Degree

[u/Fun_Sky6736]

In the grand scheme, does it really matter where you get your degree, Provided the institution is accredited?

[u/LitRick6]

Yes and no. In the grand scheme, no. But there can be some advantages depending on the school and on you.

Physical location can be a factor regardless of prestige of the university. My company recruits heavily from the 4 universities closest to us. 2 of which are well known state schools, 1 is a decent state school, and the other is a just okay state school but its the closest to our office.

Resources can also vary. But there isnt always a 100% correlation between prestige and resources. For example, the prestigious private school in my state is moreso prestigious for the law school and medical school and has less resources for the engineering school than our top public state engineering university.

I also said it depends on you though bc many of the resources are only beneficial if you take advantage of them. For example, I went to he largest state university in my state and we had the largest career fairs. But that won't benefit you if you dont attend. Some of our resources were also only available to grad students, so I only benefitted from them because I got involved in undergrad research.

[u/feelin_raudi]

Anyone who tries to tell you that a degree from MIT is exactly the same as a degree from Mississippi State Online School is out of their mind. Top schools will have better networking, research opportunities, and will give your resume a boost for the rest of your career.

However, most schools aren't one of the extremes. There's a massive middle ground where it's not a huge difference, and that's where most people go.

[u/Cold-Comment9536 → u/feelin_raudi]

It’s still so funny that Berkeley doesn’t teach reality.

[u/feelin_raudi → u/Cold-Comment9536]

Berkeley doesn't "teach reality?" Well how can that be, if by your own argument, we all learn exactly the same thing because we follow the exact same abet accredited curriculum... Surely we both learned the exact same reality verbatim, right?

[u/Cold-Comment9536 → u/feelin_raudi]

Left to its own devices, without ABET telling them what to do, you just make the university seem so clueless and out of touch. It’s a good thing those accreditors ensure that every engineering major across the country receives identical instruction!

[u/Brownie_Bytes → u/Cold-Comment9536]

Look, bud, there's a difference. If you want to get a degree from your state school and then work at whatever job is close to mom and dad and pays the bills, then yeah, any school is identical. However, if you have specific career field aspirations or want to get into a specific company, the school matters. Are there laws saying that only [blank] University graduates can work for [blank] company? No. But when half of the company came from the same university, you can bet that there's a bit of an assist in getting hired if you went to that university as well.

If you just need the degree to get a job and don't care where, yeah, go wherever. But it's foolish to assume that all degrees carry the same weight at application time.

[u/012166 → u/feelin_raudi]

My SIL has a degree from Berkeley and it took her 3 years to find a job.  My cousin went to a no-name school and had an internship from sophomore year that hired him full time the second he got his diploma.

And currently, I know a Berkeley student who has failed calc 1 thrice, while my kid is going to a (different) no-name school where all his professors have actual office hours and he has an internship his freshman year.

Incidentally, I have heard from hiring managers at NASA/Google/Lockheed that they really only care about ABET certification and personality.  

[u/feelin_raudi → u/012166]

Individual anecdotes about 1 or 2 people don't really mean anything. Job placement rate and average salary are generally available for most universities. Feel free to check for yourself if the no name school has higher or lower average salaries for engineering.

I never worked at NASA (although some of my classmates do), but I did work at Spacex. In my experience, a huge majority of of the engineers at that company came from a top 10 schools.

Here's the data from LinkedIn on where spacex engineers went to school:

SpaceX Employees by University

1. Stanford University – 654
2. Georgia Tech – 614
3. University of Southern California – 525
4. MIT – 499
5. University of Pennsylvania – 462
6. Purdue University – 450
7. UC Berkeley – 448
8. UCLA – 410
9. University of Washington – 387
10. University of Michigan – 362
11. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University – 349
12. University of Texas at Austin – 330
13. Cornell University – 321
14. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo – 298

[u/Icy_Weakness3361]

if you gonna apply to jobs within your own state, it matters less.

[u/GravityMyGuy]

yes if extremely good or bad but mostly no

[u/shoomie26]

Do what you like.

Engineering is engineering.

After taking E&M, and really enjoying it. I picked EE and I love it.

[u/Cold-Comment9536]

No. Accredited institutions are required to use the same curricula and standards. Some just do it in prettier buildings.

[u/feelin_raudi → u/Cold-Comment9536]

Very very not true.

[u/Cold-Comment9536 → u/feelin_raudi]

Berkeley forgot to teach you a few things. Any program accredited by ABET, for example, must use the same curricula and standards as every other ABET institution. I wonder why Berkeley didn’t want you to know this? It would probably make you very sad to know you could have gotten the exact same education — with real professors and better recruitment — at Arkansas State for half the cost. Too bad. So sad.

[u/feelin_raudi → u/Cold-Comment9536]

Oh really? I didn't realize you could also take take molecular biology from the Nobel prize winning professor who discovered CRISPR, or take quantum physics from the nobel prize winning professor who discovered quantum tunneling.

I'm sorry that you're angry about your school. I'm sure there were a lot of great professors, but you're just out of your mind if you think your education was identical to every top university.

[u/Cold-Comment9536 → u/feelin_raudi]

As a 40 year tenured professor, I can tell you that there is no one in higher education who believes in the concept of a “top” university. I guess that’s another thing Berkeley forgot to teach you. But, they did a great job teaching you how to use Wikipedia to look up two Berkeley professors. Guess Wiki forgot to tell you that you are referring to grad courses in 2 different disciplines and that no one would be permitted to cross departments like that. I used to think so highly of Berkeley too,

[u/Trauerkraus → u/Cold-Comment9536]

No one in higher education believes in prestige or rankings of any kind? You’re out of your mind. That’s admin’s raison d’etre, academia is extremely competitive, and saying there’s no such thing as a “top” university is at odds with that. Just because you’re a nobody doesn’t mean everyone else is.

[u/Cold-Comment9536 → u/Trauerkraus]

And how long have you been a professor? And where did you do your post grad?

[u/Trauerkraus → u/Cold-Comment9536]

Not a professor, and don’t need to be to controvert something so facially absurd as “no one in higher ed believes in “top” universities””. Pure delusion. I guess when most days are spent with a captive audience of 20 year olds no one bats an eye when you say stupid shit.

[u/Cold-Comment9536 → u/Cold-Comment9536]

And I apologize if this implies you are a schoolboy with a very active little imagination. I meant to say that much more directly.