Re: Career Question- State School vs. Big Private
I am an engineer and I graduated from Penn State.
From my experience, it appears that most companies (hiring for engineering jobs) don't care too much about where you went to school. Many companies will not even look at you if you don't have at least a 3.0 GPA. The company I work for makes it tougher to get an interview if you don't have a 3.0. They don't pay differently based on the school.
If you want to go to grad school, having a better GPA is better than the school you chose. If you think you can get better grades at a state school, then I would switch. You'll save money too. Also I am pretty sure more companies recruit engineers from Penn State than Cornell. Chances of getting a job could be higher by going to a state school.
I don't think switching will have as much an impact on your GPA as you might think though. For the early engineering classes, I imagine they ask pretty much the same questions on math and physics tests. Its not like Calculus changes from school to school. I suppose if the tests are really hard, the curving could be different if you are smarter compared to your peers.
Whatever you do, concentrate on getting better grades. If you have to take some extra easy credits to bring up the grades.
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