What to look for in an engineering program?

[drummerguy198]

I know what to look for on a general level when choosing colleges, such as cost of attendance and location and such, but how do I go about picking a college in regards to their engineering programs? I know that I want to do computer engineering for various reasons. I have looked at the curricula of different colleges such as LSU and University of South Carolina. I will look at more in due time. Others I am considering are University of Texas and the University of Wisconsin.

 

[fss]

Accreditation, areas of research, student retention rate, graduate placement rate, student/faculty ratio...

 

[twofish-quant]

Accreditation, areas of research, student retention rate, graduate placement rate, student/faculty ratio...

Student retention rate is pretty important. Some universities let everyone in, but then weed them out, and these places tend not be great places to learn engineering.

I wouldn't focus too much in the formal curriculum, because those tend to be more or less identical. The big thing that I'd suggest you do is to get in touch with upperclassmen (maybe by a campus visit) at the school, and see what you think about what they say.