Choosing program prestige over college prestige

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:University of Michigan has a great Engineering and CS program would take it over many perceived "prestigious" schools.

yes -just toured and in gtech but kid still thinks ivy is better-even though they are not for engineering

But ivies are better, assuming you mean the ones with real engineering schools, due to more funded engineering opportunities for undergrad, smaller E-cohort thus greater ability to get top faculty letters, competitive TA spots, faculty connections, and higher reputations with regard to top industry jobs and top phD placement.

Are you saying this as an industry recruiter or just because you believe "Ivy is always better"? I'm willing to change my mind but I've toured Yale as well as the larger state schools such as Purdue, Michigan and UIUC which all have entire sections of campus devoted to engineering/CS with vast and extraordinary facilities, more faculty teaching and researching in various areas of the industry, and relationships with top firms/corps which seem to make this an easy decision if a student knows they want to major in a specific field such as engineering or CS.

I have my only one anecdote, but a work colleague has a kid at U Chicago studying CS and another at UIUC studying engineering, and she comments all the time about how U Chicago has so many more opportunities of many varieties (i.e., FAANG recruits, but hedge funds, consulting firms, PE are all very active and interested in STEM kids) compared to UIUC.

Again, I just have her one story to convey.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a hill I die on. It will serve you much better to go to a prestigious college over a prestigious program.

Yeah, let me go study public policy at Indiana instead of Yale! That's the way! Please.

Worked out for Francisco.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:University of Michigan has a great Engineering and CS program would take it over many perceived "prestigious" schools.

yes -just toured and in gtech but kid still thinks ivy is better-even though they are not for engineering

But ivies are better, assuming you mean the ones with real engineering schools, due to more funded engineering opportunities for undergrad, smaller E-cohort thus greater ability to get top faculty letters, competitive TA spots, faculty connections, and higher reputations with regard to top industry jobs and top phD placement.

Are you saying this as an industry recruiter or just because you believe "Ivy is always better"? I'm willing to change my mind but I've toured Yale as well as the larger state schools such as Purdue, Michigan and UIUC which all have entire sections of campus devoted to engineering/CS with vast and extraordinary facilities, more faculty teaching and researching in various areas of the industry, and relationships with top firms/corps which seem to make this an easy decision if a student knows they want to major in a specific field such as engineering or CS.

I have my only one anecdote, but a work colleague has a kid at U Chicago studying CS and another at UIUC studying engineering, and she comments all the time about how U Chicago has so many more opportunities of many varieties (i.e., FAANG recruits, but hedge funds, consulting firms, PE are all very active and interested in STEM kids) compared to UIUC.

Again, I just have her one story to convey.

Interesting. I know a guy who knows a guy who's work colleague's kids had an opposite experience. Just one anecdote.

[Anonymous]

Mine chose PSU for landscape architecture over more highly ranked schools where there was not a landscape program (would have been regular architecture and then have to do a grad program).

[Anonymous]

Most of the time, I would pick the higher ranked school. Not sure the rankings have caught up with prestige yet when it comes to public schools.

Kelly does make it a difficult choice when compared with public schools in the 30's. My son has friends that are choosing between Penn State (Smeal) and IU (Kelly). It isn't obvious to the kids or their parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:University of Michigan has a great Engineering and CS program would take it over many perceived "prestigious" schools.

yes -just toured and in gtech but kid still thinks ivy is better-even though they are not for engineering

But ivies are better, assuming you mean the ones with real engineering schools, due to more funded engineering opportunities for undergrad, smaller E-cohort thus greater ability to get top faculty letters, competitive TA spots, faculty connections, and higher reputations with regard to top industry jobs and top phD placement.

What absolute utter nonsense. Unless of course if you are talking about when you get past the Top 3 in MIT, Stanford, Georgia Tech (tie), Cal Berk (tie). No one can compete with these schools in the criteria you state.

As far as Top industry jobs.

https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/top-feeders-engineering/

Thanks for sharing this link. Really interesting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are any of your kids doing this? Say, VT Engineering over UVA Engineering? Are there other cases?

Friend's kid did the opposite- ED'd to UVA for engineering and the father is mad! Thinks the kid should've gone for Tech but agreed to the ED thinking he'd never get in. Whoops.

I was the opposite.

My kid wanted to do engineering but I wasn't so sure it would be a satisfying career for him considering his other interests. So I encouraged him to go to UVA because there are so many opportunities outside of engineering at UVA and far fewer at VT and the UVA brand name will make up for some of the engineering specific gap. It looks like he is going to graduate with an engineering degree so I wonder if I encouraged him to hedge his bests for no reason.

What? Where are you getting this? VT has NINE distinct excellent colleges to choose from and far more majors available than UVA. You can easily switch out of engineering and choose from among countless other majors at VT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a hill I die on. It will serve you much better to go to a prestigious college over a prestigious program.

Yeah, let me go study public policy at Indiana instead of Yale! That's the way! Please.

100%.. Econ at an ivy or Stanford will get one much further in life than Ross at Michigan or McIntire or anything else that is not Wharton at Penn. Even Econ through arts& sciences at Penn is better than Ross or McIntire, and has almost the same outcomes as Wharton.

Same with Engineering. Engineering at the ivies that have it, or Northwestern, or Hopkins, will lead to much better career options and phd placements than Purdue or VT.

Global reputation and endowment matter more than ever for research funding, the rankings that focus on research output and industry reputation will be better environments for undergraduates, especially stem.

Again, this entire argument is a strawman, this thread is not about choosing an average state flagship over an ivy.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is considering VT for English - yes, English, not engineering - over UVA for English. VT is accepting a lot of my kid's AP credits and will give him time to explore other classes/majors and participate in many activities.

My DC’s roommate is an English major at VT and absolutely loves it. They have a wonderful English department, not to mention the liberal arts college as a whole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:University of Michigan has a great Engineering and CS program would take it over many perceived "prestigious" schools.

yes -just toured and in gtech but kid still thinks ivy is better-even though they are not for engineering

But ivies are better, assuming you mean the ones with real engineering schools, due to more funded engineering opportunities for undergrad, smaller E-cohort thus greater ability to get top faculty letters, competitive TA spots, faculty connections, and higher reputations with regard to top industry jobs and top phD placement.

Are you saying this as an industry recruiter or just because you believe "Ivy is always better"? I'm willing to change my mind but I've toured Yale as well as the larger state schools such as Purdue, Michigan and UIUC which all have entire sections of campus devoted to engineering/CS with vast and extraordinary facilities, more faculty teaching and researching in various areas of the industry, and relationships with top firms/corps which seem to make this an easy decision if a student knows they want to major in a specific field such as engineering or CS.

I have my only one anecdote, but a work colleague has a kid at U Chicago studying CS and another at UIUC studying engineering, and she comments all the time about how U Chicago has so many more opportunities of many varieties (i.e., FAANG recruits, but hedge funds, consulting firms, PE are all very active and interested in STEM kids) compared to UIUC.

Again, I just have her one story to convey.

Quant firms recruit heavily from UIUC, mainly because many are located in Chicago. And these firms pay a lot more than FAANGs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are any of your kids doing this? Say, VT Engineering over UVA Engineering? Are there other cases?

This is the conundrum we have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:University of Michigan has a great Engineering and CS program would take it over many perceived "prestigious" schools.

yes -just toured and in gtech but kid still thinks ivy is better-even though they are not for engineering

But ivies are better, assuming you mean the ones with real engineering schools, due to more funded engineering opportunities for undergrad, smaller E-cohort thus greater ability to get top faculty letters, competitive TA spots, faculty connections, and higher reputations with regard to top industry jobs and top phD placement.

Are you saying this as an industry recruiter or just because you believe "Ivy is always better"? I'm willing to change my mind but I've toured Yale as well as the larger state schools such as Purdue, Michigan and UIUC which all have entire sections of campus devoted to engineering/CS with vast and extraordinary facilities, more faculty teaching and researching in various areas of the industry, and relationships with top firms/corps which seem to make this an easy decision if a student knows they want to major in a specific field such as engineering or CS.

I have my only one anecdote, but a work colleague has a kid at U Chicago studying CS and another at UIUC studying engineering, and she comments all the time about how U Chicago has so many more opportunities of many varieties (i.e., FAANG recruits, but hedge funds, consulting firms, PE are all very active and interested in STEM kids) compared to UIUC.

Again, I just have her one story to convey.

Quant firms recruit heavily from UIUC, mainly because many are located in Chicago. And these firms pay a lot more than FAANGs.

I can't imagine people from the U of I, one of the best engineering schools in the country, lack for opportunity when they graduate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:University of Michigan has a great Engineering and CS program would take it over many perceived "prestigious" schools.

yes -just toured and in gtech but kid still thinks ivy is better-even though they are not for engineering

But ivies are better, assuming you mean the ones with real engineering schools, due to more funded engineering opportunities for undergrad, smaller E-cohort thus greater ability to get top faculty letters, competitive TA spots, faculty connections, and higher reputations with regard to top industry jobs and top phD placement.

Are you saying this as an industry recruiter or just because you believe "Ivy is always better"? I'm willing to change my mind but I've toured Yale as well as the larger state schools such as Purdue, Michigan and UIUC which all have entire sections of campus devoted to engineering/CS with vast and extraordinary facilities, more faculty teaching and researching in various areas of the industry, and relationships with top firms/corps which seem to make this an easy decision if a student knows they want to major in a specific field such as engineering or CS.

I have my only one anecdote, but a work colleague has a kid at U Chicago studying CS and another at UIUC studying engineering, and she comments all the time about how U Chicago has so many more opportunities of many varieties (i.e., FAANG recruits, but hedge funds, consulting firms, PE are all very active and interested in STEM kids) compared to UIUC.

Again, I just have her one story to convey.

Quant firms recruit heavily from UIUC, mainly because many are located in Chicago. And these firms pay a lot more than FAANGs.

They recruit heavily from U Chicago as well…likely more so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are any of your kids doing this? Say, VT Engineering over UVA Engineering? Are there other cases?

Friend's kid did the opposite- ED'd to UVA for engineering and the father is mad! Thinks the kid should've gone for Tech but agreed to the ED thinking he'd never get in. Whoops.

I was the opposite.

My kid wanted to do engineering but I wasn't so sure it would be a satisfying career for him considering his other interests. So I encouraged him to go to UVA because there are so many opportunities outside of engineering at UVA and far fewer at VT and the UVA brand name will make up for some of the engineering specific gap. It looks like he is going to graduate with an engineering degree so I wonder if I encouraged him to hedge his bests for no reason.

What? Where are you getting this? VT has NINE distinct excellent colleges to choose from and far more majors available than UVA. You can easily switch out of engineering and choose from among countless other majors at VT.

Exactly. It is amusing when someone says there are "fewer opportunities" at VT than at UVA. In our experience, it's been quite the opposite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:University of Michigan has a great Engineering and CS program would take it over many perceived "prestigious" schools.

yes -just toured and in gtech but kid still thinks ivy is better-even though they are not for engineering

But ivies are better, assuming you mean the ones with real engineering schools, due to more funded engineering opportunities for undergrad, smaller E-cohort thus greater ability to get top faculty letters, competitive TA spots, faculty connections, and higher reputations with regard to top industry jobs and top phD placement.

Are you saying this as an industry recruiter or just because you believe "Ivy is always better"? I'm willing to change my mind but I've toured Yale as well as the larger state schools such as Purdue, Michigan and UIUC which all have entire sections of campus devoted to engineering/CS with vast and extraordinary facilities, more faculty teaching and researching in various areas of the industry, and relationships with top firms/corps which seem to make this an easy decision if a student knows they want to major in a specific field such as engineering or CS.

I have my only one anecdote, but a work colleague has a kid at U Chicago studying CS and another at UIUC studying engineering, and she comments all the time about how U Chicago has so many more opportunities of many varieties (i.e., FAANG recruits, but hedge funds, consulting firms, PE are all very active and interested in STEM kids) compared to UIUC.

Again, I just have her one story to convey.

Quant firms recruit heavily from UIUC, mainly because many are located in Chicago. And these firms pay a lot more than FAANGs.

They recruit heavily from U Chicago as well…likely more so.

Nope