Need some advice for choosing school.

[fangli27]

I am an applicant for the PHD program at chemical engineering in fall, 2013. Now I have three offers. They are UCR, Auburn, CUNY-City College. All are full funding. I really dont know how to make my decision. The ranks of these three schools for chemical engineering on USNews are almost the same. So I dont think it is a factor to consider. After my graduation from graduate school, I want to find a job rather than continue to do research. So which factor do I need to consider? the location or the professor?

[JungWild&Free]

There are a lot of factors that you will probably want to consider, depending on your goals.  If you want to go into industry then most departments post information about past graduate student job placements.  I would encourage you to look at those to see if all the schools have similar job opportunities.  Ultimately, job placement probably depends on what kind of chemical engineering you want to do and where you want to do it, and how well your program is going to prepare you for that.  I have no experience with the field so I really can't say. You can always get in touch with current students in the programs and ask them about how their classmates fare on the job market and how well their program prepared them for careers as engineers.  I'm also not sure how closely you work with your faculty mentor in engineering so I can't say how important that is.

 

One thing to consider is that the cost of living is going to be quite different.  Auburn is going to be cheap and will be the lowest cost of living. but also the least diverse place to live.  New York City is pretty much the exact opposite, it has the highest cost of living of those 3 and is the most diverse place to live, it's a very welcoming place to international transplants living in the US.  Riverside is kind of in the middle.  Southern California is home to people from a lot of places, it's probably slightly more expensive than the average US city but cheaper than NYC.  I wouldn't normally consider location to be that important, but I can see how it might be more relevant if you are moving from abroad.  Since funding isn't an issue, you should probably try to investigate more about the cost of living in these places to see where the funding will stretch the most. 

 

 

Other than those things, it's hard to tell what you are trying to get out of the programs.  If I were you, I would sit down and spend some time looking at the websites of the schools, emailing current and/or former students and talking to fellow engineers in order to figure out what the most important factors to consider are. 

Edited April 12, 2013 by JungWild&Free

[fangli27]

There are a lot of factors that you will probably want to consider, depending on your goals.  If you want to go into industry then most departments post information about past graduate student job placements.  I would encourage you to look at those to see if all the schools have similar job opportunities.  Ultimately, job placement probably depends on what kind of chemical engineering you want to do and where you want to do it, and how well your program is going to prepare you for that.  I have no experience with the field so I really can't say. You can always get in touch with current students in the programs and ask them about how their classmates fare on the job market and how well their program prepared them for careers as engineers.  I'm also not sure how closely you work with your faculty mentor in engineering so I can't say how important that is.

 

One thing to consider is that the cost of living is going to be quite different.  Auburn is going to be cheap and will be the lowest cost of living. but also the least diverse place to live.  New York City is pretty much the exact opposite, it has the highest cost of living of those 3 and is the most diverse place to live, it's a very welcoming place to international transplants living in the US.  Riverside is kind of in the middle.  Southern California is home to people from a lot of places, it's probably slightly more expensive than the average US city but cheaper than NYC.  I wouldn't normally consider location to be that important, but I can see how it might be more relevant if you are moving from abroad.  Since funding isn't an issue, you should probably try to investigate more about the cost of living in these places to see where the funding will stretch the most. 

 

 

Other than those things, it's hard to tell what you are trying to get out of the programs.  If I were you, I would sit down and spend some time looking at the websites of the schools, emailing current and/or former students and talking to fellow engineers in order to figure out what the most important factors to consider are. 

 

JungWild&Free

 

Thank you for your kind reply.

 

I have checked the website of these 3 schools. Both CUNY and Auburn have the career center to prepare their students. But I havent find the career center in UCR's website. I will try again.

 

Yeah. I will talk to the current student in Auburn and inquire about the job opportunity. But for CUNY, I cannot find the email address on the website, so i guess i cannot talk to the current student in CUNY.

 

I still have a question. Is the reputation of the Univ. important? I mean, is there the possibility that companies like to employ students from some famous Univ.?

[JungWild&Free]

That really depends a lot on your field.  I think you would need to seek out opinions from people who are really in the know about these programs.  Rankings are often not a definite indication of reputation.  Some schools with less prestigious reputations have well-respected programs in certain fields.

[fangli27]

That really depends a lot on your field.  I think you would need to seek out opinions from people who are really in the know about these programs.  Rankings are often not a definite indication of reputation.  Some schools with less prestigious reputations have well-respected programs in certain fields.

 

JungWild&Free

 

Thank you very much. I will ask people who are in my field. Wish you best.