ABET Engineering Schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does a non-engineering parent determine a quality engineering program if the student cannot get into the top ranked programs? Do they exist?
Look at ranking websites? Which ones?

The ranking websites ignore rigor. Quality is subjective any day of the week.

When I am hiring engineers (or cS grads), I am happy to hire anyone with a mix of As and Bs from at least any of these VA engineering programs (GMU, ODU, UVA, VCU, VT) and also from either UMCP or UMBC --PROVIDED they took the more rigorous electives on offer in their chosen specific degree.

In my experience all of those programs have good grad school options also.

I don't have time or space to outline elective examples for all degrees. As EE examples, EE upper-level electives in E&M Fields, Digital Communications, Logic Programming (Verilog, VHDL), and real-time (or embedded) systems would be a few of the courses I consider rigorous.

[Anonymous]

Oh, and for CS/CompE/EE students, x86 assembly language programming is dying slowly while ARM assembly language programming is very clearly the future. If given a choice, pick ARM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does a non-engineering parent determine a quality engineering program if the student cannot get into the top ranked programs? Do they exist?
Look at ranking websites? Which ones?

The ranking websites ignore rigor. Quality is subjective any day of the week.

When I am hiring engineers (or cS grads), I am happy to hire anyone with a mix of As and Bs from at least any of these VA engineering programs (GMU, ODU, UVA, VCU, VT) and also from either UMCP or UMBC --PROVIDED they took the more rigorous electives on offer in their chosen specific degree.

In my experience all of those programs have good grad school options also.

I don't have time or space to outline elective examples for all degrees. As EE examples, EE upper-level electives in E&M Fields, Digital Communications, Logic Programming (Verilog, VHDL), and real-time (or embedded) systems would be a few of the courses I consider rigorous.

Absolutely not true for the Top 5 or so. They are all rigorous up there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does a non-engineering parent determine a quality engineering program if the student cannot get into the top ranked programs? Do they exist?
Look at ranking websites? Which ones?

The ranking websites ignore rigor. Quality is subjective any day of the week.

When I am hiring engineers (or cS grads), I am happy to hire anyone with a mix of As and Bs from at least any of these VA engineering programs (GMU, ODU, UVA, VCU, VT) and also from either UMCP or UMBC --PROVIDED they took the more rigorous electives on offer in their chosen specific degree.

In my experience all of those programs have good grad school options also.

I don't have time or space to outline elective examples for all degrees. As EE examples, EE upper-level electives in E&M Fields, Digital Communications, Logic Programming (Verilog, VHDL), and real-time (or embedded) systems would be a few of the courses I consider rigorous.

NP here. Thank you so much for this. I am a NoVA non-engineer whose daughter is applying to engineering programs. She has been accepted to ODU, VCU, and University of Alabama Huntsville and is still waiting to hear from GMU, VT, UVA, and Notre Dame. She is most interested in aerospace at this time (due to her experience in Civil Air Patrol) but has been advised to pursue mechanical because it is more flexible. Basically, though, overall, she wants a program that leads to internships, co-ops, *jobs.* And of course it would be most cost-effective if those summer co-ops, jobs were in *NoVA* so she would not have to pay for summer housing and could live at HOME for free.

Help? Any insight from here?

[Anonymous]

GMU also has an xlnt engineering department and superlative placement record

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. Thank you so much for this. I am a NoVA non-engineer whose daughter is applying to engineering programs. She has been accepted to ODU, VCU, and University of Alabama Huntsville and is still waiting to hear from GMU, VT, UVA, and Notre Dame. She is most interested in aerospace at this time (due to her experience in Civil Air Patrol) but has been advised to pursue mechanical because it is more flexible.

Basically, though, overall, she wants a program that leads to internships, co-ops, *jobs.* And of course it would be most cost-effective if those summer co-ops, jobs were in *NoVA* so she would not have to pay for summer housing and could live at HOME for free.

Help? Any insight from here?

If she wants AeroE, then she should go for AeroE. Don't do MechE if she wants AeroE. Do not hesitate to say AeroE on college apps. Women are under-represented in AeroE. Not all colleges offer AeroE, so prioritize those that do.

I hope she listed CAP on college apps. For women targeting AeroE that will be a plus.

Lots of AeroE jobs along VA-28 between Manassas and Route 7. Most are space-related. NRO is always looking to hire AeroE college interns - competitive to get one with NRO though.

Also, she should be trying to get a summer job at NRL in the "Naval Center for Space Technology". NRL has both HS interns and college interns - also competitive. NRL does lots of space / satellite work.

ODU has good connections with NASA Langley, BUT ODU Engineering is sink-or-swim, not super supportive. Huntsville is strong in Space stuff due to location.

VT and UVA both have AeroE degrees. VT is higher ranked, but has "weed out" classes for engineering. UVA engineering is lower ranked and much smaller, but has a higher 5-year graduation rate in engineering than VT.

Check if VCU, GMU offer AeroE. No data about ND, sorry.

She is well inside the target zone for a full 4-year AFROTC scholarship. Consider applying *right now* for that. CAP folks should be able to help. AFROTC feeds into USSF in addition to the USAF.

She needs to pick a college where she fits in; only you and she can figure that out. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does a non-engineering parent determine a quality engineering program if the student cannot get into the top ranked programs? Do they exist?
Look at ranking websites? Which ones?

The ranking websites ignore rigor. Quality is subjective any day of the week.

When I am hiring engineers (or cS grads), I am happy to hire anyone with a mix of As and Bs from at least any of these VA engineering programs (GMU, ODU, UVA, VCU, VT) and also from either UMCP or UMBC --PROVIDED they took the more rigorous electives on offer in their chosen specific degree.

In my experience all of those programs have good grad school options also.

I don't have time or space to outline elective examples for all degrees. As EE examples, EE upper-level electives in E&M Fields, Digital Communications, Logic Programming (Verilog, VHDL), and real-time (or embedded) systems would be a few of the courses I consider rigorous.

NP here. Thank you so much for this. I am a NoVA non-engineer whose daughter is applying to engineering programs. She has been accepted to ODU, VCU, and University of Alabama Huntsville and is still waiting to hear from GMU, VT, UVA, and Notre Dame. She is most interested in aerospace at this time (due to her experience in Civil Air Patrol) but has been advised to pursue mechanical because it is more flexible. Basically, though, overall, she wants a program that leads to internships, co-ops, *jobs.* And of course it would be most cost-effective if those summer co-ops, jobs were in *NoVA* so she would not have to pay for summer housing and could live at HOME for free.

Help? Any insight from here?

Alabama Huntsville is probably the best option for aerospace and internships/jobs because Huntsville has a ton of aerospace and the program works closely with industry.

However…it means she is more likely than not to remain in Huntsville (which is unlike the rest of Alabama in terms of demographics and politics if that matters).

[Anonymous]

Thank you, 06:15 and 07:52!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think schools are ABET certified per se, but rather the specific program is ABET certified. So a school could be ABET for MechE, but maybe not CompE.

As a hiring manager, if an engineering program is ABET accredited in any part of the program, that is good enough. That means the core classes of math, physics, or whatever that apply to all degrees are rigorous enough.

The exception is that we have never hired anyone with a degree in "General Engineering". We do hire people with a range of specific degrees (examples: AeroE, CompE, EE).

Yes, it's "good enough" but HOW good is the career services office at the school? That's really where you should be looking. For example, GMU (great engineering, BTW) has superlative career counseling across disciplines. That's where your kid will be heading for their first internships, first year. My GMU kid had internships all three summers and was employed by Microsoft before graduation. That's what you need to be asking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here. Thank you so much for this. I am a NoVA non-engineer whose daughter is applying to engineering programs. She has been accepted to ODU, VCU, and University of Alabama Huntsville and is still waiting to hear from GMU, VT, UVA, and Notre Dame. She is most interested in aerospace at this time (due to her experience in Civil Air Patrol) but has been advised to pursue mechanical because it is more flexible.

Basically, though, overall, she wants a program that leads to internships, co-ops, *jobs.* And of course it would be most cost-effective if those summer co-ops, jobs were in *NoVA* so she would not have to pay for summer housing and could live at HOME for free.

Help? Any insight from here?

If she wants AeroE, then she should go for AeroE. Don't do MechE if she wants AeroE. Do not hesitate to say AeroE on college apps. Women are under-represented in AeroE. Not all colleges offer AeroE, so prioritize those that do.

I hope she listed CAP on college apps. For women targeting AeroE that will be a plus.

Lots of AeroE jobs along VA-28 between Manassas and Route 7. Most are space-related. NRO is always looking to hire AeroE college interns - competitive to get one with NRO though.

Also, she should be trying to get a summer job at NRL in the "Naval Center for Space Technology". NRL has both HS interns and college interns - also competitive. NRL does lots of space / satellite work.

ODU has good connections with NASA Langley, BUT ODU Engineering is sink-or-swim, not super supportive. Huntsville is strong in Space stuff due to location.

VT and UVA both have AeroE degrees. VT is higher ranked, but has "weed out" classes for engineering. UVA engineering is lower ranked and much smaller, but has a higher 5-year graduation rate in engineering than VT.

Check if VCU, GMU offer AeroE. No data about ND, sorry.

She is well inside the target zone for a full 4-year AFROTC scholarship. Consider applying *right now* for that. CAP folks should be able to help. AFROTC feeds into USSF in addition to the USAF.

She needs to pick a college where she fits in; only you and she can figure that out. Good luck.

GMU offers Aero as a concentration for ME.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does a non-engineering parent determine a quality engineering program if the student cannot get into the top ranked programs? Do they exist?
Look at ranking websites? Which ones?

The ranking websites ignore rigor. Quality is subjective any day of the week.

When I am hiring engineers (or cS grads), I am happy to hire anyone with a mix of As and Bs from at least any of these VA engineering programs (GMU, ODU, UVA, VCU, VT) and also from either UMCP or UMBC --PROVIDED they took the more rigorous electives on offer in their chosen specific degree.

In my experience all of those programs have good grad school options also.

I don't have time or space to outline elective examples for all degrees. As EE examples, EE upper-level electives in E&M Fields, Digital Communications, Logic Programming (Verilog, VHDL), and real-time (or embedded) systems would be a few of the courses I consider rigorous.

NP here. Thank you so much for this. I am a NoVA non-engineer whose daughter is applying to engineering programs. She has been accepted to ODU, VCU, and University of Alabama Huntsville and is still waiting to hear from GMU, VT, UVA, and Notre Dame. She is most interested in aerospace at this time (due to her experience in Civil Air Patrol) but has been advised to pursue mechanical because it is more flexible. Basically, though, overall, she wants a program that leads to internships, co-ops, *jobs.* And of course it would be most cost-effective if those summer co-ops, jobs were in *NoVA* so she would not have to pay for summer housing and could live at HOME for free.

Help? Any insight from here?

If your kid wants to work in aerospace, major in aero. While mechanical engineering will open doors to most aerospace jobs, there are distinct advantages to an aero degree and attending a school with that specialization. If your kid wants to work in HVAC, any ABET accredited program will suffice. Interested in hypersonics? You'll probably need a top-tier program.

Regarding your school list, I'd suggest adding Purdue and applying before the EA deadline. Since you already have an Indiana school (ND) and a large public university (VT), why not include one of the largest and arguably best aero programs in the country? My son is an aero major at Purdue and loves it.

[Anonymous]

Purdue is a good school, no doubt, but can be hard to get accepted for engineering from OOS. So very important to have good backup options.

UIUC also is very good, same caveat.

[Anonymous]

I think you have to like the school. It isn't all about the price tag or whether or not it is an ABET program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you have to like the school. It isn't all about the price tag or whether or not it is an ABET program.

Mostly agree that fit matters.