Re:Ask HN: Did my poor choice in higher education hurt my ca...
by rdl on Saturday May 28, 2011 @07:56PM
(#2595491)
I really wouldn't worry if you're at Virginia Tech; it's not MIT/Stanford/CMU but for ECE I'd say it's in the top 10 and definitely top 20.
You should do the same thing someone at Stanford would do to be as impressive as possible -- independent projects, maybe try to do a startup, open source, etc.
I think the difference between MIT and Virginia Tech, at least for undergrad, is that the 50th percentile MIT student is going to probably be better than the 50th percentile Virginia Tech student; the 95th percentile at each is going to be very good. Just make sure you're one of the best graduates and anyone reasonable will evaluate you on your merits.
You should do the same thing someone at Stanford would do to be as impressive as possible -- independent projects, maybe try to do a startup, open source, etc.
I think the difference between MIT and Virginia Tech, at least for undergrad, is that the 50th percentile MIT student is going to probably be better than the 50th percentile Virginia Tech student; the 95th percentile at each is going to be very good. Just make sure you're one of the best graduates and anyone reasonable will evaluate you on your merits.