West coast of the US is not only known for its beautiful beaches, rugged mountains, Ski slopes in the winter, now number of wild fires during the hot days but also a number of universities in the three states of Washington, Oregon and California.
Today, I would like to discuss a few engineering colleges on the west coast that every engineering student should explore and include a few of them as part of their college list either for undergraduate or graduate engineering programs. These colleges have good reputation, strong academic programs, research opportunities and experienced faculty.
Lets start from the northwest of the country from Washington State:
A few of the few universities to explore in Northwest are Univ. of Washington at Seattle, Washington State University (WSU) at Pullman, Univ. of Oregon and Oregon State University. All these universities are located in the beautiful northwest, a little rainy but with tons of outdoor adventure opportunities and job opportunities in Seattle and Portland after graduation. If you are a sports buff, many of these universities have a good sports program in US college football and basketball. All these universities have a number of International students and have always been one of the favorite graduate programs for students from the I.I.Ts and the Regional engineering colleges in India.
Now moving towards Northern California or bay area:
You have the famous universities like Stanford and UC Berkeley. Both of them have top notch engineering programs but highly competitive and tough to get into unless you are in the top 5% of your graduating class. A few others to evaluate are Santa Clara University in bay area and San Jose State Univ. in San Jose. Both these universities are good value and option especially with tons of jobs with silicon valley companies that may be open to hiring International students. Two other universities worth mentioning are UC Santa Cruz and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, again with beautiful campuses, close to beach and proximity to bay area. Another one is UC Davis, located between Bay Area and Sacramento.
Going further south towards Los Angeles:
You have an abundance of college choices from the most competitive like UCLA, USC to the smaller colleges such as Caltech and Harvey Mudd. Not to mention some of the other well known UC campuses such as UC San Diego, UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara. All these colleges not only provide good education, a good job prospect after graduation but beautiful campuses and close beach proximity for fun and sun.
If you are not one of the students who is in the top 20-25% of your current college or high school batch, maybe you explore a degree in one of the campuses of California State University or look at UC Riverside. CSUs have lower cost of education and can be a great fit for someone who wants to manage the college expense but still get an engineering degree, learn and find a job at thousands of companies based in California.
Most of the universities in California have a strong engineering and science program given the close association between silicon valley companies and the universities, professors and research. In fact, many of these universities, especially Stanford and UC Berkeley, have been instrumental in the growth of valley and innovation.
In summary, there are too many options of engineering colleges on the west coast for every student and budget. It is a matter of shortlisting these universities based on your profile, GPA and interests.
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