Which is more valuable, a degree in computer engineering from the
University of Arizona at Tucson or the same degree from the University
of Nevada at Las Vegas and why?

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Request for Question Clarification by czh-ga on 25 Apr 2003 13:10 PDT

Hello notekie-ga,

I started researching this question a couple of days ago. I thought
that I could easily find some articles or reports on the track records
of graduates from these schools but nothing popped out. Neither school
claims anything significant or special about their program on their
website. My initial impression was that the schools would be somewhere
in the middle on a ranking scale and I gave up on answering your
question because I didn’t know what to look for.

I’d be happy to continue with the research if you can give me the
criteria you want to use for making the degree “more valuable” in your
comparison. Please tell me more about what you know about the two
schools and whose opinion you care about in evaluating them. The more
information you can share, the more likely that I can find what you
need. Thanks.

czh

PS: Please let me know if this would be an acceptable answer to your
other question and I'll post it there. Thanks again.

Note to Researchers - If you answer this question, also see this one:
http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=195374

- Hammer

My kid has been accepted to the Computer Engineering program at both
schools.  I just want to know if there is any evidence around
indicating that one school is better than the other. I would like to
leave the question open a few more days. Thanks.

There are a couple of problems with giving an answer to this question
- researchers are reluctant to answer a question where there seems to
be a reasonable chance that the answer will be rejected.  I think a
problem here is what we mean by 'value'.  The true answer requires us
to make a prediction about lifetime earnings - but this extends into
the future.

Another difficulty is that the 'value' is the increase in earnings
from someone who did the program, compared with someone who didn't -
all sorts of other things might sneak in here, to make a difference.

Finally, the distribution of salary tends to be highly skewed.  If
Bill Gates had attended one of these schools, it almost wouldn't
matter what all of the other people on the course did - the one Gates
went to would seem better.

If you were to phrase your question to ask "Is there any evidence that
one of these courses is better than the other", or "What advice would
you give to someone who had to choose between these courses" you might
have a better chance of an answer.

I hope that this helps,

jeremymiles-ga (Google Answers Researcher)