Where are the Engineering Grads?

Previously, we indicated that 143 Boise Schools alums from the high school classes of 2007-2010 had graduated with degrees in Engineering. Here’s a little deeper dive into information about those students.

The distribution of specific majors among the Engineering grads shows that Mechanical Engineering (47) is the most popular major, followed by Civil (27)  and Computer Science/Engineering (24).

Fifty –six percent (56%) of the 1700 degrees earned by Boise District students were earned at Idaho universities, and the percentage is the same for Engineering degrees, with 45 earned at the University of Idaho, another 30 at Boise State University, and 3 from other in-state universities.

We are working with the Idaho Department of Labor to ascertain where the Engineering graduates are living and working. However, we did some less formal, unscientific research to get an idea of the patterns. We looked  at just the classes of 2007-2009, since the earliest grads of the the high school class of 2010 just matriculated in May 2014. It appears that the large majority of in-state graduates are working in Idaho, and an even larger percentage of the out-of-state graduates are living and working outside of the state of Idaho.

Most of the out-of-state Engineering grads are living and working in large cities in the west, such as Denver, Salt Lake City, Seattle, and San Francisco, often near the universities and colleges they attended. Many of the in-state Engineering grads are working at established local engineering firms and start-ups.

Colleges and Majors of 4-year College Grads - Boise School District

In the last Data Points post, we provided information about students in the high school classes of 2007-2010 who have graduated from 4-year colleges. Following is more information about those students – the colleges they attended and individual major areas of study.

Of the 1700 Boise District students who have graduated, about 46% graduated from one of two universities, Boise State University (28%) or the University of Idaho (18%). Four other institutions graduated 2% or more of the Boise Schools total: the College of Idaho (3.4%), Idaho State University (2.9%), Brigham Young University (2.1%), and the University of Oregon (2%). Boise students also graduated from 207 other universities and colleges, spread across 34 states and the District of Columbia.

Most Boise District students attend and graduate from public institutions of higher education. The following chart shows the public colleges and universities with the highest number of Boise Schools grads. The University of Oregon has traditionally been a popular school for Boise District students, but the University of Utah has gained considerable ground in the past few years. Western Washington University attracts 5-7 Boise District students a year to its Bellingham, Washington campus.

Boise District students who graduate from private colleges attend a diverse range of schools. Here are the private colleges that graduated the highest number of Boise District students.  About 12% of the College of Idaho’s total enrollment comes from the Boise School District. Westminster College in Salt Lake City and the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma have long recruited students from the Boise District.

It’s interesting to consider the specific majors of graduates, especially now that we have such a large number and major area patterns are more reliable. A full 6% of all graduates majored in Biology, with Business and Psychology close behind. Of interest was the fact that Mechanical Engineering was 9^th on the list with 47 graduates, a bit higher than we expected. Here are the top 30 individual majors of Boise District college graduates.

In the last post we indicated that STEM majors were more popular among Boise students than majors in any other area. Going further, we were interested in Engineering majors in general. How many were there in total, and what schools did they attend?

What we found was that, altogether, 143 Engineering degrees have been earned thus far by Boise Schools graduates in the classes of 2007-2010. Of those, 45 were earned at the University of Idaho, and 30 at Boise State University, along with two at Idaho State University and one at Northwest Nazarene University. So 56% of those degrees were earned at in state universities.

Of the Engineering degrees earned out of state, 8 were earned at the University of Utah, 5 at the University of Colorado, 5 at Gonzaga University, and 3 each at Montana State University and Purdue University – West Lafayette. Of note, the three degrees from Purdue were in Chemical, Electrical, and Nuclear Engineering.