I agree GPA matters much more than the school. If you goto IVY league and get below 3.0 don't expect people to be recuiting you. If you goto state and do well grades wise you won't have a problem getting a job. At the career fairs at my school one of the first things they would look at or ask about was your GPA. They would see your GPA briefly chat with you and instantly want to talk further at a later date.
I agree GPA matters much more than the school. If you goto IVY league and get below 3.0 don't expect people to be recuiting you. If you goto state and do well grades wise you won't have a problem getting a job. At the career fairs at my school one of the first things they would look at or ask about was your GPA. They would see your GPA briefly chat with you and instantly want to talk further at a later date.
timosyy
Golden Member
- Dec 19, 2003
- 1,822
- 0
- 0
Not sure where Rowan is placed on the undergrad engineering charts, but if its not in the top 100 or so I probably would've gone with more name recognition.
That being said, I went for more name recognition in my college decision, and I'm trying to transfer back to a state school now (cost/enviroment reasons, plus its a hassle getting home from where I am now). However, the jump from UIUC (ranked 5th) to VA Tech (ranked 14th) isn't really that much, and worth it IMO for its closeness to home (4 hours driving verses practically 10-12 hours driving/flying), smaller college enviroment (all classes are pretty much just across the drill field, verses being spread out as fvck and having to take the bus everywhere), and huge drop in total cost (somewhere along the lines of <9k verses ~34k a year).
Also maybe i'm just being ignorant, but if you're in Jersey why not Rutgers?
Edit: oooo, thats a pretty building on the Rowan.edu site...
That being said, I went for more name recognition in my college decision, and I'm trying to transfer back to a state school now (cost/enviroment reasons, plus its a hassle getting home from where I am now). However, the jump from UIUC (ranked 5th) to VA Tech (ranked 14th) isn't really that much, and worth it IMO for its closeness to home (4 hours driving verses practically 10-12 hours driving/flying), smaller college enviroment (all classes are pretty much just across the drill field, verses being spread out as fvck and having to take the bus everywhere), and huge drop in total cost (somewhere along the lines of <9k verses ~34k a year).
Also maybe i'm just being ignorant, but if you're in Jersey why not Rutgers?
Edit: oooo, thats a pretty building on the Rowan.edu site...
i goto State and my scholarship/financial aid covers my costs and then some. even though i get an extra ~$1k a semester, i'd much rather sink loans into Ivy league schools
You will have to have some exceptional stand-out features on your resume to get people to take a second look at you if you're coming from a lesser-known institution such as Rowan (which I haven't heard of, personally - but I'm a Northeaster).
It's amazing how much a strong university name can carry on a resume.
It's like working for a small startup vs. working for Microsoft. When it comes around to choosing people to interview out of a pile of 2,000 resumes, whose name is going to come out on top?
People say there is no difference between a state-funded institution and a private one, but I beg to differ. I went to a small Virginia public university, but when I visited schools like Duke, Georgetown, and the like I was surprised at the condition of their buildings, the facilities they had available to them (small things you could really use like 24-hour libraries), and the general quality of the education was infinitely superior to my own poorly underfunded school.
Privates have deep pockets. Deep pockets equal better-known professors, more money spent per student, and generally superior student life and facilities. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise. Why do you think Princeton is generally regarded as THE BEST undergraduate program in the country? I'll tell you why:
Small undergraduate population
Almost no graduate schools, such as the common business/medical/law, meaning #1 professor responsibility is to teach, not research.
Low faculty:student ratio
15 billion or more in the bank.
You do the math.
But if you are sending off resumes, not going to career fairs, then what are the odds that your application will stand out tremendously with no-name school and high GPA vs. "brand-name" school and average or above average GPA?
Think about it. It's like having an 'in,' knowing someone, or remembering someone. You're at a networking convention. You meet fifty people and they all work for smaller tech firms in the valley except for two guys, who work at Adobe.
Who are you going to remember the best?
True, but if you're applying to jobs straight out of undergrad - which many engineers are doing...
It's about EDUCATION. There is a reason those schools are ranked higher and it isn't became of "name".
My friend got an internship at the mayor's office in Houston based purely on the fact that he goes to Vanderbilt. No networking going on there. Employers know what a good education is.
Edit: On the other hand, since the OP's main concern seems to be money, it's good that he let his spot in an Ivy go to another student.
i'm also willing to bet miniMUNCH graduated near the top of his class, though. I would ask, how are your fellow classmates doing that had lower gpas? Also, Cal poly is a good eng school. however, i'm also willing to bet he got his first job in california, although i guess you could say that about pretty much every school.
for eng school, Ivys are not that great. large state schools are just as good, if not better, imo. i don't place rowan in that class, basically because i've never heard of it. never lived in the northeast though. By going to Rowan, you need to keep near that 4.0 for the rest of your years, to have an opportunity, as well as have internships. know that undergrad eng criteria is largely the same everywhere. make of it what you will. only diff might be elite schools, have more crazy professors that only teach grad studs, and give incredibly hard tests. take your opportunity to learn more from professors, and students. do more than simply the class curriculum.
what great schools have going for them is giving their elite students opportunity for the best jobs/knowledge in the world, things that will not be offered to other schools. if you're not in that top class, it's a waste though.
i'd also like to reiterate like many others, for engineering, the top with rise to the top, regardless of school. this isn't business, where they need an artificial barrier for entry. engineering will be purely about what you can do for the company through your knowledge.
I don't think the scholarships would still apply, so I'd be out the $20,000/year I would have had.
Well, all of the cities Rutgers campuses are in are pretty bad, and Rutgers has about 100x the amount of students over Rowan. Rutgers has a lot of lecture style classes, whereas nearly every Rowan class has 15 students or less. Rowan's a school of about 10,000 students, 6,000 of which are commuters, and about 120 engineering students per grade. (30 each in EE, ME, CE, and the other CE)
And the engineering building does look nice, and it's still fairly new. The faculty always complains about how poorly built it is as far as ventilation/heating goes. Environmental design seems to be a big underlying theme for all the faculty at Rowan, I'm not sure how it is at other schools.
Yeah, it's wierd considering their mascot is a scholarly owl. The professor owl I guess.
24 hour libararies does seem like a small thing. Rowan's education buildings are in good quality though (relatively new engineering, science, and education buildings, and a well kept student center), and seem fairly accesible to students (the physics club set up a halo tournament using the school's projectors and the planetarium, that was some huge halo), the library is open 24 hours at the end of the semesters, and they're still in the process of trying to grow themselves as a university, so things are changing pretty much every year.
Rowan's not rich though, they've got hundreds of millions of dollars only.
Then you're probably vastly undertrained compared to the world market, or so it appears based off of topics I've read in the Politics and News forum.
The Ivy league schools are notorious for grade inflation. People are paying $35k a year, they expect passing grades no matter what.
I didn't read through the thread but I think the biggest thing is how your school is viewed by the large companies. I attended one of the larger and most well-known state schools (University of Florida) and we had tons of recruiting. While the name pedigree may not be as high as an Ivy or Pseudo-Ivy school, the recruiters for many large companies come through here to look at students. On the other hand, I have talked to people at smaller state schools that had much more of an uphill battle to find jobs. Get your foot in the door early with an internship. Those are huge in the eyes of employers. If you do well in an internship near the end of your education, you can almost always count on a job offer (sometimes even higher than that of someone who didn't do the company's internship). If you can find any sort of side work that won't hurt your grades and allow you to get some experience related to your job goals, that will help too. I don't think that you made a bad decision. You aren't set up for failure or anything. It just depends on how you take advantage of and make your own opportunities from now until graduation.
Wow, that doesn't sound the least bit elitist.
So what's the reason to go to an Ivy then? To make less money but be a better educated world citizen?
Ha, that's not something you normally hear.
I go to a state school (UMass) and pretty much all of the CS grads here make around 50-70k to start provided they have reasonable GPAs. I've never heard of your school though, and that will probably hurt you. If you go to an elite school or at least a well known public school, i think you'll be fine for getting a job. If i were you i would transfer into either an elite school or a well known public school (like rutgers!).
Also keep in mind its easier for ivy leaguers to get into grad programs.
Also keep in mind its easier for ivy leaguers to get into grad programs.
Well... I understand the point you are trying to make. However, I would hire the state schooler at $37500 especially since they are about equally smart. =)
Why are you asking this after you've applied and gone there? I feel that any comments I make concerning Ivy schools vs. yours wouldn't be constructive now.
These questions should have been considered a few months ago when you were deciding, not now.
These questions should have been considered a few months ago when you were deciding, not now.
nah, potential for gettin a better job is much greater if u goto a better school, imo transfer if you still can an insignificant 50k is nothing compared to how much more you will make in the future by going to a good school
I'm going to Texas A&M University, while a state school, #14 in engineering. Recruiters are all over the place around here, and if I wanted to, I'm sure with my ~3.7 GPA in EE and extracurriculurs I could have received a very solid job offer..people I know are tossing around 55-60K with lesser GPAs, and most of these jobs are in TX. I'm trying to go to another STATE school for graduate school, being Georgia Tech. I don't think I should have any problem getting a job after graduating from there either.
Yes, I probably could have gone to at least some of the Ivys for undergrad, but I don't resent that decision at all. I have enough scholarships to cover my entire tuition bill..that 120-150K my parents saved on my education, they told me I can use for a business one day..
My sister, OTOH, went to Pomona College (very prestigious liberal arts college in CA) and my parents paid $$ for her education. She ended up at UT Medical Branch in Galveston for Medical School, sitting next to classmates who attended Texas A&M..my parents have since told me that they wished that they had saved the money on her undergrad
Yes, I probably could have gone to at least some of the Ivys for undergrad, but I don't resent that decision at all. I have enough scholarships to cover my entire tuition bill..that 120-150K my parents saved on my education, they told me I can use for a business one day..
My sister, OTOH, went to Pomona College (very prestigious liberal arts college in CA) and my parents paid $$ for her education. She ended up at UT Medical Branch in Galveston for Medical School, sitting next to classmates who attended Texas A&M..my parents have since told me that they wished that they had saved the money on her undergrad
That depends on what you study. If you study engineering or computer science, you'll make at least 50k with a decent GPA. Most of the students that attend state schools arent cut out for majors such as engineering, and LOTS of freshman engineering majors get weeded out. So the few that actually end up graduating with good GPAs end up being the ones with the good jobs.
On the other hand, if you're going to major in something like business or liberal arts, it will help a lot coming from an elite school.
TRENDING THREADS
-
Discussion Zen 5 Speculation (EPYC Turin and Strix Point/Granite Ridge - Ryzen 9000)- Started by DisEnchantment
- Replies: 25K
-
Discussion Intel Meteor, Arrow, Lunar & Panther Lakes + WCL Discussion Threads
- Started by Tigerick
- Replies: 22K
-
News NVIDIA and Intel to Develop AI Infrastructure and Personal Computing Products- Started by poke01
- Replies: 395
-
Discussion Intel current and future Lakes & Rapids thread- Started by TheF34RChannel
- Replies: 23K
Facebook
Twitter