School of Mines

[Anonymous]

Anybody have any experience with Colorado School of Mines? My son is applying for Mechanical Engineering. Is it difficult to be accepted?

[Anonymous]

Has a reputation for being a grind, academically. Not terribly difficult to get accepted, but difficult to make it through.

[Anonymous]

My nephew got in and enjoyed it. I'd describe him as smart but not startlingly so. Not lazy but not a grind. Did fine in HS, did fine at Mines.

I'm not sure what he planned to major in, but he ended up majoring in mechanical engineering.

[Anonymous]

DS applied early priority (prior to Sept 15), so should find out within next two weeks if accepted. We went out there on a tour and also found a local FCPS student who goes there to have a meal with while there to get the lowdown.
I have read all the stuff on Reddit about the academic grind, but I am wondering how true that really is for a moderately high achiever from FCPS. Maybe it is more difficult for those from other types of communities, not sure. The student we had a meal with is taking a 5th year, true, but we didn't really get into that too much. I think he was an OK student in high school and engineering classes were a challenge there. Lovely town and campus, enjoyed the tour. I did notice the lack of female representation on campus though both the tour guy and the other guy said they didn't think it was an issue. Lots of fun traditions there like hiking up the mountain with a rock from your hometown, cardboard boat races down the creek, etc. We could hear the football game broadcast from our hotel, amplified over the whole town of Golden. The first year is pretty structured, everyone takes Calc 1-3 and Physics, so you don't even pick classes the first semester (my kid is not such a fan of that).

[Anonymous]

I think mechanical engineering is kind of a grind everywhere, isn't it? Pretty much the hardest undergraduate major. But see if you can find out more about the Mines culture. I gut the sense it is a serious drinking place.

[Anonymous]

Apply early. I think it’s rolling admission.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think mechanical engineering is kind of a grind everywhere, isn't it? Pretty much the hardest undergraduate major. But see if you can find out more about the Mines culture. I gut the sense it is a serious drinking place.

Harder than electrical engineering? Biomedical engineering?

(I was an English major at a college without an engineering department, so I genuinely don't know, but I hear of kids who start in EE and have to drop down to ME)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think mechanical engineering is kind of a grind everywhere, isn't it? Pretty much the hardest undergraduate major. But see if you can find out more about the Mines culture. I gut the sense it is a serious drinking place.

Drinking? No more than any other college. If anything, there may be a segment of gamers (who may or may not also sometimes drink).

OP, one possible downside of the school is the gender ratio, if that matters to your kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think mechanical engineering is kind of a grind everywhere, isn't it? Pretty much the hardest undergraduate major. But see if you can find out more about the Mines culture. I gut the sense it is a serious drinking place.

Harder than electrical engineering? Biomedical engineering?

(I was an English major at a college without an engineering department, so I genuinely don't know, but I hear of kids who start in EE and have to drop down to ME)

I just know that the ABET-accredited ME degree has significantly more requirements than any other engineering degree - like 25 to 28ish beyond prerequisites out of typical 34-ish undergrad credits? Others, including EE and Biomedical and chemical, have fewer requirements for an accredited BSE degree. There's no room to slow it down for any ABET-accredited engineering degree, if you want to cram it all in 4 years, but this is especially true for MEs, who are the generalists in the engineering world and expected to have mastered the broadest range of engineering subjects.

But I guess depending on one's personal interests/stengths a student could find the bio-aspects, or electrical or chemical and physical aspects of the engineering core more or less difficult.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has a reputation for being a grind, academically. Not terribly difficult to get accepted, but difficult to make it through.

My DS is also looking at Mines. According to their website, they have about a 50% acceptance rate, but a 6-year grad rate of 83%. A much lower acceptance rate than VaTech, a bit higher than Maryland; fairly comparable to both institutions for 6-year grad rate.

I'm really impressed with their academic supports.

The out-of-state tuition is pretty hefty.

[Anonymous]

Bumping this thread to see acceptances and merit for 2022.

My FCPS kid had 1450 and 4.06 weighted, got $9000/year merit. I saw $10k in another thread, just wondering how much better the stats were.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has a reputation for being a grind, academically. Not terribly difficult to get accepted, but difficult to make it through.

My DS is also looking at Mines. According to their website, they have about a 50% acceptance rate, but a 6-year grad rate of 83%. A much lower acceptance rate than VaTech, a bit higher than Maryland; fairly comparable to both institutions for 6-year grad rate.

I'm really impressed with their academic supports.

The out-of-state tuition is pretty hefty.

But Mines almost all science majors, whereas VT is heavy on tech majors but has plenty of other options, too.