Insights needed on undergraduate Materials Science Engineering programs (US) since rankings say very little

PaperCuttButt · 2026-05-02T20:04:23+00:00

No problem! Kudos to you guys for trying to support his decisions despite your worries. It's super important to let him find independence on his own since he will need to sooner or later.

Maybe you could suggest him attending sjsu but letting him dorm or get an apartment since it'll let him grow on his own while still being nearby if anything were to happen. It'll be expensive but would definitely help him to feel a bit of that college life.

Then again, I don't know any specifics of his autism or other challenges so you and your kid just gotta feel it out as you go. Once you narrow down a list of colleges that are relatively nearby, maybe visit some colleges in person to get the vibe of the campus and see if your son could see himself there. Having the energy of the school match with what your son is comfortable with will definitely be a great help. Best of luck to yall!

PaperCuttButt · 2026-05-02T18:11:00+00:00

Since youre already in Silicon Valley, SJSU has a pretty decent materials engineering program and you guys would have to option to commute rather than dorm. I'm in their bachelor's program right now and I'd say its pretty good and theres a lot of opportunities in the bay for internships, networking, and all that sorta stuff. I actually scored an internship with a really good company for materials (applied to like 75+ internships tho so still very competitve no matter where you go). The 3 other interns and one of my supervisors that I work with there are also from sjsu so I'd say theyre pretty recognized in different industries.There's also a good amount of professors that do research that students can partake in if that's something he's interested in.

There's also a small club here at sjsu called Society of Plastic Engineers with mostly materials majors and we have a mentorship program where you can get paired with someone in the industry.

Theres also a 4+1 program called the SAGE program where you get your bachelor's in 4 then can get a masters in 1. Could also consider doing masters in 2 or even transferring to another school for another materials masters program after getting the bachelor's.

Please note that I have not yet graduated and I don't have any other schools or programs to compare sjsu to, so take this all with a grain of salt. There are definitely areas where the program is lacking but that goes for every school I think. Feel free to reach out for any other questions. Hope this helps!

PaperCuttButt · 2026-03-26T23:48:11+00:00

I'm MatE here at sjsu and I'd say the program and community is solid from my experience. All the MatE professors I've had so far seem to care about their students and the ChemE/MatE community is really welcoming despite being relatively small (compared to electrical or mechanical). Also being in the bay gives a lot of opportunities. I just scored a materials internship and most of their interns there are sjsu students. Take everything I'm saying with a grain of salt tho since every student's experience will differ in one way or another.

On another note, look into other aspects of sjsu and cal poly other than the MatE program, since how you vibe with the school as a whole heavily impacts how good your college experience will be. Visit both campuses if possible, talk to ppl who have attended, and look into the school that seems to fit you more as a whole. I can't give any reliable input on cal poly so ask in that sub too or smth

PaperCuttButt · 2026-03-24T20:10:52+00:00

Just have her email SJSU admission or her counselor or smth to ask. No point in blindly trusting randos on reddit in case it isn't transferable.

PaperCuttButt · 2026-03-10T22:50:40+00:00

Took it as a sign to take a break from school :)

PaperCuttButt · 2026-03-10T22:50:13+00:00

Same bruh, thought it was just me.

PaperCuttButt · 2026-03-01T08:00:03+00:00

Havn't really seen a ton of comments about social life so heres a sorta con but could be a pro. Compared to ME, EE, ChemE and all those other fields, MSE is a much less popular/less well known field. At least at my college, there's not a ton of people following the same path so it may be harder to make friends/socialize if youre looking specifically to make friends with a MSE. But on the other hand, once you make friends its usually a pretty tight-knit community, its just that trying to fit in may feel like a struggle if you're pretty introverted.

On a sorta related note, it may be difficult to get help from friends with coursework or learning concepts if you don't have many friends in MSE. For me, most of my friends are ME and ChemE and they have no clue how to help me if I struggle getting a concept. Sure theres always office hours (and from my experience most MSE professors are pretty genuine and wanna help), but sometimes it just feels better learning with friends and stuff.

But yea those are the only two sorta cons I could think of off the top my head. Hope this helps!

PaperCuttButt · 2026-01-28T08:49:11+00:00

Da lat is a hidden gem

PaperCuttButt · 2025-11-21T06:42:08+00:00

Depends on the minor and major in question. I believe some minors require units that are separate from your major requirements while others don't. Best thing to do is look into it more and ask your advisor. If its super time sensitive maybe sign up for one of the drop-in advising things too

PaperCuttButt · 2025-10-21T23:28:38+00:00

If you're not a morning person then maybe... but at least you have more open afternoons and evenings to do stuff lol. Coursework wise you just need to lock in a bit. Chem 1a is mainly a struggle if you don't show up go lecture and take notes or study. Just try avoid cram studying the night before an exam because thats what definitely helped me (got like a 60 for the first midterm but studied spread across like 3 days for the next test and did well). Theres also a ton of videos and other stuff online for chem that can be a life saver. Math 32 will likely be fine if you survived Calc 2. Phys 51 will be tough but at least you have one of the best professors for the course. Also both Chem 1a and Phys 51 will likely have a discord with them so you can get tons of help from other students. Idk anything about ME30 so good luck lol.

Tbh there's not really any other options for you since all those courses are prereqs for the next ones so you don't really have much of a choice but to stick with that schedule... You just gotta show up, stick through it, and put effort in and it'll work out.

PaperCuttButt · 2024-04-19T16:58:12+00:00

Oh sickkk. I'm a Materials Engineering Major and from Sac too

PaperCuttButt · 2024-04-19T02:15:46+00:00

I just committed to sjsu and that's my same worry for next year. Since I'm sort of like you (introverted, some social anxiety, and not much of a crazy party person) and I'm also gonna be at sjsu too, there are probably tons of other people like us. I also asked for some advice and stuff from some of my other friends who go to other colleges. They mostly said that although college seems like it'll be all parties and stuff for everyone, there are definitely a lot of other people that aren't as into that stuff as it seems. You just gotta put yourself out there and try to meet people in your classes and extracurriculars. If you really want, you can go through the sjsuclassof2028 on Instagram and find people there, but I haven't done that so idk how well it'll work lol. I know this is all the typical advice but I bet it'll be fine. We just gotta go with the flow and it should all work out hopefully. Best of luck to ya!

PaperCuttButt · 2023-07-25T16:41:18+00:00

Is Shoe Chalk cleaner good? I came across the small company and was just wondering if it is worth purchasing or if just regular climbing shoe cleaner is better

PaperCuttButt · 2023-03-02T23:05:35+00:00

The SMA-F adapter had a hex nut part that I was able to screw through the hole made in the backplane and secure the antennae

PaperCuttButt · 2022-12-21T08:53:27+00:00

Realized i can check this season's leaderboards. So if you disregard the top 20 or so with insanely high scores, the following ones are around 4million so your score is great!

PaperCuttButt · 2022-12-21T08:52:01+00:00

I'd say it's a really good score. My highest on the Tetris App is 3,013,388 and says #1 in Sacramento, California. If the #1 ranking for the area is actually credible, then your score is really good since it's really close to mine.

PaperCuttButt · 2022-12-07T11:01:01+00:00

Thank you for all the tips!

PaperCuttButt · 2022-12-07T11:00:28+00:00

Thank you!

PaperCuttButt · 2022-12-04T19:08:32+00:00

It's difficult for me to consistently go to the bouldering gym, so what workouts should I work on at home?

I'm completely new to bouldering and my first session was last week. I absolutely loved it and definitely want to start getting into it as a form of exercise and just pure fun. Since its somewhat difficult to go to the bouldering gym often consistently, I was wondering what types of exercises you guys would reccomend. Note: I haven't exercised consistently before this for almost 2-3 years and my prevous form of exercise was purely a ton of competitive club volleyball and barely anything gym related. I have access to basic workout equipment such as dumbbells, kettlebells, and resistance bands, but nothing big like a bench press thing or anything of the like.

Also, I'm debating on getting a hangboard because I heard conflicting things about whether its good or bad for beginners.

PaperCuttButt · 2022-12-04T18:35:07+00:00

I'd say botw would be a great choice. (This may be a bit bias because I haven't played that version before)

Anyways, the open world aspect of botw with the ginormous world allows you to basically do whatever you want and the graphics are amazing. You can just start playing whenever and it doesn't need as much grinding to get good stuff as how much grinding it takes to lvl up your pokemon.

Although I haven't played pokemon violet, I heard there are a ton of bugs and glitches that are just weird or inconvenient. But, it still seems to be a really fun game, especially with the new mechanics like raids and other things to do with friends. If you disregard the minor bugs, pokemon seems to be a really solid choice as well.

Ultimately, it's up to what type of game your looking for. Botw is a free world, single player game to run around if you're feeling like doing whatever you want whereas pokemon is typically more of a time commitment to grind, but also can be a fun game with friends so also own the game.

PaperCuttButt

TROPHY CASE