ChemE MS Descision

[Hellblazer]

UPenn vs Texas A&M vs CMU vs Purdue

I have received acceptances from these 4 schools till now. I am mostly interested in pursuing a job after my Masters (with an inclination for environmental and sustainability related work). Not much interested in continuing the program to pursue a PhD. How would you compare the curriculum and the career services available in these four schools?
Also to be taken into consideration is the high tuition at UPenn and CMU. But then, there's the Ivy School tag that comes with UPenn and the low tuition at Texas A&M. 

It would also be great if you could discuss the assistantship scenarios in these schools.
I am awaiting results from UCLA, UT Austin (MS in Environmental and Water Resources engineering). It would be great if you could bring these into consideration as well. 

Let me know what you all think! 

[xiaomameijj]

A&M is great, since it is easier to find a job in Texas

[Timothy]

I was also accepted into the same program of TAMU, Purdue, and UPenn ( and a few others, but these two are the final two I am considering, besides Gatech which hasn't told me their decisions yet). I declined UPenn because of the tuition, I just don't think the tag of Ivy league worth almost three times than TAMU. I did a bit of comparison on my own, but since my interest is in polymer materials and material science, some factors that I think are important might not be of the same importance to you. 

TAMU:

pros: 1) It's in Texas, work and internship, aggie connections  2) better weather than Purdue  3)The core courses are more application-oriented, such as XXX Analysis, Application             of XXX, XXX Design, instead of Advanced XXX. I guess this is both pro and con, depending on what your expectations are from taking these courses.  4) cheaper tuition

cons: 1) It's lower in rank  2) Might not have the same level of reputation outside Texas and US, comparing to Purdue. (I'm Taiwanese btw, might look for a job in Asia, closer to                 home)

 

Purdue:

pros: 1) It has higher rank in ChemE and Engineering  2) They have one of the biggest career fair in the states  3) The program is comprehensive. They have different                                concentrations, management courses, and summer project/internship. (I'll talk about this later)

cons: 1) Worse weather (comparing to tamu of course)  2) higher tuition  3) Location for finding internship/job is not as good as Texas, but I'm not that familiar with the job                             opportunities in the North

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Speaking of the program, I originally leaned toward choosing Purdue. The problem is, however, of the 5 concentrations in the program, there wasn't one directly related to material science. There is one conc. that covers a little bit about polymerization process. I did ask the department whether or not I can enroll in courses outside the department with the credits counting toward the concentration core credits. But if I were to take most of the course outside of the concentration, then this whole concentration thing would be less meaningful to me. On top of that, I looked into TAMU's program and they have listed four finance and marketing courses to be allowed to count as the program's electives. This would make the management courses offer by Purdue less significant. Last thing, the summer project of Purdue. From what I heared from one of my university classmates, who is studying at the same program right now, the project can be completed in three ways: 1) Find a professor and do a small research project. 2) The corporations would come and give interviews to the students and then they would pick a couple to work on the projects within the corporations. 3) Find an internship on your own and locate an offer. Among the three choices, I prefer finding an internship, and with TAMU's aggie connections, I can find find an internship on my own much more easily than Purdue. 

To conclude, now that you look at the program, it doesn't differ that much between TAMU and Purdue. So I guess it comes down to finding a job after graduation: the location of Texas vs the career fair of Purdue and the opportunities that comes with it. Some of my friends said that reputation-wise, these two schools are not that different. Other factors  such as tuition, weather, life around campus etc may be more significant now. At the end of the day, you're still the one making choices.

I'm leaning more toward choosing TAMU right now. I still got some time until 4/15 to think it through, while waiting for Gatech and UCLA. I'm sorry I can't give you any advice on UPenn and CMU. Good Luck!