Transferring to College: EE Advice for UH Manoa Junior

[Niznar]

Aloha!

I'm entering my Junior year at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and I'm considering transferring to another school. When I applied to college I never really considered schools too carefully and ultimately settled at UH, my fall back. It's a decent school, and we have some amazing professors, but I still would like to leave home.

Right now my GPA is alright, I have a 3.57. I'm looking to transfer to another school but I'm not sure where to look and where I'd have a decent shot. Right now I'm considering University of Michigan, University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a handful of other institutions.

My focus is in VLSI Design and Processor Architecture.

Any advice you fellas can offer? Cheers!

 

[DrRocket]

Aloha!

I'm entering my Junior year at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and I'm considering transferring to another school. When I applied to college I never really considered schools too carefully and ultimately settled at UH, my fall back. It's a decent school, and we have some amazing professors, but I still would like to leave home.

Right now my GPA is alright, I have a 3.57. I'm looking to transfer to another school but I'm not sure where to look and where I'd have a decent shot. Right now I'm considering University of Michigan, University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a handful of other institutions.

My focus is in VLSI Design and Processor Architecture.

Any advice you fellas can offer? Cheers!

The schools that you mention are all good ones. Go to somewhere that fits what you perceive as your needs.

You might consider finishing up a UH and then going elsewhere for graduate school.

 

[Niznar]

My biggest focus is the quality and quantity of VLSI and VLSI-related courses, as well as opportunities to work under professors on research projects, as well as finding a school that I can actually get accepted to :P

I've been considering finishing and then going to grad school on the mainland, and I realize that's probably the most likely outcome here, but I'd still like to try and finish my undergrad degree elsewhere.

Although so long as I'm here, in addition to my OP, I'm curious how you folks feel about when is a good time to go to grad school. I'm planning to get into the workforce for a couple of years before I pursue my Masters and (ideally) PhD, just so I have some real world experience. Ultimately, my dream career would be developing processors, ideally for AMD, Intel or Nvidia.

 

[DrRocket]

My biggest focus is the quality and quantity of VLSI and VLSI-related courses, as well as opportunities to work under professors on research projects, as well as finding a school that I can actually get accepted to :P

I've been considering finishing and then going to grad school on the mainland, and I realize that's probably the most likely outcome here, but I'd still like to try and finish my undergrad degree elsewhere.

Although so long as I'm here, in addition to my OP, I'm curious how you folks feel about when is a good time to go to grad school. I'm planning to get into the workforce for a couple of years before I pursue my Masters and (ideally) PhD, just so I have some real world experience. Ultimately, my dream career would be developing processors, ideally for AMD, Intel or Nvidia.

My personal recommendation is to continue in school until you are ready to leave for good. While it has been done successfully it is difficult to leave a full-time job and go back to school -- you forget how to live on no money.

 

[Niznar]

Haha, fair enough, and your advice is greatly appreciated!

Is there any good resource for finding other good schools to look at for EE programs?

 

[DrRocket]

Haha, fair enough, and your advice is greatly appreciated!

Is there any good resource for finding other good schools to look at for EE programs?

Look in the IEEE journals for articles in your area of interest and see who is doing the leading research.