Not OP...but I had plenty of group assignments. The ones I liked, I maintained as friends. I'd imagine if someone graduated without knowing other engineers, the

Not OP...but I had plenty of group assignments. The ones I liked, I maintained as friends. I'd imagine if someone graduated without knowing other engineers, the school didn't value group assignments, their teammates all stunk and weren't worth keeping, or they were the one no one else wanted to keep in touch with. My university also had plenty of student organizations that were engineering related where you can find people of common interest, if you wanted to. ACM, Top Coder, Society of Women Engineer, Society of Automotive Engineers, Robotics (my school participated in DARPA challenges, FIRST robotics mentoring...) etc...If you wanted to be around similar peers, you could chose to. Or, you could chose not to and be the typical geek that goes to class, not talk to anyone, go back home and stare at your computer. I was fortunate to also join non-engineering organizations, with whom the majority of my friends are today. I'm glad I didn't, because that expose me to a lot of different types of people, values, etc. Anyways - I am not sure the value of networking with other college students from a professional stand point anyways. Having been in industry for 10 years, with each of my company having hired college grads...if a new college hire on my team says 'hey, this person is good'...I'd interview them, and still give the standard interview. If a colleague with many years of experience says 'this person is good', I would trust their professional judgement more and would maybe interview more on behavioral.