Importance of Graduate School Reputation

[new_injuneer]

I have seen a few recent posts remarking on the importance of graduate school reputation for Structural Engineering.

I am a mid career changer and am tentatively enrolled in an 'OK' structural program for the fall. Rutgers University Structural Engineering. Local to me and convenient. Since I am nontraditional, I figure standard 'grad school reputation' won't matter as much to me. So, I applied nowhere else.

I believe I could get into some better schools if I tried because my Civil GPA is very good, I have some job/life experience, excellent LORs, and I'm pretty sure I can get an 800 (or close) on the GRE math.

I also saw a comment of going to grad school in CA if you ever want to do structural there. That makes sense.

But barring that, how important do you think it would be to get into a better school?

I'd have to reapply again in December 2013 if I wanted to go through another application round.

 

[Jgivens12]

I think it may depend on your goals. What is your purpose of getting a MS? Are you already working and you'll be going part-time while working? Are your family/friends close by or is it possible to relocate?

I'd imagine if you want to stay in the area near the university, I would think most times the local school can be a big benefit. If you want to move across the country afterwords that doesn't always translate. And not to put down Rutgers, I think they have a fairly well known program so I doubt you could go wrong.

I saw you mentioned California in your message. I do believe that if you want to work for a larger engineering firm in California they will generally expect your masters program to cover seismic design. From my review Rutgers does not appear to focus on seismic design. Outside of California (and perhaps the Pacific Northwest) this isn't probably important and you may be at a disadvantage to take a masters program focusing mainly on seismic design if your area isn't in a high seismic zone.

My experience is that very high end firms tend to very biasedly look only at graduates from certain programs. I know one such firm that has a huge preference for graduates from UC Berkeley, Stanford, UT Austin, University of Illinois, and UCSD. UCSD is not as well known as the others but have a great reputation in California.

So not sure if I was any really hope. I'd say always go to the best school that fits within your life ($$$, location, etc). Going to a top school can help significantly, but I don't think not going to one is going to be career wrecking by any means.

 

[Peele1]

"What do you call someone graduating from med school with the lowest GPA?" "Doctor".

In my experience schools fall into only a few categories: top notch (MIT, etc), those with a good overall reputation, those with no significant rep, those with a bad rep. You can graduate bottom of the class in the lowest ranked program at MIT and you are still gold. Rutgers has a good overall reputation.

There are of course some exceptions or biases that you'll never know or be able to account for. It also depends on your goals. If your goal is "get a master is SE, and get a job doing deep-sea oil rigs" then look for a school concentrating in that. Of course, if your goal is too narrow, you may have issues. If your goal is "Master's degree, preferably SE, and get a job" then you will do fine at Rutgers, if your goal is too broad, then you may also have issues.

If you ask 10 people, you will get 11 different answers to your question. So, similar to Jgivens, if you want to do seismic, then move to California, otherwise, Rutgers is good.