect automobile designer but that student wind up finding a job as a field engineer in the petroleum industry or as a process engineer on a automated robotic assembly line which is totally different.

Getting a degree is only the beginning of the process of becoming a real, productive engineer. Most start out as an "engineer in training" and only after learning the ropes in the particular field they're in they may work as a Jr. engineer taking directions from a Sr. engineer until they become experienced enough to be completely self sufficient.

[Galounger]

Yeap. As said in the post above my last, Ga Tech is obsessed with getting a good reputation as a research institution so they focus a ton of time on that.

But guess what. So do the other top schools including MIT, Stanford, and Berkley.

Here's where the difference is. Those other schools have much smaller student to teacher ratio so they can give more attention to students despite them being so focused on research and they can afford all of this because they get stupendous research endowments mostly from corporations they do research for or with. Much much larger than Georgia Techs endowments.

Oh yeah. And it also doesn't hurt that they have some of the worlds greatest and well known experts in their fields teaching and doing research at their campus.