If I were wanting to become an electrical engineer would it be best if I got a BSEE degree?
Sep 3, 2013 at 3:50 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 39

Double-A

Formerly known as KingOfTheWild.
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Hello, I was wondering if any of you head-fiers live in a country that has a good education system. I live in the United States of America and over here in the U.S. we don't exactly have the best education system. I am considering going to college in a foreign country but do not know which countries have good education systems and which ones do not.
 
P.S.: If you do not feel comfortable with giving away which country you live in to a complete stranger, that is alright . . .  obviously you do not have to tell me where you live if you don't want to.
 
Update 10/3/2013: I now have a new question that needs answering that differs from what I wanted to know in my original post. Please refer to post #37.
 
Sep 3, 2013 at 8:25 AM Post #2 of 39
Huh! I dunno what you plan to major in but Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Caltech, University Of Chicago, Princeton, Nortwestern University, Stanford, University Of California at Berkley, Yale University and many more are some of the best schools in the US if not the world. In Canada, two that I know of are University Of Waterloo and McGill University, I'm sure there are more. In England, off the top of my head are Oxford and Cambridge.
 
Sep 3, 2013 at 12:13 PM Post #3 of 39
What an interesting post. Granted the public education system in the US is not the greatest in the world. There are many excellent opportunities for a student to take advanced classes to further their high school education. I am unfamiliar with every public school system in the US but to the best of my knowledge all offer advanced classes in science and mathematics plus foreign languages. Many of these classes are collage accredited.
 
Many of the universities wuwhere mentioned are listed as the top schools, worldwide. The first hit on my favorite search engine came up with this ranking.
 
http://www.usnews.com/education/worlds-best-universities-rankings/top-400-universities-in-the-world
 
With all due respect, I don't understand the OP's perspective.
 
Sep 3, 2013 at 1:39 PM Post #4 of 39
  Huh! I dunno what you plan to major in but Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Caltech, University Of Chicago, Princeton, Nortwestern University, Stanford, University Of California at Berkley, Yale University and many more are some of the best schools in the US if not the world. In Canada, two that I know of are University Of Waterloo and McGill University, I'm sure there are more. In England, off the top of my head are Oxford and Cambridge.


I want to become an acoustical engineer and, as far as I know, none of the schools you mentioned have programs for people that seek to become acoustical engineers. At least, they don't have programs for people that seek to become acoustical engineers that are accredited by ABET and, according to my dad, if you are entering into any sort of engineering program you want it to be accredited by them. I have been considering going to the University of Hartford as they have an acoustical engineering program that is accredited by ABET but I figured the education system up to this point in my life has sucked butt so the education provided by the universities here in America probably would as well.
 
EDIT: Although, when I search for the University of Hartford using DuckDuckGo, there is a little bit of info about the school above the search results and in that info it says that U of H is a private university. This makes me think that maybe the education provided by that specific school doesn't suck.
 
EDIT: I forgot to mention that I might also enter a business program as well once I've secured a job as an acoustical engineer and I'm making a steady income. Why do you ask? I sometimes daydream about running a jazz club on the side and I want to make sure that I am a competent business owner. In my dream jazz club, I host live performances from local small-time musicians that I happen to record . . . binaurally
cool.gif
. I then proceed to sell said recordings at the jazz club and give some of the proceeds to the musicians and some of the proceeds to myself.
 
Sep 3, 2013 at 2:16 PM Post #5 of 39
I guess you should have mentioned that (acoustical engineering) in your first post.
 
How about Penn State University? They have a masters program in acoustical engineering. You can inquire them if they are ABET accredited.
 
http://www.acs.psu.edu/
 
The US Naval Academy would probably have acoustical engineering program also, again it would be a graduate program.
 
Purdue University may also have a graduate program in acoustics.
 
Also, ABET is a USA accreditation organization. Therefore there criteria would be mostly based on USA engineering programs. But they have this http://www.abet.org/accreditation-outside-us/
 
Sep 3, 2013 at 3:33 PM Post #6 of 39
Quote:
I guess you should have mentioned that (acoustical engineering) in your first post.
 
How about Penn State University? They have a masters program in acoustical engineering. You can inquire them if they are ABET accredited.
 
http://www.acs.psu.edu/
 
The US Naval Academy would probably have acoustical engineering program also, again it would be a graduate program.
 
Purdue University may also have a graduate program in acoustics.
 
Also, ABET is a USA accreditation organization. Therefore there criteria would be mostly based on USA engineering programs. But they have this http://www.abet.org/accreditation-outside-us/


Yeah, you're right, I probably should have. Also, I want to enter an under-graduate acoustical engineering program like what the University of Hartford offers so the Penn State program wouldn't work out for me (again, something I probably should've mentioned in my original post, my apologies). I used the 'Accredited Program Search' function on ABET's website to see if either the USNA or Purdue University had an acoustical engineering program accredited by ABET and neither of them did.
 
Sep 3, 2013 at 3:51 PM Post #7 of 39
I'm in Canada, and we're the most educated country in the world. That doesn't mean we have the best education system, it just means more Canadians go to university than any other country. And education system usually means public education, up to high school. The USA has most of the best universities in the world so I don't think you need to go international. If you're looking to do something technical in your undergrad before doing a postgrad in audio engineering, consider MIT?
 
Sep 3, 2013 at 4:24 PM Post #8 of 39
Check this out at Purdue University. Undergraduate program, the ABET-accredited Multidisciplinary Engineering (MDE), which the Acoustical Engineering is one, is offered.
 
https://engineering.purdue.edu/ENE/Academics/Undergrad
 
Sep 3, 2013 at 4:49 PM Post #9 of 39
Purdue Acoustical engineering program is actually pretty good. They even have a recording studio and allocate free hours for students taking acoustical classes. I am electrical but have taken some acoustical classes for fun. 
 
Sep 3, 2013 at 5:37 PM Post #10 of 39
  Check this out at Purdue University. Undergraduate program, the ABET-accredited Multidisciplinary Engineering (MDE), which the Acoustical Engineering is one, is offered.
 
https://engineering.purdue.edu/ENE/Academics/Undergrad

I saw this program when I used the search function on ABET's website but I dismissed it as I thought it sounded like a program where you would be taught basic engineering stuff that could be applied to any engineering application rather than advanced engineering knowledge that could be applied to a specific application (the designing of high end audio equipment in my case). However, after clicking on the link you posted and reading the contents of the page I have seen that this is not the case. This program actually looks better suited for me than the one offered by the University of Hartford . . . mainly due to the fact that the price of attending Purdue University would be much easier for me to pay than the price of attending the University of Hartford. Thanks a whole lot for helping me with this matter wuwhere . . . you have been a bigger help than you can possibly imagine.
 
Sep 3, 2013 at 10:05 PM Post #12 of 39
  Hello, I was wondering if any of you head-fiers live in a country that has a good education system. I live in the United States of America and over here in the U.S. we don't exactly have the best education system. I am considering going to college in a foreign country but do not know which countries have good education systems and which ones do not. I just hope that if I do end up going to a foreign country with a good education system I won't be too stupid to perform well in school because of the sub-par education I have received thus far here in America
tongue.gif
.
 
P.S.: If you do not feel comfortable with giving away which country you live in to a complete stranger, that is alright . . .  obviously you do not have to tell me where you live if you don't want to.

 
The grass always looks greener on the other side.
biggrin.gif

 
Sep 4, 2013 at 6:53 AM Post #13 of 39
  Hello, I was wondering if any of you head-fiers live in a country that has a good education system. I live in the United States of America and over here in the U.S. we don't exactly have the best education system. I am considering going to college in a foreign country but do not know which countries have good education systems and which ones do not. I just hope that if I do end up going to a foreign country with a good education system I won't be too stupid to perform well in school because of the sub-par education I have received thus far here in America
tongue.gif
.
 
P.S.: If you do not feel comfortable with giving away which country you live in to a complete stranger, that is alright . . .  obviously you do not have to tell me where you live if you don't want to.

 
If your parents can afford sending you to college, consider instead going to the Philippines. We have a lot of people doing that to avoid the high costs in the US (it's not really bad overall, but getting into the good universities is expensive as hell), and a lot of Iranians taking nursing and medicine, also Koreans taking a bunch of other programs; the trade-off is your parents will have to pay for everything (as some in the US might not be used to) because taking an average of 18 to 24 units per semester means working is impossible unless you dance naked for a living then meet an...errr...education-inclined sugar daddy/mommy. Our public system is mostly crap up to high school prior to the current administration, true, but our colleges are good without forcing you into a mind-spinning cram school lifestyle. Don't misinterpret that though -  just because you see people drinking often doesn't mean "slacking off" is always a good idea given schools drop you if you have one failing grade in consecutive semesters, you're just free enough to manage your time. We've gone drinking with our textbooks open on the table preparing for oral exams in philosophy and theology, for example; and other times we've started drinking (and binge-eating) in a local pub as early as 4PM, basically ending up there right after a three-hour Calculus final exam.
 
Good private universities are mostly Catholic (or other sects, like the Methodists; few are non-sectarian), and will require a lot of liberal arts classes - in the Jesuit school I attended we all (regardless of whether you're taking Nuclear Physics or Engineering) had to take 12 units of Philosophy, 12 units of Theology, 12 units of English plus 6 units of "Filipino"* (writing and literature; new K-12 system might do away with this in a few years) and up to 6 units of your choice of a third language (somewhat in order of popularity - Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, French, German, Bahasa, and now Korean) plus freakin' Calculus and other math where the studious Chinese girls' grades will make you feel like an idiot (I did, until about junior year when I used Calculus for a political philosophy class, which my professor said was the first time that happened). Still, for about $4,000+ a year for the tuition fees in the more expensive Catholic schools for foreign students (plus maybe $600/sem for the dorm, or you can rent a studio flat in nearby high-rise apartments; meals can often be $5 each and that's using fatty but not processed meats), you can just attend a US university for your MA/MBA degree later on; if you qualify, some schools have five-year programs that count as an MA degree. The real problem is that the best schools have entrance exams to make it easier for them to filter out applicants, and application forms are released over the dry season break (April to maybe mid-June, throughout the first semester), with the exams taking place until December depending on the school. Expect ****ty traffic with up to 70,000 hopefuls (and that's probably  just in the Manila campus) taking the exam for the main state-owned university. In all honesty, I wasn't really aware of how much our schools are known outside of the country until my brother's boss in the US was overheard bragging to his business partner that he managed to hire someone from our school. If you attend this and the like, make sure you can write well - Professors can get pissed with bad grammar (they'd excuse you for Tagalog, obviously, but are extra harsh with everyone's English) enough to fail your paper or exam just on that.
 
Safety around our metro areas isn't bad, just don't look like a naive idiot, and steer clear of places that generally for the US would be like getting into places like East LA or some areas around Detroit (we have gang drug stabbings in place of the Cadillac drive-by shootings). Honestly, unless you're the type to poke around everywhere with a rangefinder camera (meaning urban decay is interesting for your photography) or drinking in really bad places with questionable people, you aren't likely to just stumble into these places. Philosophy/Theology classes in Catholic schools might require trips there, even sleeping overnight, but these are chosen by the Dept and your professors are there the whole time. Train lines are built near most of the universities, but they stop after 10PM, so plan your trips accordingly. If you want to eat street food, don't eat anywhere the students don't eat in - if one stall is popular among students, that's an indicator they haven't gotten anyone sick; our 7/11's (and similar) have sushi but personally I'd avoid that - get the Chinese steamed buns or the hot dogs if you need a quick meal (expect classmates to tell your they're made of cat meat and kangaroo meat, respectively). Depending on which school you go to, you might also have nicer restaurants nearby serving pure beef burgers, pulled brisket sandwiches, Thai and Italian food, etc; pubs range from cheap places serving fatty beer food on sizzling plates, to some places popular with the artsy or socialist students.
 
Humidity can be really bad on some months, so shower at least twice a day (before stepping out and before going to sleep, if you have phys ed class make sure you don't have a class right after it so you can shower first) - we've had Europeans not understanding the consequences of this until someone nice enough sits them down to talk to them about it. Be aware that good-looking foreigners can have a lot of people hitting on them; for guys specifically, it could be worse - strangers, mostly loud gay guys, on the street jokingly harassing with suggestive comments about eating bananas. It's very rarely the sort that develops into physical assault, but grow a thick skin or you'd be the one physically assaulting these annoying (but otherwise hilarious) pricks. For the girls, avoid shorts that show part of your buttcheeks for hygiene's sake - some kid could have stomped on that seat in McDonald's and you have no idea where his shoes have been (think of Paris' poodle poop problem up until a few years ago, then imagine that with our mogrel dingos and huge-ass guard dogs - nicer areas obviously won't have this problem). One last thing - if you date anyone, unless the parents are in another province, you'd have to meet them sooner than you might be used to - parents prefer meeting whoever their kids are going out with; heck, expect that when you go have beer at someone's house, the Mom might cook dinner/beer food (or Dad manning the grill), so always warmly say hello (bow your head a bit but don't do it as much as in mainland Asia) and mind your vocabulary in their presence.
 

*It's actually Manila Tagalog, which for some bizarre reason even politicians from Cebu supported decades ago to becoming a lot more than Mandarin is to the Chinese, precisely by going as far as calling it "Filipino." As can be expected, with some people from Cebu, communicating with English can be smoother as some (understandably) resent the whole idea. A lot of people from Manila also think calling it Filipino was dumb, except you can have "nationalists" from freaking everywhere chest-thumping when you bring up such "idealist, unpatriotic, liberal crap" (not their exact words but that's basically what they amount to).
 
Sep 5, 2013 at 6:47 AM Post #15 of 39
  Yeah, my parents are not going to be able to pay for my college education. Thank you for the suggestion though.

 
You might not be able to study abroad then; I'm not aware of any country that issues student visas allowing off-campus jobs other than Australia, but AFAIK, that's for those taking MS/MA/MBA degrees.
 

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