Are you still debating on how to choose the best engineering college to attend? You are not alone. Selecting a college can be a very overwhelming and daunting task. Especially when there seems like there is no clear answer. It is hard to compare them because there are so many different variables! College is also very expensive, so you want to make sure you are making a good decision.
Well I am glad to tell you that I have a tool that will help you!
In engineering, when there is a problem where you are trying to compare many variables and there does not seem to be a clear answer, a tool called a weighted decision matrix is used.
Typically this tool is used for comparing different designs with varying components. For example, if you are designing a new chair with different materials used for the cushion you may have three different designs to choose from.
However, this tool can also be used to help you select the best engineering college for you!
This tool is great because it forces you to determine the criteria that is most important. This is the criteria you will use to help select a college.
Below is an example of a blank decision matrix:
Get your free Weighted Decision Matrix Template here! You can use it to input the colleges you are debating between along with the other information to help you choose a college. The template is an excel spreadsheet that I pre-populated with the formulas used in this post.
Follow the steps below for how to use a weighted decision matrix to choose the best engineering college.
1. Determine Your Criteria
The criteria are the variables that are important to you when you were researching colleges. Some of the criteria might include location, size of the school, scholarships available, professor to student ratio, academic support, or cost of the school. More specific criteria could include major options. This is helpful if be you are debating between majors, such as mechanical and biomedical engineering.
When listing your criteria, pick the variables that are different between the colleges you are trying to choose between. For example if you are trying to choose between four colleges all in Boston, MA, then location probably is not a good criteria to choose because it is the same for all of schools. You want to differentiate between the schools so that you can make a decision. Therefore, try to identify the differences.
For more information on the criteria to use for choosing an engineering college read the 10 Factors For Choosing The Best Engineering College For You. It details the criteria specifically for engineering and most of these you usually do not hear about.
Below is an example of a weight decision matrix with the criteria filled out in the left most column. In this example, I am comparing three different schools. I selected seven criteria in the matrix below. Again, this is just an example so use whatever criteria is most important to you (i.e. male to female ratio, certain club offered, certain greek society)
2. Assign A Weight Based On Importance To Your Criteria
Assign a weight to the criteria depending on how important it is to you. There are seven criteria so the weight we assign to each is 1-7. One is the least important and seven is the most important to you. In the example below, having many major options was most important and where the college was located was the least important.
3. Define A Rating System
For the score, you can choose another rating system. In the decision matrix below, I am using a 1-5 rating scale. One is the worst score and five is the best. For example, maybe you are debating between majoring in mechanical engineering, biomedical engineering, and civil engineering. College 3 in the example below has all three majors, so that college would receive a score of five for the “major options” criterion. College 2 only offers mechanical engineering, so that college may get a score of one.
4. Calculate A Score For All Criteria And Colleges
To calculate the total score for each criteria, you multiply the weighting by the score. The cost of College 1 would have a total of 6 (6×1).
5. Calculate The Totals
For the overall total at the bottom of each total column, you sum all of the totals for each criterion together. See the completed decision matrix below.
Interpreting The Results
Using the weighted decision matrix tool, College 3 has the highest score and is the recommended option to move forward with.
This demonstrates how the decision matrix can be used to make an objective decision when comparing similar options. Especially when you think there may not be a clear choice. By adding weight to the factors, allows you to really think about what is most important to you. Then, you can consider how each school meets the criteria.
To summarize, follow the five easy steps below to fill in your weighted decision matrix.
- Determine your criteria
- Assign a weight based on importance to your criteria
- Define a rating system
- Calculate a score for all criteria and colleges
- Calculate the totals
Decision matrices are used often in engineering to drive decisions but they are also a great tool that can be used in everyday life! Hopefully this gave you some clarity on how to choose the best engineering college for you!
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DECIDE WHAT COLLEGE YOU ARE GOING TO ATTEND
Feeling overwhelmed by how you are going to choose a college? Our Weight Decision Matrix Template will make your decision much easier in just 5 simple steps. The spreadsheet has all of the formulas already pre-populated for you. It’s a game changer–get it free for a limited time!