Which engineering programs is your DC applying to?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The opportunities available to them at a large school far exceed those available at a small one - I know this because I attended a small engineering school which was limited not only in depth and breadth of classes but also in decent faculty to teach them. Larger schools attract better faculty and offer so much more opportunity for everyone.

Above claimed advantage of large school often is not true. Sometimes it happens to be true and other times it happens not to be true. Size of an engineering program does not strongly correlate with its quality.

The most obvious example is CalTech, which has outstanding faculty, wide course offerings, and is small.

[Anonymous]

Schools always talk about their collaborative environment. Most are not really collaborative. PP is right to be skeptical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I attended a small school for engineering, and two of my kids currently are studying engineering at a large state school. My kids are lucky enough to live in an engineering LLC where they are surrounded by other engineering majors. They’ve never had a TA teach their classes, or one of these huge lectures someone keeps insisting all freshmen have to take.

The opportunities available to them at a large school far exceed those available at a small one - I know this because I attended a small engineering school which was limited not only in depth and breadth of classes but also in decent faculty to teach them. Larger schools attract better faculty and offer so much more opportunity for everyone.

You went to a small school for engineering, not a small engineering school. That's totally different. Arguing that a small or medium sized engineering school doesn't offer enough engineering electives is akin to arguing that liberal arts colleges don't offer enough humanities electives. It's just not true.

Many small engineering schools have the same number of engineering students as much larger schools, as you're just missing the humanities and arts majors. So the engineering and science class selection is often the same or better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Targets -
Wisconsin - in state
Minnesota - in state
Purdue

Reaches-
MIT
Berkeley
Cornell

How could they be instate for two states?

Something fishy there.

It's reciprocity. "The Minnesota/Wisconsin Reciprocity Agreement allows Wisconsin residents to attend Minnesota public universities at in-state tuition rates." https://www.wisconsin.edu/reciprocity/

The best deal was WI kids coming to to the U of MN and paying less than I did in state because they paid U of W rates. Not sure it that’s still true.

I’ve heard it’s much harder for Minnesota kids to get into Madison than it was back in the day

PP here. Yes, Wisconsin always had the cheaper tuition back in the day. Madison has gotten more competitive in general, but Minnesota kids are still treated as in state for admission purposes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I attended a small school for engineering, and two of my kids currently are studying engineering at a large state school. My kids are lucky enough to live in an engineering LLC where they are surrounded by other engineering majors. They’ve never had a TA teach their classes, or one of these huge lectures someone keeps insisting all freshmen have to take.

The opportunities available to them at a large school far exceed those available at a small one - I know this because I attended a small engineering school which was limited not only in depth and breadth of classes but also in decent faculty to teach them. Larger schools attract better faculty and offer so much more opportunity for everyone.

You went to a small school for engineering, not a small engineering school. That's totally different. Arguing that a small or medium sized engineering school doesn't offer enough engineering electives is akin to arguing that liberal arts colleges don't offer enough humanities electives. It's just not true.

Many small engineering schools have the same number of engineering students as much larger schools, as you're just missing the humanities and arts majors. So the engineering and science class selection is often the same or better.

I have a PhD in engineering and taught classes as a PhD student. The myth around professors is pretty comical. Their team of graduate students usually do the work with the professor getting PI status on research for their name, not their actual work on anything. In many ways, I think graduate students are better at teaching because they are more familiar with new research and are more open to helping students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I attended a small school for engineering, and two of my kids currently are studying engineering at a large state school. My kids are lucky enough to live in an engineering LLC where they are surrounded by other engineering majors. They’ve never had a TA teach their classes, or one of these huge lectures someone keeps insisting all freshmen have to take.

The opportunities available to them at a large school far exceed those available at a small one - I know this because I attended a small engineering school which was limited not only in depth and breadth of classes but also in decent faculty to teach them. Larger schools attract better faculty and offer so much more opportunity for everyone.

You went to a small school for engineering, not a small engineering school. That's totally different. Arguing that a small or medium sized engineering school doesn't offer enough engineering electives is akin to arguing that liberal arts colleges don't offer enough humanities electives. It's just not true.

Many small engineering schools have the same number of engineering students as much larger schools, as you're just missing the humanities and arts majors. So the engineering and science class selection is often the same or better.

I have a PhD in engineering and taught classes as a PhD student. The myth around professors is pretty comical. Their team of graduate students usually do the work with the professor getting PI status on research for their name, not their actual work on anything. In many ways, I think graduate students are better at teaching because they are more familiar with new research and are more open to helping students.

I was also in a PhD program and taught classes. A lot of the issue are the foreign TAs who struggle to communicate in English. My TA for quantum physics was unintelligible, though so was the Russian professor. There were also TAs who weren't that bright and who were weeded out of the graduate program after 1-2 years, but still taught undergrads (poorly) for those 1-2 years. But, I agree, many or most TAs were great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The opportunities available to them at a large school far exceed those available at a small one - I know this because I attended a small engineering school which was limited not only in depth and breadth of classes but also in decent faculty to teach them. Larger schools attract better faculty and offer so much more opportunity for everyone.

Above claimed advantage of large school often is not true. Sometimes it happens to be true and other times it happens not to be true. Size of an engineering program does not strongly correlate with its quality.

The most obvious example is CalTech, which has outstanding faculty, wide course offerings, and is small.

Then you'd agree that the poster (you?) claiming a small engineering school is always better is not true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I attended a small school for engineering, and two of my kids currently are studying engineering at a large state school. My kids are lucky enough to live in an engineering LLC where they are surrounded by other engineering majors. They’ve never had a TA teach their classes, or one of these huge lectures someone keeps insisting all freshmen have to take.

The opportunities available to them at a large school far exceed those available at a small one - I know this because I attended a small engineering school which was limited not only in depth and breadth of classes but also in decent faculty to teach them. Larger schools attract better faculty and offer so much more opportunity for everyone.

You went to a small school for engineering, not a small engineering school. That's totally different. Arguing that a small or medium sized engineering school doesn't offer enough engineering electives is akin to arguing that liberal arts colleges don't offer enough humanities electives. It's just not true.

Many small engineering schools have the same number of engineering students as much larger schools, as you're just missing the humanities and arts majors. So the engineering and science class selection is often the same or better.

How dull, to attend a school with only engineering (or any other specialty) students. The best schools have a mix of majors and disciplines.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I attended a small school for engineering, and two of my kids currently are studying engineering at a large state school. My kids are lucky enough to live in an engineering LLC where they are surrounded by other engineering majors. They’ve never had a TA teach their classes, or one of these huge lectures someone keeps insisting all freshmen have to take.

The opportunities available to them at a large school far exceed those available at a small one - I know this because I attended a small engineering school which was limited not only in depth and breadth of classes but also in decent faculty to teach them. Larger schools attract better faculty and offer so much more opportunity for everyone.

You went to a small school for engineering, not a small engineering school. That's totally different. Arguing that a small or medium sized engineering school doesn't offer enough engineering electives is akin to arguing that liberal arts colleges don't offer enough humanities electives. It's just not true.

Many small engineering schools have the same number of engineering students as much larger schools, as you're just missing the humanities and arts majors. So the engineering and science class selection is often the same or better.

I have a PhD in engineering and taught classes as a PhD student. The myth around professors is pretty comical. Their team of graduate students usually do the work with the professor getting PI status on research for their name, not their actual work on anything. In many ways, I think graduate students are better at teaching because they are more familiar with new research and are more open to helping students.

Uh oh, now the PP is going to scold you for assuming their tiny engineering school would *ever* have had PhDs doing any of the teaching.
DP