Devry as a school for EE

Hello board, this is my senior year in high school(GPA around 3.5), and I have been interested in electronics since I was about nine years old. I've been researching schools, and can't think of which route to take. Some of my teachers suggested going to a community college to get all the core classes finished then enroll in a state funded college. Some of the state funded colleges I have been looking into include: Penn State university. https://www.psu.edu/ and IUP, https://www.iup.edu/. The problem is I have to goto to community college anyway to get in one year of math and one year of a foreign language, and of course the schools are fairly expensive.

Then some gentlemen came to my school representing Devry "University". I took interest to the modern labs and small class sizes, and I visted a local campus. I was impressed with the cutting edge equipment they use in their EET(Electrical Engineering Technology) labs. Devry claims to be ABET accredited, is this a good thing or merely hype overshadowed in the illusion of a good education? Devry is fairly expensive, with state grants and a couple scholarships I'll still have to pay around $16k a year. My main question is, what is your professional opinion of the quality of education and marketability of a Devry degree towards employers?

Am I better off going to community college and then transfer to a state funded college? The bad thing I mainly hear about Devry is that their credits don't transfer anywhere. This tells me that major post-secondary schools don't regard Devry as competent as themselves? Also, that could be bad if I ever want to pursue my masters degree at another school.

I greatly appreciate your input, I'm still researching other schools, and this school seemed decent to me when I visited it, but there's so much negative comments on it on "review" sites; not to mention the sporadic positive comment with a valid point that makes you discard the negatives.

Devry boasts an impressive list of employers of major companies such as Boeing, Honey Well, the FBI, and others that come in and interview and offer internships to their students. Their job placement is around 90% for graduates, but I don't think they take into account of the graduates being placed in a career relevant to their education.

Mainly the thing I hear is that most employers don't look at where you received your degree(as long as you have it), but they look at how much experience you have. So internships with major companies would be a plus, and maybe a guaranteed future job.

Thanks

It depends on what you want to do as an EE.

I know exactly one person who went to Devry. It seemed that everything he studied went by too fast, he did not get enough exposure to make it stick. May not be the same on every Devry campus.

The list of employers that hire graduates is somewhat misleading. A more meaningful indicator is how many of the graduates get GOOD/INTERESTING/FUN jobs in the field they studied. Do the EEs end up as glorified techs instead of engineers? More then a few people with EE degrees never get an EE job.

An EE degree from Pen State would be my choice. You need good math skills to study EE. I am not sure how well you would do at Devry without the math. They will have a math program to get you up to speed but it may (or not) be a band-aid.

Regardless of where you study, if you can graduate in the top 10% (aprox) of your class you will have your pick of jobs. The others take what they can get.

I teach CS to students at our small local high school. If your school is anything like ours it would not be a bad idea to spend a year at the community collage improving your study skill and such prior to attending a university. It could make the diff between that top 10% and failure.

Best Wishes.

I'd like to add that ABET accredited is somewhat of a measure of how thorough & well rounded the coursework is. It is certainly a plus to have an ABET university on your resume at least for getting first REAL job

I am taking EE at University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. Very good program. I have heard that WPI is really hands on.

The biggest problem I can see with starting at a community college is that only some of the credits will transfer, and you will end up being in school longer no matter what, as the EE courses (at least at UMASSD) start in your first year, and most are pre-requisites for the next classes. So you may end up taking 5 or 6 years of school instead of 4.

EDIT: I know i will catch flak for this, but STAY AWAY FROM FEMALE TEACHERS! I am not being a bigot here, this is from experience. The female teachers in the English and other lib arts areas are complete...well you will find out. The engineering women are fine, its the liberal ones. I do not think they like men. Don't bash me on this I speak from experience. Get a male English teacher, 80% of them are awesome. Women here are uptight as hell.

"EDIT: I know i will catch flak for this, but STAY AWAY FROM FEMALE TEACHERS! I am not being a bigot here, this is from experience. The female teachers in the English and other lib arts areas are complete...well you will find out. The engineering women are fine, its the liberal ones. I do not think they like men. Don't bash me on this I speak from experience. Get a male English teacher, 80% of them are awesome. Women here are uptight as hell."

Wow, if that is fact then it's very good and valuable information to share. However if it's not fact and just opinion then you probably deserve any flak launched your direction....

Lefty

lol. So far, EVERY female teacher in the lib arts departments that I have had to take classes with (except one) has been a pain. I have no idea why, but that's how they are. And all of the male teachers I have had in lib arts are really nice. When I think back, I do not remember the female teachers smiling. ButI can remember every one of the male teachers smiles. They were always happy.

Ambient said:

lol. So far, EVERY female teacher in the lib arts departments that I have had to take classes with (except one) has been a pain. I have no idea why, but that's how they are. And all of the male teachers I have had in lib arts are really nice. When I think back, I do not remember the female teachers smiling. ButI can remember every one of the male teachers smiles. They were always happy.

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Sadly, I have had the same experience at my university.

Long: More advice regarding school

Ambient said:

The biggest problem I can see with starting at a community college is that only some of the credits will transfer, and you will end up being in school longer no matter what, as the EE courses (at least at UMASSD) start in your first year, and most are pre-requisites for the next classes. So you may end up taking 5 or 6 years of school instead of 4.

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From what the OP said below he needs to do some time at another institution to get into the EE program at Pen.

I have to goto to community college anyway to get in one year of math and one year of a foreign language, and of course the schools are fairly expensive.

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He should be able to find a collage that is connected to the U in such a way that all the credits will transfer.

Going to any U without proper prep is a bad idea. Better to spend a year getting ready at a collage if needed. You can kill enough other classes to make it worth while. Better to spend 5 years with good grades then fight to get it done in 4 with so so grades.

Since the OP is thinking grad degree (missed that on the first read) I would forget about Devry. Stay with the traditional public system.

Get the good grades which lead to scholarships. Put a real effort into finding out what scholarships are available at each level. Where I did my grad work the regents waved tuition for 4.0/4.0 students. Since you plan to be in school a long time it pays to stay away from the student loans if you can.

Remember that you are going to school for two reason. To learn and to get good grades. You need both.

It is easier to get good grades if you impress the profs at the start. You first few weeks with any give teacher is important. Once you have them convinced you know your stuff you will get the benifit of the doubt. This means that if you and joe average turn in the same work you will get the higher grade.

The other thing is to understand what the profs are looking for and how they test. Once you understand that it is a lot like having the test ahead of time because you know what will be on it.

Ah I misread that then. I just wanted to point out that some EE programs are structured so that you really cannot get it done in less than 4 years. Like here are UMASSD. There are not enough EE's per year to run every course every semester, and the classes before are usually a prerequisite, so it takes the whole 4 years. More if you scew up one of them like me . Luckily I was able to catch up and only have 1 extra semester.

It might be worth mentioning that a good EE school is more than just doing the coursework. In the better schools I think you get more exposure to, and contact with, peers who will eventually be the leaders in the industry. This kind of networking is quite important if you plan to lead your own company some day. It is important to realize that an engineering degree is more than just a ticket to a job, it is the gate key to getting inside the circles of power and creativity. A good school is also more likely to give you exposure to extracurricular activities with industry, like extra projects, favored placements in co-op or summer work, and various contacts with industry through professors and grad students. These things all contribute to a better launch into industry resulting in higher pay and more stimulating projects.

Ambient:
What semister/quarter did you take circuits 1.

I took it 3rd semester I believe. They required both calc 1 and 2 and some worthless introductory electrical course before circuits 1.

Oh, co-op, forgot about that. It is definitely good to do that. A friend of mine has a buddy who had a 4.0 and has a masters in EE, and he had a really hard time finding a job because he had no work experience. Co-op means an extra year at UMASSD, but it's worth it.

Thanks for all your replies. I also talked to teachers at my school, and a few people in the human resource departments of several companies. I am getting pretty mixed views on what route to take, but if I goto community college then to Penn State Beaver Campus it is only a 20 mile drive. Which, means of course I can live at home which compared with Devry will save $16,000 a year with room and board alone!

I am really grateful for all your posts, 3V0 my teachers also agree with your logic, if anyone else whats to post about this please do, I want as many diverse viewpoints as possible.

Thanks

Here are my thoughts: First a little background to make them relevant.

I have a BS and MS in EE, and working on my PhD in EE.

ABET accrediation is an ABSOLUTE must. Basically it makes your degree meaningful. Don't waste your time going anywhere that isn't accredited by ABET (non-US schools excluded, I have no idea what their accrediation standard is). Admittedly I don't know much about Devry, but in academic circles it isn't highly regarded. I see you listed Penn State, I actually know of a group that is doing similar work that we're doing in our research circles, Penn State is an excellent schools and highly regarded for EE.

Community colleges have their pluses and minuses, just a few pluses, the class sizes will be smaller, and the work not as challanging (which doubles as a huge minus), and tuition is noticably cheaper. Most of your math can be taken at a community college, just make sure before/if you choose to do this that the cirriculum is a good one, I've know a few people who did a lot of their core math work at a community college and struggled with the math when they changed to a university.

And employers definitely do care where your degree comes from, different schools turn out different qualities of engineers, and employer's definitely are aware of this. I do however find that the "where" becomes less important the further you go, by the time you're at the phd level they don't care about where you're at, they care about what you're doing/done.

If you choose to do graduate work, its not super important to get your degree from a "well-known" univeristy, but rather its far more important that the previous degree you earned was fairly rigorous otherwise it will be the highschool > college jump in degree of difficulty all over again. Generally speaking though, rigor and "good school" go hand in hand.

Also what kind of university you choose is very important. A practical/lab intensive BS degree won't come from a university that's primary focus is research, keep this in mind. Some schools have terribly lax lab sequence because their primary focus is grooming BS students for graduate work wherein knowing how to turn on an oscilloscope is not required.

Good luck if you have any further questions I'd be happy to help.

I started at a local community college before transfering to a state university. If you do go that route check with the registration office at the community college you will be attending. I was able to get a sheet that listed all courses that would directly transfer to the state university. It's different for different majors. Every class I took on that list transferred no questions asked. I had no interest in getting an associates degree and did not want to waste time taking classes that didn't count towards a bachelors.

Go to the state school and ask for the curriculum for the major you are interested in. This will you give you a list of courses and course numbers so you can cross reference with the sheet your community college gave you.

When I first started looking into going back to school I heard many stories from people not getting all there credits to transfer. It shouldn't be a problem for you as long as you contact both schools. I even sat down with a counselor at the state university before I started at the community college to discuss what my options were and to make sure I didn't make any mistakes. It all worked out very well.

Good Luck,

James

3iMaJ said:

And employers definitely do care where your degree comes from, different schools turn out different qualities of engineers, and employer's definitely are aware of this.

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In the UK it's blindingly obvious which are the better Universities, you just need to look at the entry qualifications required - the top ones (like Oxford and Cambridge) have exacting entry requirements - the lowest ones would prefer if you were actually breathing, but it's probably not essential!

And certainly employers DO care where your degree is from, and given the choice between two applicants, one with a degree from a good Uni, and one with a degree from a poor Uni, I don't think you need to think very hard who's likely to get the job!.

Best education and non english speaking teachers

My first summer out of high school I attended a nearby community collage to get the chemistry requirements out of the way. The instructor said this. It has merit but I do not buy it 100%.

If you want to get the best possible education always study at an institution that only grants the degree at the level you are currently studying.

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2 years at community collage
2 years at uni that does not offer masters
2 years at uni that does not offer doctorate
? years at unit hat offers doctorate

His point was that if you are seeking anything less then the highest degree granted by a school you will get short changed. In a school that grants masters degrees you will find the master degree candidates teaching undergrad classes. A school that only grants a BS will not have this problem.

One would have to be very carful regarding credit transfer and even then such a scheme might take longer then a more common route.

I do not intend to be racial here. Where I went to school we had advanced degree students from many parts of the world. Some spoke better english then others. Learning calc or physics from a teacher who does not speak good english makes it all the harder.

Nigel Goodwin said:

. . . . have exacting entry requirements - the lowest ones would prefer if you were actually breathing, but it's probably not essential!

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HA! That made me laugh... Good points though!

I called several universities and state colleges, and they said that they do not accept credits from Devry. My teacher made the point, if I get an Associate degree in EET(Electrical engineering Technology) at say Penn state, those credits will most likely transfer anywhere for a bachelors degree.

If you're ultimate goal is a Bachelor's degree, don't even bother with an Associate's degree. There is no point to the first degree once you get the second one.