How good is the University of Florida for Mechanical Engineering?

I am an engineer at the University of Florida. I am working on a dissertation in medical devices and clinical trials. The university falls in the class of "public Ivy" with prestige similar to Cal-Berkeley, Texas, Virginia, UW at Seattle, or Michigan. It has a huge amount of research activities and funding, especially for engineering. The courses are rigorous, and the academic standards for admission and grades are high. But it's also a fun university with a lot of social activities, a community or "the Gator Nation", and many research opportunities of your choice. UF is the "flagship" university of the state. The highest in-state ranked law school, medical school, and engineering school are at UF. So for a public university it's great. The winter weather is great. There is no "Lake Effect" snow like in the upper midwest.

There are schools that are ranked higher academically, but they are ridiculously expensive and don't have the social aspects with an athletic tradition. UF is multi-dimensional with prestige in both sports and academics. By contrast, Harvard, MIT, and Johns Hopkins are more prestigious academically in terms of ranking (which is subjective) but those Ivy League schools are private and don't have the athletic or social depth of UF or other public Ivy schools. UF is great.

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To be fair, there is nothing wrong with doing an undergraduate or master's at UF and then going to MIT or Georgia Tech for a PhD or law degree (or vice versa). In a tough economy, it's best to diversify your academic credentials. I did, and it works. I went to undergraduate school in the midwest and got a master's in the pac-10. I now am at UF for a dissertation.

As for the field of mechanical engineering, I'd recommend doing internships and understanding regulations like ISO-9001, FDA, Defense Regulations, or any other quality assurance protocols. I'd also recommend learning to collaborate with machinists, technicians, or other team members. Communication in verbal or written form are important. If you are good at physics, calculus, and computer simulation models, then mechanical engineering should be great. You'll probably run across ASTM standards at some point in your career.

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Just understand that engineering is a hard major and requires a lot of work. It's final exam week at UF, and many students are extremely busy. As an older graduate student, I'm used to it though. Also look into applications of mechanical engineering to medical devices like prosthetic limbs, devices for handicapped people, surgical robotics, etc. There is strong demand.

Go to www.dice.com and type in mechanical engineering. Dice is one of the main search engines for engineering jobs. I used it many times and got multiple jobs over the years across the country. I've worked in the SF Bay Area and here in FL. Just know that engineers tend to move around.

http://www.dice.com/

Mechanical Engineering Uf

Florida is a better engineering school than Harvard or Yale (but then, so is U of N Dakota!). It is probably in the same league as Princeton and Cornell. Do not waste your money on an engineering degree from an Ivy League school. In Engineering, they are nothing special.

Engineering is an exception to any rule about prestige and cost of tuition. ANY accredited engineering school is as good and acceptable as another as far as employers or the quality of the degree, unless you have your heart set on grad school, and grad school in the US in engineering is only of value for these uses: 1) you want to teach at college/university level, 2) you want a lab/R&D job with a National Lab or some/many technology companies, 3) when you graduated with the BS, the economy is bad, and you can wait out the downturn for a couple of years working on an MS (which won't usually pay for itself, but since you can't get a job under those circumstances, you aren't earning much anyway). If you really find you want a job that might use a grad degree, any school to get a BS is OK, and U of Fl is better than most.

Uf Mechanical Engineering

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How good is the University of Florida for Mechanical Engineering?

I want to study Mechanical Engineering at the University of Florida. However, i am unsure about its prestige. can you please tell me it's prestige, ranking, perks of going to the University of Florida over Ivy league schools and other colleges, and can i get my doctorate there? would it be...

I would put Embry at #1. To really get the best answer, ask those who look for employees in the various disciplines that these schools prepare students for. A good place to start would be to ask the state employment office for help. People who's job it is to find employer's people to fill their positions have the best resources to know, on average, which schools do the best job of preparing students to do a job.