Hello Elsa,

have a look to this link:

http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2011/subject-rankings/engineering

you should get useful info

http://societyofwomenengineers.swe.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=222&Itemid=229

And information on scholarships for women...

Keep in mind also that usually in the US it takes 6 years to get a BS and MS while I think usually it can be done in 5 years in Europe.

Specifically there is lots of good schools in the US but depending on what you are looking for the answer could be very different.

1. What type of engineering do you want to do

2. How concerned are you with the cost

After you consider these two then you can narrow down the search and find a good quality search.

Just a few remarks:

Do you know what kind of engineering you want to do? That may be relevant for your choice of school.

Be aware that in many countries in Europe they don't rank universities the way the do in the US and elsewhere.In Europe you definitely want to also look at other things besides quality of teaching and value of your degree. Location is relevant (definitely if we're talking about 4-5 years of studying), whether there's a campus or not, possibly costs (for studying and living), job opportunities (some universities offer more support than others, and in some countries like the US you may need to leave the country right after getting the degree).

The highest-rated technical university is without a doubt MIT in Boston. I'm not saying that they necessarily have better teachers there, but once you get a degree there you benefit from their reputation and network. It's probably hard to get in though.

Finally, EPFL in Lausanne (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne) is also a great technical university. Not sure about English degrees.

why engineering?? left-brain jobs are all migrating to Asia ... if I could choose now I would go with some architecture or design or arts ;o)) not engineering for sure

I agree with Massimiliano, Eng is difficult now, but is a great carreer. There are as many answers to your question as people in the Forum. It is great to get all the opinions and formulate your own criteria.

Eng now is really linked with research, if you choose Eng, I'd strongly reccomend you to get extra classes in chemistry and physics. You'll never regret that background. To check the rankings is not bad, but there are small institutions with really good programs. It depends on whan Eng you want. I'd reccomend you to get enrolled in an institution which contains "Tech" on its name.

In the US there are prestigious Universities in small towns where the life is more affordable, but I find in Europe much more access to education (cost/benefit).

I know in Europe it is easy to get in many institutions Master and PhD diploma in English but not Bachelor. Try to check the rankings in the subject you want (Mech Eng, Biomedical Eng, Electronic Eng, etc). Then how expensive is the program and the city. Now in Internet it is easy to get lots of info but don't oversaturate, good luck.

Is it really? I haven't noticed. IMO it's the education level that is at it's historical low, so, Elsa, make your choice wisely. :)

I understand where you're coming from with that comment, but it's incorrect. All over Europe they're expecting a shortage of engineers and are trying to boost the inflow into universities and colleges.

It's true that many technical jobs are more and more outsourced to China and India (in particular manufacturing and programming), but there will always be demand for engineers locally; engineering is a service and outsourcing is often not possible.Even outsourced projects need to be supervised and parts manufactured abroad need to be installed and/or repaired locally.

There are some drawbacks to becoming an engineer though. The salary isn't as high as for example economists and ITers. And because most engineering jobs are in industrial zones the location of your office is rarely in a nice area.

in milano there is a good technical university. especially if you want to study for example architecture , italians have a high skill in architecture. about architecture, there is the university of barcelona, and it is probably the best architecture school in the world.it is not about quality of teachers and level of students alone , it is also about the quality of life in parallel , and the rich architecture heritage of barcelona, but it is very hard to get in this university , because you must present a special examination to get in it , and there is a numerus clausus.

mine was mostly a provocation but I actually stick with the idea that the concept of engineer must be re-invented to be effective nowaday. As long as the same activity can be successfully outsourced where the cost of work is cheaper (and the quality the same as happens for software engineering ...) then engineering is not a good bet anymore. Clearly there will be the need for engineers that locally will understand business requirements/processes and coordinate with the outsourced teams, but the number of such high-level skilled people is clearly much less than the jobs that migrated abroad and so lost. Not to mention technology like Cloud computing that will outsource "somewhere" resources like hw, middleware, applications and so on ... imagine once Cloud computing will be effective and a trusted technology how many job we will loose in Europe and North America ... including those that do maintainance. Will be a wonderful opportunity for South America and Asia indeed.

The point where I totally agree with you is that the new engineer will be more connected with the local environment but able to act globally and manage virtual teams. Such skill to make this happen are still very hard to find in individuals: technology awareness, empathy (managing a virtual team is not easy), knowledge of local business realities ... anyway the number of engineering based job that will migrate will be still much higher than the new opportunities that will be created and that will reward only highly talented individuals.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/education/mit-expands-free-online-courses-offering-certificates.html

"M.I.T expands Its Free Online Courses"

"While students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology pay thousands of dollars for courses, the university will announce a new program on Monday allowing anyone anywhere to take M.I.T. courses online free of charge — and for the first time earn official certificates for demonstrating mastery of the subjects taught...

Go to Imperial College London

There are lots of videos of MIT courses already online; some are really interesting to watch. From early 2012 you can get a certificate; could be useful for some.

Dear Elsa,

Follow your star. If you want to study engineering and feel you are cut out for it, you will be successful.

I am one of few female aerospace engineers who attended the Bachelor's degree course at a university in England in the late 90s. We were eight girls in a class of about 110 and in 5 aviation companies I worked for in Switzerland, the female work force is about 5-8% of all employees, not many of whom were engineers. Back then, engineering jobs were still varied and available. They slumped though after a while.

Currently I know for sure that in Aviation, there is a big shortage of engineers. This being said, since you are only going to study now, and will be out of uni in 4-5 years, the situation might have changed.

All this being said, because there are not many women engineers in my field, you will inevitably face some discrimination. Be prepared for that too (nobody ever tells you up front that this "challenge" is still real and still valid today). If you become a nurse or physiotherapist, or lawyer, etc. this issue may be be different or not applicable.

I studied in England, and most of the exchange students we had (from Canada, Spain, France, Greece, Malaysia) all said they found the program very good, as it was broad and varied. It is not however as flexible as the US educational system, where after a year or two, you can literally change major and minors without losing too many academic points and going backwards. If you are an EU national, the UK will inevitable by cheaper as EU students' studies are subsidised. In the US, you pay the full blown price.

The Uk has a very good system through which you  must apply anyway, where you can execute your search :

http://www.ucas.com/

If you choose to go into aviation, I would suggest you rather go for being an aerospace systems engineer or avionics engineer, than mechanical/aerospace engineer. There's much more development going on in avionics.

Good luck, and go for what you think you'll do and enjoy better :)

Why you should study science or engineering; by Neil deGrasse Tyson (world-renowned scientist).

EPFL in Lausanne (Switzerland) is excellent and world famous as well.  

Good luck.

MIT !