Comments on: Texas A&M Best School in US

By: JGsez

JGsez — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 06:26:18 +0000

Having a BS in Aerospace Engineering from a state university with over 30 years of experience, and having worked with many graduates of elite and prestigious universities, I have found them to be very bright and great at theory. I would not however hire them to design a commercial product or a user interface for a computer program. In fact, the best digital design engineer (solved a problem for Intel), the best electro-mechanical design engineer (designed a cell base station that exceeded earthquake, heat, cold, and sand storm requirements that cost half as much as COTS equipment), and the best mechanical engineer (designed a production line that doubled productivity and saved the jobs of 500 people) I've ever worked with, did not even have degrees.

I would like to see a rating by employers. Which schools have graduates that can earn their pay within six months? Those are the universities where I want to do my recruiting. Any university that can make you ready to earn your pay within six months of graduation while also preparing you for an advanced degree, is going to be a tough school with a very full curriculum. But you will always be able to find a job.

By: Joel

Joel — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 19:11:32 +0000

Obviously if people had the choice of going to Harvard over Texas A&M they would (although it would be a tough choice for me [whoop!]), and both ranking systems leave much to be desired, but it's nice to see an alternative out there. Maybe the best idea would be to average the two scores and see which school comes out on top.

oh well... Gig 'em Aggies!

By: Chris Lawrence

Chris Lawrence — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 23:37:49 +0000

The last criterion on which anyone should be awarding prestige to universities is the number of unemployable-anywhere-but-Starbucks PhDs they can churn out. I dare say A&M's English and history PhDs place out at a much lower rate than Harvard's.

And I expect approximately zero Washington Monthly readers will send their kids to A&M in preference to Harvard, making this an even more egregious "better for thee, but not for me" exercise than most that come out of the liberal pantheon.

By: jeff b

jeff b — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 21:18:17 +0000

Gig 'Em, Ags.

By: Hoodlumman

Hoodlumman — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 17:53:23 +0000

Vick went to Virginia Tech.

By: LaurenceB

LaurenceB — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 17:00:30 +0000

As the father of four boys of college age, I suspect my best guide to colleges (to avoid) may be the Princeton Review's list of Best Party Schools. If you want your kid to get an education, don't send him to West Virginia.

The alma mater of Michael Vick.

Coincidence?

By: markm

markm — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 16:35:58 +0000

...too bad it's a PDF...did you know PDF's really suck???

By: Hoodlumman

Hoodlumman — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 16:30:20 +0000

Gig 'em!