What type of colleges are best for engineering majors?

Dear Loc,

I think it's wonderful that you want to study Engineering!

The short answer to your question is "colleges with great engineering programs" ;-)

Joking aside, there are many factors to be considered. Are you interested in Undergraduate or Graduate programs? Do you want to go to school in California? Is cost a major consideration? Are you looking for private or public schools? If public school in California, do you want to attend Cal State University, or University of California. If private school, would you prefer a liberal arts environment?

US News and World Report has a wonderful interactive resource Best Colleges in the country that can help you zero in on which college is best for your particular situation, including the option to rank the schools in any engineering discipline.

The good news is you don't have to go far; California is strongly represented among the nation's top engineering colleges!

Among the top 25 non-PhD-granting engineering schools in the United States: Harvey Mudd (a private school) is #1, California Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo (a fantastic "learn by doing" approach) is #8, University of San Diego and California Polytechnic University at Pomona are tied at 11, Loyola Marymount University and San Jose State University are tied at 18,

Among the top 25 PhD granting engineering schools in the United States: Stanford is #7, California Institute of Technology is 12, University of California at Los Angeles is 19, USC and UC Berkeley are tied at 22. I can speak from personal experience that if you are admitted to California Institute of Technology they will bend over backward to put together a financial aid package that will meet your needs.

Perhaps you are willing to go to college outside the US? There is now the option to study in Germany for free! I don't know much about this but Google is your friend...

Another consideration is: do you want to be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond? Recent work by Malcolm Gladwell indicates that the big fish in the small pond may get the better deal. In other words, being among the top half of students at a second-tier school could be better for your future than being among the bottom half of a top school. Worth "pond"ering, righjt?

Good luck to you, and I wish you every success in your future engineering career!

In your area, SLO at Cal Poly

Virginia Tech has an amazing engineering program and is also a fantastic college!

Hi Loc, this is a great question and one that I asked myself a lot throughout high school. One of the most memorable things one of my college professors said was "You'll probably never encounter these homework questions once you enter the workforce. The most important thing we can teach you is how to think and approach problem-solving like an engineer."

Like most kids who want to study engineering, my dream was to go to MIT. I didn't get in, but I was fortunate enough and consider myself very lucky to go to Cornell. I studied mechanical and aerospace engineering, but regardless of the brand name of the school, I found a couple of the most important factors being: 1) How well-rounded the overall educational curriculum is and career options it provides and 2) How good of a cultural fit is the college for you. 

Regarding well-roundness, for example, my education exposed me to a variety of subject matters that I never knew I would be interested in, such as psychology and international development. It led me to volunteer a lot with homeless shelters and eventually to graduate school (at MIT this time around, which I eventually got in for graduate school, but don't think that would've happened had I not been exposed to a breadth of other subjects and interests in undergrad). 

Regarding cultural fit, I became really interested in snowboarding and dancing, neither of which I had really done before. I took snowboarding my freshman year and joined 2 dance groups on campus. Those were experiences that I hold onto more than any textbook or grade that I received in any class.

Currently, I live in the Bay Area and work at a tech company. I've worked at a variety of tech companies varying in size and maturity, and have co-founded a couple in Tanzania and India. But I can assure you that my path was not necessarily because of going to a specific or the "best" engineering schools, but because of the breadth of class topics they offered and interests / passions they exposed.