Female engineers!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You might want to ask recent grads. I was an engineering graduate in the mid 80s. I hope to god it's changed since then, because the misogynism ran deep. Especially in the "hard core" disciplines.

I'm now in the defense industry. Apparently a glutton for punishment.

Thank you. May I ask where you attended school - hopefully things have improved.

Penn State

Ditto for U of Md college park.
The other students were ironically the ones that were rampantly sexist. I enjoyed my professors and classes in undergrad. Grad school not so muc that's where it really was awful. But the working world was the worst as the men seemed to unite to put the women down and label them useless whenever they could. I wasn't even allowed to work on a project that entailed subject matter that I had graduate degrees in - in favor of guys who needed special permission to graduate with low grades (i.e.: D's and C's). I got mostly A's and I was told that I had probably received those not because I was smart and worked hard but because I had 'sat in the front row wearing a short skirt'. Yeah - no. School was a picnic compared to work.

At least now they make you do an internship - so maybe you can choose law or medicine instead.

Maybe things have improved but I'm glad my own bright daughter does not want to do STEM (also - low pay for long hours)


OP I think things have improved - I hope - but I'd recommend that your DD get a PhD if she wants to be in STEM. It will go a lot better for her.

+1, school is not the thing to worry about, it's the work place. I suggest picking an engineering field that is female friendly like biomedical

[Anonymous]

Biomedical is a great suggestion.

Look at Clemson and VA Tech.

[Anonymous]

My female engineer friend was active in the Society of Women Engineers ("SWE"), a national trade organization. You could check them out.

[Anonymous]

Dartmouth. Last year they graduated more women then men in their engineering program. A first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My female engineer friend was active in the Society of Women Engineers ("SWE"), a national trade organization. You could check them out.

As a female engineer I can recommend SWE.

I went to Hopkins and was not biomedical engineering. Most other programs there were fairly small and had plenty of women.

[Anonymous]

Yes, my daughter is interested in biomedical! Question for the Hopkins grad, a friend of ours was an adjunct there and basically discouraged us from applying. He said it is so uber-competitive and she would hate her college experience. What was it like for you?

[Anonymous]

Carnegie Mellon is worth a look. They've *really* turned around the culture - and enrollment - in their computer science department. My own experiences are a bit out of date for the details to matter, but like other posters, the issues were sadly with my peers. CMU's computer science department turn around involved a focus on peer culture. Plenty of folks were skeptical. What the heck can faculty really do about that? The numbers speak -- the school of computer science is now pushing 50% women. My DS graduated from there two years ago and his experience and that school give me hope. I don't know if there's bleed over into engineering departments. I hope so -- for everyone's sake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Carnegie Mellon is worth a look. They've *really* turned around the culture - and enrollment - in their computer science department. My own experiences are a bit out of date for the details to matter, but like other posters, the issues were sadly with my peers. CMU's computer science department turn around involved a focus on peer culture. Plenty of folks were skeptical. What the heck can faculty really do about that? The numbers speak -- the school of computer science is now pushing 50% women. My DS graduated from there two years ago and his experience and that school give me hope. I don't know if there's bleed over into engineering departments. I hope so -- for everyone's sake.

Simply cannot recommend CMU for women.

Agree with Harvey Mudd! They have a great program focused on women

Also check out Olin College in Boston. Really great setup

Big state schools can actually be nice because they are not hyper competitive but very good quality. GA tech in particular is worth a look

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, my daughter is interested in biomedical! Question for the Hopkins grad, a friend of ours was an adjunct there and basically discouraged us from applying. He said it is so uber-competitive and she would hate her college experience. What was it like for you?

Hopkins person here. Love working there but your friend is right although BME has a great projects/design class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Carnegie Mellon is worth a look. They've *really* turned around the culture - and enrollment - in their computer science department. My own experiences are a bit out of date for the details to matter, but like other posters, the issues were sadly with my peers. CMU's computer science department turn around involved a focus on peer culture. Plenty of folks were skeptical. What the heck can faculty really do about that? The numbers speak -- the school of computer science is now pushing 50% women. My DS graduated from there two years ago and his experience and that school give me hope. I don't know if there's bleed over into engineering departments. I hope so -- for everyone's sake.

Simply cannot recommend CMU for women.
<cut>

Bummer. I'm not terribly surprised, but I was hopeful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Carnegie Mellon is worth a look. They've *really* turned around the culture - and enrollment - in their computer science department. My own experiences are a bit out of date for the details to matter, but like other posters, the issues were sadly with my peers. CMU's computer science department turn around involved a focus on peer culture. Plenty of folks were skeptical. What the heck can faculty really do about that? The numbers speak -- the school of computer science is now pushing 50% women. My DS graduated from there two years ago and his experience and that school give me hope. I don't know if there's bleed over into engineering departments. I hope so -- for everyone's sake.

Simply cannot recommend CMU for women.

Agree with Harvey Mudd! They have a great program focused on women

Also check out Olin College in Boston. Really great setup

Big state schools can actually be nice because they are not hyper competitive but very good quality. GA tech in particular is worth a look

Thank you, we are touring Ga Tech in May!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, my daughter is interested in biomedical! Question for the Hopkins grad, a friend of ours was an adjunct there and basically discouraged us from applying. He said it is so uber-competitive and she would hate her college experience. What was it like for you?

Hopkins person here. Love working there but your friend is right although BME has a great projects/design class.

Bummer. We've heard that BME is outstanding at Hopkins. But, also heard that many (most) grads aspire for medical school.

[Anonymous]

University of Pittsbutgh has Biomedical Engineering as does Boston University.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, my daughter is interested in biomedical! Question for the Hopkins grad, a friend of ours was an adjunct there and basically discouraged us from applying. He said it is so uber-competitive and she would hate her college experience. What was it like for you?

Hopkins person here. Love working there but your friend is right although BME has a great projects/design class.

Bummer. We've heard that BME is outstanding at Hopkins. But, also heard that many (most) grads aspire for medical school.

Yes, BME is outstanding at Hopkins. But very cutthroat bc many BMEs are angling for med school. There should be a true engineering path to separate pre-meds from non-pre-meds. (This was also my complaint about orgo.) I was a civil engineering major, with an env. engineering minor (I know it's now a major as well.) My civil engineering class had 15 students total - 5 were women. There were more females in the Env. Eng. minor (picked up some folks from chemical engineering). Loved the access to the professors in both programs. And I was asked to stay on and get a Ph.D from one of the (male) professors, along with a full ride and stipend.

[Anonymous]

UMD college park. Grad 2004. Electrical engineering and now work in defense. I had a good experience. Swe and other engineering societies to make it feel smaller. I'm still friends with many of those classmates. There were some very supportive women professors and I was lucky that most of my cohort of students seemed to not be sexist. I had a couple on campus lab research positions during my time there and those professors and grad students were very supportive and it was all merit based. If you could hack it, who cares if you were a woman. I personally don't remember any incidents or disparaging remarks (maybe I got lucky). I have a couple women friends who teach there now. I could have gone to CMU or elsewhere but chose UMD because it was free for me (dept of engineering scholarship). Coming out of school worth no debt is freeing. Oh and I work 40 hrs a week and made $60k straight out of undergrad. We hire for about that and more depending on other experience.