North Carolina State University is one of the largest state universities in the USA in terms of the students enrolled every year. According to the data available on the NC State website, the university has 10 colleges representing all the major fields with a total of 33,755 students currently enrolled and a student to faculty ratio of 13:1. This healthy ratio and the presence of major colleges in the university is a great incentive for students from all fields to join the university to advance their career.

To add to this, the university has a budget of $1.495 billion, along with a $998.6 million endowment. The university also has $405 million in sponsored research awards which, along with the budget, enable the students, mainly belonging to the science and engineering fields to carry out cutting-edge research in their fields.

The research scientists and faculty are experts in their fields and guide the students to pursue fruitful research. In my opinion, it is because of the guidance provided for research and the resources available for research that give NC State the edge over other universities.

The location of the university also provides a lot of exposure to the STEM students. NC State is located in the Research Triangle Park, along with Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill. Many multinational companies have their offices and even headquarters in the RTP. For the science, engineering and technology students, there are companies like IBM, Cisco Systems, NetApp, Biogen and Lenovo. These companies are global leaders in their fields and support research and provide job opportunities to many students.

There are offices of companies like GlaxoSmithKline for students who are pursuing a career in pharmacy. For management students who wish to work in finance, real estate or human resource management sectors, there are companies like Fidelity Investments and Practical Management Inc. While some of them may not be multinational giants, they still provide a solid platform to an individual to launch their career and maneuver it in the directions they wish.

These industries not only provide job opportunities to individuals but also groom them from the nascent stages by providing preliminary exposure in the form of co-ops and internships. These companies interact with our institution in two ways.

The first one is informing and recruiting students through the student career fairs and bashes organized by different student organizations. For example, I attended a party organized by the Engineers’ Council a few days ago and came to know about the co-op programs of industries like IBM, NetApp and Oracle Communications, and am planning to enroll into one of their programs.

Such events help students know more about the programs of the companies and develop relations with people within the industry which can prove to be a boon for them in the long run. 

The professors at this university also have tie-ups with the industries. Sometimes these industries even provide funding to the professor to conduct research in their area. So, if a student is working with the professor on a problem, they may be referenced by the professor and the company will give priority to him when recruiting for jobs.

There are many research projects conducted jointly by universities. This not only increases the resources available to the students many fold but also provides them incentive and exposure to work on research without being concerned about scarcity of resources.

The students can also apply for such positions online, as there are many sites on which the companies upload their requirements along with the positions, perks and pay for that position.

While the students can entail all the opportunities in the professional world through interacting with the companies, the university itself does a great job in laying the framework for the student’s career. Students learn various managerial skills through participating in various student organizations and explore and evolve as individuals along the way. 

This is helpful not only in making students more professionally desirable but also adds dimensions to their personality which supports them throughout their lives. Because of all these factors, NC State is a great place for STEM students to be in, be it for undergraduate studies, graduate studies or PhDs.