College for Mechanical Engineering?

[Barbarossa]

Have to put Chico State into the ring.

They have a great program that is more hands on than other schools.
Having some ability to build what you design, or design for the builder is helpful.

[Jeepergeo]

Seriously?! If your kid can't figure this stuff out on her own by now, maybe you ought to nudge her towards a degree in Women's Studies or Puerto Rican Dance Theory.

Jeeze, he's just a dad trying to help out his daughter.

[DrunkN_MastR]

I work in an engineering department at a company close to Long Beach. Our company designs and builds CNC machinery, and we happen to be hiring for a CAD draftperson right now. They often hire ME students working towards getting their degree, as long as they're familiar with Solidworks or any of the other common programs. If interested, shoot me a PM for more info.

[caver.257]

Mechanical engineer here. It depends on where she wanted to go and what she wants to do. UC's are more theory based, CSU's are more application based. I went to SFSU and got a job a month out of college. M.E. is a major field where you can go into manufacturing engineer, Aerospace, HVAC, fire suppression (big ticket. I toured behind the scenes at the Acedemy of Science SF and the main engineer there basically said that every time he calls his F.S. company he's out ~$30k or so. Might be an exaggeration...), Etc. She should figure out what she wants to get into and then GET AN INTERNSHIP. Internships are about the most important thing an engineering student needs to do. Companies give less ****s about your gpa (for the most part) vs how you can handle yourself in a professional environment. Trust me on this. An internship cannot be stressed enough.

[herman1]

About to be a 4th year Mechanical Engineering student at UC Santa Barbara. At least for this school, if you transfer to here, you will probably have to take another year for the classes that you have to retake/missed. (So if you transfer, expect another 3 years of school here)

If you're into theoretical stuff this school is ok. (obviously were not UCSD,LA,Berkeley,etc). If you want more hands on experience, I hear from friends that Cal Poly SLO is great for that (and it costs less). We do have one small machine shop class and a CNC class.

From talking with my other mechanical engineering friends, most their internships consist of CAD. I'm interning at a Aerospace company in Los Angeles, and all I do is CAD. I can tell you it is monotonous and I pray to jesus I get to do more than this when I actually graduate.