How to know how reputable a school is?

[TheLonelyPhoenix]

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: TheLonelyPhoenix

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: TheLonelyPhoenix

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: TheLonelyPhoenix
Villanova, Swarthmore, and most other private schools with engineering programs (at least in PA) are for rich kids who want easy GPAs for little to no work. The prevailing attitude is that if you're smart enough to get in, whatever grade you earn once there would have been an A anywhere else. Swarthmore doesn't even have a written honor code or honor board, because they like to think they're "above needing that". Right...

In other words, the commonly noted "reputable" schools are full of cocky assholes who had Mommy and Daddy push them through a $40,000 a year school to look good. Most of them have little-to-no serious research and few job-placement programs for undergraduates (Ivy Leagues being the big exception, of course. There are others, but they're pretty few and far between).

Someone suggested the U.S. News rankings, which is typically a good baseline to go by. However, employers are not blind to the quality of education provided at different universities. Look for stuff like:

-Percentage of graduates moving onto graduate school
-Job placement percentage after graduation for those not going to graduate school
-Research opportunities for undergrads

If you really want to know what a good school is for engineering, ask someone who employs engineers.

Hello, nice of you to stop by. Aren't you the one in EE? Which school again?

Virginia Tech, EE major and CS minor.

Care to elaborate on the EXTREME DIFFICULTY of your classes, as everyone seems to be noting?

Hehehe.

Keep up with your work, stay focused, and you'll make it. What others see as extreme difficulty usually just means that you can't go out and start partying for the weekend on Wednesday. Fvcking business majors. :|

I put roughly 40-50 hours a week into schoolwork. Its not quite as bad as it sounds, just don't fall behind. If you love what you do then it won't bother you.

I'm a math nut, and I like physics, not chem so much, though. I think I would stay very interested in it.

I understand what you mean, though. The term "difficult" is extremely relative. I'm not much of a partyer to begin with.

Do you mean 40-50 hours a week including your class time, or excluding your class time? If that includes your class time then it's not so bad.

Yeah, that includes class time.

Like I said, the most important part is keeping up.

 

[RedCOMET]

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: aswedc
US News Rankings

Pitt is there, and Penn State. No Grove City!

Pitt is an awesome school. There is also CMU which is suppose to be good also.

 

[Ranger X]

Originally posted by: Deeko

Originally posted by: aswedc

For what? Overall ranking? Drexel is horrible at some majors, so of course they don't have a high overall ranking. Pitt's business school, as far as I know, is ranked pretty high. Drexel's IST program is #1 in the nation, as well as having a very well ranked engineering program, and one of the best co-op systems in the country. You can't just look at numbers, you have to get more specific than that.

Undergraduate Engineering
Penn State - #16
Drexel - #51

That said, my friend at Drexel just finished his first year and is looking for an architectural engineering position for the next semester. I was very impressed by Drexel's career services and their system - he got 9 interviews! There is nothing even close at Penn State at the freshman/sophomore level.

As I said above...Drexel gets ranked poorly because people whine about it...people whine about everything with this school, mainly because its extremely hard. the tDEC program(Drexel Engineering Curriculum), the first 2 years that all engineering majors take, is insane. That's why Drexel is relateively easy to get into...tDEC weeds out a lot of people.

I find it hard to believe that Drexel is ranked low because people (I'm assuming, students) whine about the difficulty of the curriculum. If anything, the difficulty and its ability to weed out students would boost its ranking rather than hurt it.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: TheLonelyPhoenix

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: TheLonelyPhoenix

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: TheLonelyPhoenix

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: TheLonelyPhoenix
Villanova, Swarthmore, and most other private schools with engineering programs (at least in PA) are for rich kids who want easy GPAs for little to no work. The prevailing attitude is that if you're smart enough to get in, whatever grade you earn once there would have been an A anywhere else. Swarthmore doesn't even have a written honor code or honor board, because they like to think they're "above needing that". Right...

In other words, the commonly noted "reputable" schools are full of cocky assholes who had Mommy and Daddy push them through a $40,000 a year school to look good. Most of them have little-to-no serious research and few job-placement programs for undergraduates (Ivy Leagues being the big exception, of course. There are others, but they're pretty few and far between).

Someone suggested the U.S. News rankings, which is typically a good baseline to go by. However, employers are not blind to the quality of education provided at different universities. Look for stuff like:

-Percentage of graduates moving onto graduate school
-Job placement percentage after graduation for those not going to graduate school
-Research opportunities for undergrads

If you really want to know what a good school is for engineering, ask someone who employs engineers.

Hello, nice of you to stop by. Aren't you the one in EE? Which school again?

Virginia Tech, EE major and CS minor.

Care to elaborate on the EXTREME DIFFICULTY of your classes, as everyone seems to be noting?

Hehehe.

Keep up with your work, stay focused, and you'll make it. What others see as extreme difficulty usually just means that you can't go out and start partying for the weekend on Wednesday. Fvcking business majors. :|

I put roughly 40-50 hours a week into schoolwork. Its not quite as bad as it sounds, just don't fall behind. If you love what you do then it won't bother you.

I'm a math nut, and I like physics, not chem so much, though. I think I would stay very interested in it.

I understand what you mean, though. The term "difficult" is extremely relative. I'm not much of a partyer to begin with.

Do you mean 40-50 hours a week including your class time, or excluding your class time? If that includes your class time then it's not so bad.

Yeah, that includes class time.

Like I said, the most important part is keeping up.

That is not bad at all, then. You figure, high school, including travel time, is about 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, so about 40 hours a week. Factor into that some homework time and you have 40-50 hours. So that in college sounds manageable, hopefully.

Keeping up, as in, not missing class? Reading the textbook isn't enough to get caught up?

Originally posted by: RedCOMET

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: aswedc
US News Rankings

Pitt is there, and Penn State. No Grove City!

Pitt is an awesome school. There is also CMU which is suppose to be good also.

That list is obviously somewhat lacking, however. GCC has a quite a demanding and fulfilling curriculum, definitely on par with Penn State in some areas and above in most.

 

[Mo0o]

UPenn = good times for education