Kettering University

Date: Jul 18 2004
Major: Electrical Engineering (This Major's Salary over time)
My own experience at Kettering has been extremely positive, however I was one of the few fortunate ones. I have an excellent co-op job, know enough faculty and staff to get what I want, and am in the upper quarter of students academically.

However, the school is EXTREMELY inconsistent. The same student could be taking the same course, during the same term, taught by different professors and receive entirely different grades. Some professors inflate grades beyond belief, and other professors make courses very difficult. Females, and african american students are heavily favored, many are passed with excellent grades when they should have failed the course. Scholarships are also the same, in the sense that females with a few resume padders are given incredible scholarships, however the lucky caucasian males are awarded very little based on merit. I speak from experience, having earned a 94% and 96% average one year with 20 credit hours (16/20 were engineering courses) and was still passed up for an academic scholarship that year.

Come time for the job search, the school only helps the superstars. My advice is to require the school begin looking for a job before you enroll, and make it CLEAR to them you will pull out (have other school's lined up) if you do not find a co-op job. If you are a good enough student, they will literally cater to you, and help you out. Otherwise you are on your own. Once you're enrolled at Kettering the corporate relations people are not very helpful.

Crime in the area sucks, and the school is not doing very much about it. One example: The school put up barbed wire and razor wire around the BACK of the apartment complex across from the university. However, it refuses to put up barbed wire at the front (read: where potential students visit) so all the thiefs simply climb over the fence at the front to break into your car. Personally I feel potential students would feel much safer if they saw Kettering putting up barbed wire all around a complex. It's obviously that barbed wire is needed, why stop at the front? That's just one example of man.

The school's administration rarely makes decisions that make sense or is logical from the student's perspective. I will leave it at that. Just trust me on this one.

Without going into detail, the school knows how to tweak the college ratings and look good on paper. The actual education is questionable. The computer engineering degree is a joke (computers are barely mentioned, you will end up being weaker in analog than the EE's and weaker in the programming than the CS's). if you are considering a EE or a CE degree consider looking at University of Illinois (Urbana Champaign), University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), University of California (Berkeley or San Diego), Purdue, Cornell, or MIT depending on where you can get accepted. Those all have stronger EE / CE programs than Kettering does.

To make matters worse, the education at Kettering is overpriced. They are charging ivy league prices, and this is by no means an ivy league. For that amount of money, pay out of state fees at Urbana Champaign or Berkely. You will get far better education, and get to live in a far better city.

Again, my experiences have been excellent. However, I am one of the lucky few who ended up with a great job, will graduate with no debt, and good work experience. However, I see a lot of smart students around me who do not have jobs, the douche smoozers getting higher grades than the kids who do the actual work, and the education alone is not that great. Much of one's experience depends on the co-op, so if you are still going to come here, make sure you find the perfect co-op job.