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(This is a US centric reply, I can't help as much if you are not in the US) So a couple of question to pose first: - Can you live at home? If so, do you plan
by kop316 8y ago
(This is a US centric reply, I can't help as much if you are not in the US)
So a couple of question to pose first:
- Can you live at home? If so, do you plan on living at home?
- Are you looking for scholarships?
- Are you working while at school?
- Why are you going for absolute cheapest? Why not best value?
I ask these because they are important questions that will shape what you look for.
I hesitate to say "cheapest" because like many other things, you will get what you pay for. If you go to a crappy college that does not have any prospects of getting you a EE job, then you just wasted a lot of money. I think best value is looking into a 2-year community college that will transfer to a state school in state. Make sure the in state school is a decent engineering school, and it has partnerships with engineering companies. Those schools are generally "feeders" into companies, and will offer internships and jobs after college.
Housing is not a negligible cost either. If living at home is an option (understandably, it may not be), that will also save a lot of money as well. If that is not an option, you will likely have to work while in school to keep costs down. I personally worked as a Resident Assistant and I got free room, board, and a food allowance. But you can also find paid internships during the year that are full time in the summer that will defer costs. My brother did that, and was offered a full time job at a major company afterwards.
On the other hand, there are scholarships as well. I know that many government jobs offer full ride scholarships in exchange for working for then for x years afterwards (usually 4 years). ROTC will not only give you a scholarship, but will offer subsidies as well.
- pliftkl 8y agoThe best piece of this post is hidden in a sentence in the middle, and I wanted to call it out: If cost is an issue, go to a community college BEFORE going to a 4-year engineering school. Community colleges are a fraction of the price of a university. Any EE degree is going to require a significant investment in calculus, some diff eq, linear algebra, chemistry, physics, and likely some humanities. With some clever coursework you can do ~2 years of full time EE coursework at a community college.
- projectileboy 8y agoI'd second this advice if budget is the main driver. To add on to what you said, if you're on an engineering track, your first two years are more or less the same wherever you go anyway. And as an added bonus, if you didn't do exceptionally well in high school, getting good grades at community college can make it easier to transfer into a more competitive state school for your third and fourth years.
- learc83 8y ago>If you go to a crappy college If it's an ABET accredited program, there's a limit to how crappy it can be. Most companies don't care where you went as long as it's ABET accredited. Sure going to a well known school doesn't hurt, but school reputation isn't nearly as big of a problem in engineering as it is for other majors. You should get an internship though, or better yet do a co-op.
- kop316 8y agoThat's a fair point. My worry in the original post is that they only factored in cost as an issue, and if they go to a non-accredited college, then they will likely get a poor ROI.
- learc83 8y agoYeah a non ABET accredited school for an EE degree is a terrible idea if you plan on working in the US.