Columbia Fu School of Engineering or USCD Jacobs?

[morgfun]

Hello! Thanks for stopping in!

 

I am trying to choose between Columbia Fu School of Engineering or USCD Jacobs School of Engineering and have no idea what to do. I am majoring in Civil Engineering with an emphasis in structures. 

 

On the one hand, USCD Jacobs is a prominent research institution and located in beautiful La Jolla. I have no funding to either but I believe USCD will be more likely to become funded in the future. USCD has a great research reputation and is design focused, so later I could get into a strong engineering firm in California.

 

On the other hand, Columbia, from what I have heard, is more mathematically oriented and smaller. I would likely get to work in heavy theory that could be applied to multiple types of engineering but it might be harder to get a position at a structural design firm. I would likely stay in academia. It is located on the Upper East Side of NYC and has a great student to faculty ratio. It is also an Ivy and recognized worldwide as a prestigious institution no matter what the degree. 

 

Does anyone have any insight? Did you read something I posted that isn't true or you don't agree with? I would love some arguments to get me thinking.

 

[DavidYu]

Same struggle! I am electrical engineering. Industry in Cali is great and i believe eventually i will be working in California, but Columbia has a really good name

[saulecivil]

I have the same struggle! Why on Earth did I apply to too many programs?! Now I'm facing the problem of selecting among them all. I shortened the list to three universities: UCSD, Purdue and Columbia. Still, hard to choose one. While both Purdue an UCSD are great in the structural engineering field, the only thing attracting me to Columbia is Ivy League and location in the heart of Manhattan. Being international applicant, I've always dreamed about living in NY. Also, I'm going to PhD afterwards anyway, hence In my opinion, it would be better for me to choose something for heart for my MS degree and for Phd I will choose the one matching my research of interest.

[morgfun]

Hey @saulecivil,

 

I can at least tell you that from what I have heard, the faculty at Purdue is very competitive and rude to each other. That might make the environment unfriendly. That being said, I have no personal experience, just got that feedback from a few professors that worked/went to school there.

 

But yes...idk what to do about Columbia vs. USCD at all.

[saulecivil]

@morgfun,

Thanks for sharing information! I am going to consult with professors at my university and see what they say. What I know is that my Structural Engineering professor did his phd at UCSD with Pr.Restrepo and he highly commended on both his professional and personal skills and he encorouged my going there (I wrote in my SOP about my interest in this prof).

Anyway, let's post about our choices after April 15. Maybe we'll end up being in one university =)

[Chai_latte]

Hi,

My dad is a Fu alumnus and my cousin got his PhD in Civil from UCSD.  The latter had a good experience (not sure who his advisor was).  My dad's experience was too long ago to be of relevance, but I'll say this...for the longest time, Columbia did not enjoy an exceptional reputation in engineering (it was solid, but not phenomenal...just b/c something's an Ivy doesn't mean it's great at/perceived to be great at everything).  I think it's kicking things up a notch, but traditionally (from the '90s to ~2009), the only Ivies with killer engineering were Cornell and Princeton.  

Anyway, Fu has certain departments that don't have as much collegiality as one would hope.  I'm not sure if Civil is one of these departments, but I'd REALLY look into that.  Also, one big issue w/ Fu is the lack of physical space and burgeoning enrollments, which adds additional strain.  Columbia is building a new campus ~10 blocks up that engineering may take advantage of in the near future, but make sure your department isn't starved for space and knows what collegiality is.

*The last Dean of Fu resigned partially b/c professors complained that he was making the enrollments too large in an already confined space.  This, they argued, negatively effected the quality of education.

Consider the region of the country where you want to work.  If it's the east (or maybe even southeast?), Columbia might take you further. 

P.S. Columbia is on the West Side/Harlem aka "Morningside Heights"

Edited April 5, 2015 by Chai_latte