The reason this is posted on HN is because Google doesn't seem to understand this query. Google comes up with entries such as "The 25 most affordable Engineering schools" or "The 50 best Engineering degree programs". If the cheapest "value" on these lists is around $12,000/yr, then that might be considered affordable by some people -- but I'm looking for the absolute cheapest. Please post if you know of an EE program in the U.S. or elsewhere that costs less than $12K/yr. I'm guessing people are afraid to post, because their answer might turn out to be "incorrect" by virtue of other posters posting yet cheaper alternatives. But please post! No answer is wrong for this! I'm just curious what the options are...
You literally want the cheapest degree possible? No consideration for value or quality whatsoever?
You can probably find some institution somewhere in the world which will give you a degree that is legal according to their local laws for $5 and no time. Is that what you want?
But even cheaper than that in terms of money would be free via a full scholarship, which you can get any many institutions if you're good enough. But then that costs you a lot of time.
I'm not looking for a piece of paper, no. I'm looking for a hands-on learning experience with competent instructors, and the collegiality of classmates. The instructors don't have to be Harvard or MIT grade (note that electrons will still flow in the ways electrons flow regardless of if I learn those ways from a Harvard or MIT Professor, or someone else). I'm just a value shopper for education, nothing more, nothing less. Thus far I think the responses to this query have been fascinating and tremendously useful! But no, I don't want a $5, no time, no learning degree. That would defeat my purpose, which is to learn EE fully and thoroughly, not necessarily to get a job in EE...
You can arguably learn more about the practice of EE from Dave Jones' YouTube channel, or local hardware Meetups, or "The Amp Hour" than college classes. And those are free.
And go spend a couple of hundred bucks on Horowitz and Hill (2nd or 3rd Ed.) if you want to learn about analog. That's a good bang for the buck.
In the traditional path, your best bet will be spending your last two years at an abet accredited state school that is teaching focused, not research focused.
The "practice of EE" and an actual EE education are not the same thing.
An example: this morning I was thinking of a model where I need to open and close a door when a sensor is activated. The simplest way would be for it to pivot on a horizontal axis like an old-school garage door. Now, given a certain weight of door, how do I calculate the amount of torque my motor/drive-train needs in order to open that door?
The average graduate with an EE degree should have no trouble getting the answer in a few minutes: it's basic physics and algebra (maybe calculus if you want precision). But the average person who learned EE from watching YouTube channels probably will have difficulty.
For the US, it looks like community college and the different military approaches are covered well. As are some foreign options (minus details of getting in from outside the country). You can also take your time, co-op a bunch, and end up with little out of pocket.
If you are still a high school student, and have a knack for tests, then the PSAT might still the most important test you'll ever take.
20 years ago I was a national merit scholar as a result of the PSAT, and that provided me multiple full-ride scholarship options for engineering.
And yes, it is ridiculous that a computer test you take at 17 can have such a disproportionate outcome, but that was the case, and very well may still be.
It might depend on the program (and private universities are not free for Germans either), but I know Chinese nationals at TU Berlin who're not paying any extra fees.
Education is free in Germany. If all courses in the degree are offered in English, you won't even have to learn German. You'll have to bear costs associated to moving here, of course.
As a ballpark for expenses: I know people paying well under €300 per month for rent in smaller cities. €2/day lunch at university is possible (though not necessarily tasty).
Brazil: it's free and extremely high quality if you go to a place like USP, Unicamp or ITA. You didn't specify the language :) these places are hard to get into though; it's common for people to spend 3+ years studying so they can get approved in one of those.
But the actual costs are very low. A few hundred dollars a semester. I can't find the one for EE bachelors but here are some ballpark figures for comparative programs:
I spent a few months in Darmstadt. Agree about all the positives you mentioned. One negative I want to add is that relatively few people speak English.
Sorry, I don't remember anymore. It was a scholarship called WISE, but I'm unsure what type of work permit I got, etc. If I can hunt down my old passport I'll check
Yeah looks like they are not doing EE actually. For the degree part, I assumed the point of getting a degree is to find a job. Even though there is no formal degree with this school, you won't have any troubles finding a job.
If your goal is to be employed and anywhere will do this might be true but if you’re seeking a specific job, like research scientist, then you’ll have trouble (not impossible but very difficult) finding that job without a degree.
>DOES 42 DELIVER A BACHELOR’S DEGREE OR ANOTHER TYPE OF DIPLOMA?
>42 does not grant degrees or diplomas. Our program is based on levels of experience that you earn with a project. We deliver a certificate of completion at the end of our program. The experience and skills that you acquire while studying at 42 are essential for technical job interviews, and 42 has a strong reputation and connections to industry.
(This is a US centric reply, I can't help as much if you are not in the US)
So a couple of question to pose first:
- Can you live at home? If so, do you plan on living at home?
- Are you looking for scholarships?
- Are you working while at school?
- Why are you going for absolute cheapest? Why not best value?
I ask these because they are important questions that will shape what you look for.
I hesitate to say "cheapest" because like many other things, you will get what you pay for. If you go to a crappy college that does not have any prospects of getting you a EE job, then you just wasted a lot of money. I think best value is looking into a 2-year community college that will transfer to a state school in state. Make sure the in state school is a decent engineering school, and it has partnerships with engineering companies. Those schools are generally "feeders" into companies, and will offer internships and jobs after college.
Housing is not a negligible cost either. If living at home is an option (understandably, it may not be), that will also save a lot of money as well. If that is not an option, you will likely have to work while in school to keep costs down. I personally worked as a Resident Assistant and I got free room, board, and a food allowance. But you can also find paid internships during the year that are full time in the summer that will defer costs. My brother did that, and was offered a full time job at a major company afterwards.
On the other hand, there are scholarships as well. I know that many government jobs offer full ride scholarships in exchange for working for then for x years afterwards (usually 4 years). ROTC will not only give you a scholarship, but will offer subsidies as well.
The best piece of this post is hidden in a sentence in the middle, and I wanted to call it out:
If cost is an issue, go to a community college BEFORE going to a 4-year engineering school. Community colleges are a fraction of the price of a university.
Any EE degree is going to require a significant investment in calculus, some diff eq, linear algebra, chemistry, physics, and likely some humanities.
With some clever coursework you can do ~2 years of full time EE coursework at a community college.
I'd second this advice if budget is the main driver. To add on to what you said, if you're on an engineering track, your first two years are more or less the same wherever you go anyway. And as an added bonus, if you didn't do exceptionally well in high school, getting good grades at community college can make it easier to transfer into a more competitive state school for your third and fourth years.
If it's an ABET accredited program, there's a limit to how crappy it can be.
Most companies don't care where you went as long as it's ABET accredited. Sure going to a well known school doesn't hurt, but school reputation isn't nearly as big of a problem in engineering as it is for other majors.
You should get an internship though, or better yet do a co-op.
That's a fair point. My worry in the original post is that they only factored in cost as an issue, and if they go to a non-accredited college, then they will likely get a poor ROI.
In regards to the U.S. I would argue the absolute cheapest option would involve going to a fairly large community college first then transferring to the cheapest in state University.
This is a ranking vs cost issue somewhat. Ga tech is a good school in the top 5 but not as cheap as the Wyoming state schools for cost[0].
Great suggestion. A lot of community colleges also have partnerships with state universities. So you can have your 4 year plan already set as soon as you start at the community college. I know that is true in Texas.
I’m a professor in an EECS department in the US. A lot of students pay little to nothing thanks to scholarships. There are also a plethora of student jobs that can help as well.
The opportunity cost and your time are the actual costs.
EE Means electrical engineering? In czech republic I have seen a year of study for non EU citizens between 3000 and 5000 Eur a year, 3 year study is the standard length.
Cost of living for a student was around 4000-6000 eur a year, when I was student (~5 years ago), should still be comparable.
I should note that two things've changed: (a) college dorms are often full and students may not get one & (b) rent went up a lot in last 1-2 years because of a shortage of rentable apartments.
But you definitely can live very cheap here if you manage to either get yourself a dorm or find roommates (+ apartment).
The French École Normale Supérieure will pay you around 1200 euros per month to study there. There are strings attached though (10 yrs public service commitment).
10 years but the 4 years of studying there are included in the 10 years. Most continue with a PhD (at least 3 years in France).
And then it is allowed to do research abroad, not for the French governement, for instance in an US university. Working for a private company entails to have to give back just part of the money.
And there are 4 ENS (écoles normales supérieures) in France so even more opportunities!
No engineering track though... Also you need to pass a highly competitive exam to get in and it's really somewhat a graduate programme, since you're supposed to get in one year before the master starts, not right after high school.
Are you just interested in the lowest up front cost in dollars?
I went to the US Military Academy. Tuition, room and board are free, you get a small stipend each month and you have a guaranteed job at graduation. You pay for school with 5 years of service as an Army officer. I was a Mechanical Engineering major, but they have a decent EECS department also. The military academies have an interesting setup where they are officially an engineering school, and everyone, even the history or law majors have to take an "engineering track". The engineering majors also have more humanities courses than their peers at most schools.
I'd be interested in a comparison of your earnings over those five years of service compared to the median income for the first five years after graduating from public/private/Top-10 schools. I still think you'd be getting the best deal overall but the community college + state school route may seem more competitive in terms of cost after factoring in the relatively low pay of O1-O3s.
I think after 5 years of military service as an officer and a military academy EE degree you could easily obtain very lucrative military contractor work, but of course this is generally going to be in the weapons/electronic warfare sphere which may or may not be ethically compatible to some folks.
The two aren't mutually exclusive; you could easily get contractor work with five years of EE after going to another school (provided you can pass the background and security checks).
Absolutely, but if they're hiring for the last slot and you're up against a USMA grad former O3 (probably still in the reserves, too) that's very tall hurdle to clear.
The national guard requires less intense long term commitment and let's you pick your school. It may not cover everything(you still qualify for parts of the GI bill)[0] but a couple weekends a month is generally much easier for most to agree with.
There's a nice private engineering-focused school near me that costs $5424 for 8 credits per semester as a "part timer" or $13013 for 12 or more credits per semester. So 50% more credits graduates you 50% sooner but costs a mere 139% more money.
Of course you need to factor in the cost of living to come up with a total cost of taking 8 years vs 4 years.
The math can get extremely weird if you can do scholarships; you might run a moderately large net profit if you join the military in a support role (commo tech?) and take some classes during your enlistment and some CLEP tests, then collect the GI Bill afterward leaving the military while in school if you have some financial self discipline. Or a ROTC scholarship, etc. Reserves will get you less money but go quicker. National Guard service, depending on state, may result in $0 tuition at a state school.
I would recommend against ROTC scholarship in that the military will assign your branch based on stack ranking GPA, and engineering school GPAs tend to be pretty low compared to anything else, not that there's anything inherently wrong with chem corps or air defense. Also officer life is management not technical so if you have an EE degree you're unlikely to get branched commo or cyber you're statistically more likely to manage 50 truck drivers because in the military management is interchangeable cogs. Still, if you're willing to do work unrelated to EE for a couple years the military would provide a negative cost AKA net profit if you want a "cheap degree".
For instance, a bachelor degree is 170 euros per year (+ 90 euros of student life and campus service fees). Housing can be expansive in some cities like Paris...
The rules on this are a bit complicated, though : officially, this price does not apply to anyone who has worked more than two years since their last diploma. Persons in this situation may have to pay thousands of euros (1k/2k per year) to go to a public university. In most cases, the price is covered by some institution (such as "Pole Emploi", which handles unemployment) or by some professional reconversion organization.
Note that many universities don't follow these rules at all, and will let you sign up (paying the normal price) even if you worked more than two years since your last diploma.
I don't really know how it works for foreigners, and many people (including social workers and advisers) are confused by this.
I found the tuition fees on campusfrance, which is the official website for foreign students who wants to go into the French higher education system. They actually state: "The difference is that in France, whether you are French or foreign, the State pays most of the cost."
I also know some foreign students in French universities, who went doing masters or PhD and they pay the same as a French student. I doubt it is different for bachelor degrees.
I think that you speak about "formation continue" in your first paragraph. I think that if you register of your own, you actually get the normal fees. It is only if you qualify for "formation continue" which is more restrictive than being out of school for 2 years. It seems that it means you are funded by Pôle Emploi, or a company etc (see here: https://www.univ-paris8.fr/Formation-continue). So someone who is jobless but not registered as jobless in PôleEmploi can do"formation initiale".
Also: https://information-documentation.fr/scolarite/regimes-et-mo...
For sure, it does not seem to be very clear.
Yes, I was referring to "formation continue". It is true that if you register of your own, you always get to "formation initiale". However, most sources on Internet state that "formation initiale" is only for persons that "have not studied or did not stop their studies in the last two years".
Both my pedagogical (from the university) counseler and the one from Pôle Emploi told me that I was not eligibile to "formation initiale", and that I could only continue studying in "formation continue", since I had already studied, and worked for more than two years. Many people told me the same.
Luckily, I did not listen to them, and still registered, successfully.
I think that many persons (including myself & many public education workers) have a poor understanding of this (admittedly unclear) part of the education code. From my understanding, everyone is eligible to "formation initiale", while some people in a specific situation are eligible to "formation continue", which has been misunderstood as meaning that people that are in this situation are also not eligible to "formation initiale".
There are quite a few good technical universities in Germany. In no particular order (although ranked roughly by prestige):
- TUM Technical University Munich:
Pros: Lots of interesting tech companies in the Munich Area (such as Intel, Siemens, BMW etc.), TUM has a good reputation, Munich is a very nice city to live in
Cons: Munich is very expensive
- KIT Karlsruhe:
Pros: Relatively cheap cost of living, lots of interesting computer science / electrical engineering professors
- TU Dresden:
Pros: Cheap cost of living, nice city, Global Foundries lab is located there, allegedly good EE department
- TU Berlin:
Pros: It's Berlin.
- TU Darmstadt:
Pros: Nice Fraunhofer institutes, but bigger focus on compsci and mechanical engineering
The EE department is infamous for being competitive.
Pros: Ankara is very cheap, the campus is huge and very active, the technopolis is also very active with companies such as Siemens, Udemy, OpsGenie etc. English is the main course language. Turkey is beautiful and central for your summer plans. It accepts SAT with minimum 1200 out of 1600, so for a native speaker with good math skills, you should be able to get in easily, it is very competitive for Locals, arguably the best Engineering Uni in Turkey with a huge alumni network in EU/US/CA.
Cons: Ankara is a bit boring, but campus being huge makes up for that, some low-level staff(canteen clerks etc.) don't speak english, students would be happy to help-out. Some Prof decide to teach mixed with Turkish, but this is not very common, exams are always English.
Disclaimer: I have studied as foreign student in CS(CENG) department, I made a really good choice choosing METU and CENG, EE I am not sure.
Feel free to reach out if you have questions.
The cheapest yet probably recognized all over the world ( to a certain extent) and with good track record of quality instruction would be the Indian Institute of Technology, India. And they have quiet a few of them spread across the country. EE dept was especially strong in my hometown (Madras) 10 years back and I am sure that's the case now. URL.
Cost FREE. Yes.https://www.iitm.ac.in You heard that right. But you have to go through a one of the most rigorous entrance examinations in the world(IIT-JEE) to get placed. But once you get in like they say, your life is made. Email in the profile so feel free to reach out.
I know for fact that there were students from African nations who attended not IITs, but the B-Schools(IIMs) and Med schools(JIPMER etc). PLease follow-up with the resp IITs by contacting the faculty directly. You might have to obtain the Indian equivalent of F1(US student visa) though.
I completed my undergraduate degree from IIT Madras. It is not free, there is a tuition fee. I think the tuition fees for a foreign national would come around 4k to 5k USD. You can find eligibility criteria for foreign nationals over here[1].
1. https://www.iitm.ac.in/sites/default/files/uploads/adm._pro....
Some have mentioned Germany. I haven't noticed Canada. I know both university systems, though not for electrical engineering specifically.
Germany is a solid choice. Far better conditions than in some neighbouring countries (cough cough France). Depending on the state (Bundesland), the fees can be very low to none. Again state-dependant, but in many cases foreign students must lock a yearly amount into a bank account and can only withdraw 1/12 or so each month. Quite rightly so: unless you're a monk, you'll need a bit more than they force you to lock up. Bachelor level is almost exclusively in German (exceptions may exist) and I suggest learning German: there are specific avenues granting university access and it's an investment of 6 months to 1 year at least. Living expenses are fairly low from my perspective.
Canada is a good choice because even if most foreign students pay _much_ more than Canadians or provincial residents, it's still several times cheaper than the equivalent in the US. What I've seen in Québec is of very high quality. Language (French or English) depends on the university. Linguistic questions aside, and here I speak specifically of Québec (other provinces may vary), you may be obliged to complete a series of pre-university college classes to bring your maths to level. The university generally offers these. Living expenses are probably a bit higher than Germany but still comparable.
Other things to consider, especially since we're talking about engineering: recognition and professional orders. Recognition: diplomas from countries known as diploma mills are like a stone around the neck whereas diplomas from others are generally well regarded. Professional orders: if engineering jobs in your target work country require membership in a professional order and your diploma is foreign, well, good luck with that -- in the best case, it can take months to join, in the worst case, they make you take corrective classes.
Finally, medium term. When you need a job. Canada vs Germany is a harder question. I changed careers and moved between the two so my perspective is skewed. I know that an EE diploma in Germany will definitely get you a good first job that will teach you a lot. The thing is, unless you're German, you're unlikely to want to stay there (some odd cultural issues, high taxes, relatively low salaries for talented people -- those are the general complaints of, let's say, North American and European foreigners). Canada has a relatively good labour market with better social protection than the southern neighbour. If you work in Canada, flexible people tend to fit in quickly (unless problems with the linguistic divide), but the taxes are also very high in some places, starting salaries are sad, and the brain drain to the US is unfortunately real. The winter in most parts is highly subjective.
If you have good grades & scores, most (all?) state schools have full-rides. Ivies and stuff have full financial aid too if you qualify (family income etc).
This is for a US based university.
Have not attended that many university's to be able to do an actual comparison, but here is the info for my alma mater. Additionally I studied CS, but I know they have a good EE program as well.
The school is California State University - Los Angeles (CSULA). It is an ABET accredited school.
If you are just looking at tuition it runs $6,744/ 2 semester year for California residents. Estimates for a non-resident living on campus run $35,638/ 2 semester year.
Another route for the U.S. is to try and get a scholarship. If you're a high school student and you test well, a high SAT or ACT score should get you a full ride to a school some where.
If I was doing it, the first thing I would do is look into CLEP (College Level Examination Program) tests. About $30 a Credit hour I believe. You can knock out 2 years of school with it. To be fair, some are not easy.
Like someone else mentioned look at community colleges. Different states have different nomenclature. But generally public College is the first step, then University to finish.
If you are thinking IT, I would recommend Western Governors. It is online, you pay per 6 months, and you can take as much as you can handle. In theory you could graduate in 6 months, but I doubt that is practical.
Tuition is absolutely free (regardless of immigration status, you don't even need to prove you are a resident), there are scholarships to cover transport, study materials, and so on and so forth.
The only thing you'd have to pay is for your own living costs. Work is unrestricted, so you could work to earn whatever money you need and, in fact, it is customary for students to work through college.
The down side is that the career is harsh: 5 hours of class (usually 5pm to 10pm) every day + homework + school projects + exams is the norm, for at least 6 years (which is how long it takes to earn the degree), most people actually finish in 7 or 8. And classes are only in Spanish.
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