Undergrad Engineering Question

[Anonymous]

What about union college?

[Anonymous]

Is Michigan engineering really at the stress level of Berkeley and Cornell?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:P.S. His friends in the school of business are always trying to get him to party on weeknights. Luckily he has the fortitude to decline their invitations.

Depends on the school.

[Anonymous]

How 'reputable' is U San Diego?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First, I recognize engineering is hard anywhere. Lots of math and coursework generally that is difficult for most students.

That being said, can any of you discuss colleges your engineering student attended that were not the top schools or not the stress factories that others might have been?

Example:

Top schools might be MIT, Caltech or something like that (please no school comparisons). Then there are the Michigans, GA Tech, and maybe after Purdue, VA Tech, etc.

I am looking for schools below these that are not as much of a wringer. Again I know engineering will be hard anywhere. Hard work is one thing, but white knuckle environments are another matter.

Hope this description helps. My student has As and Bs in all his STEM classes and several APs, I just would like to see if we can focus on colleges where he might be the 50th percentile or higher if that makes sense. Thank you.

P.S. Bonus points if you may have even worked with your student to help them "back off" from the top schools to others and can relate that experience.

So the top schools are nororious for grade inflation. Let me give you an example. Auburn is (or was at least) considered easy to get into. However they are NOTORIOUS for how hard their engineering and math departments are. Google it you will see.

However Georgia Tech is also notorious for being difficult to both get into and stay in.

I think if you want an "easier" school with grade inflation you actually need to stick to top schools for the most part. Do not make the assumption that a school that is hard to get into actually has equally hard academics.

Also figuring out what the 50 percentile is for Engineering programs is difficult. I've called VT several times and they will NOT give me the stats for their College of Engineering. They keep spouting off the admit rate for the entire college. This is just ridiculas becuase the business school will tell you the stats (20% admit rate), but engineering won't. It makes it very hard to judge if VT is worth applying for if your kid is at 50% of the published CDS numbers. I'd say for engineering programs if CDS shows your kid is 75%, then that *might" translate to 50% even lower for the enginerring program. I have heard that VT engineering has a minimum 700 SAT for Math, but that could be BS rumor.

Problem with engineering is your kid is a smart kid competing with all the other smart kids who also like school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Is Michigan engineering really at the stress level of Berkeley and Cornell?

My impression has been that big state schools often use the intro classes as weed out classes because they don't have room in upper level classes for everyone. While smaller and engineering-focused schools try harder to use those intro classes to make sure students have the tools to succeed in upper level courses.

[Anonymous]

South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

[Anonymous]

Bucknell and it is ABET certified. I hear it has great career and internship support.

[Anonymous]

My son graduated from Virginia Tech engineering. Its was tough and a lot of work. But he was able to manage it. Had a great friend group, went to football games, lots of school spirit. He got onto a great project team. The recruiting was very impressive. He is now a software engineer at Google.

My daughter is currently in Cornell engineering. Her experience has been pretty miserable. Really intense workload. Hard to get access to professors. Very much sink or swim. My son feels they cover material faster, and in fewer courses, than what he saw at Virginia Tech. It seems pretty difficult to get onto a project team or to do undergraduate research (might vary by major?). She finds it hard to find time for a football game. So far, I've not been impressed by the on-campus recruiting, which is also too Wall-street heavy for what my daughter wants.

So, while you can argue that Cornell is more prestigious (and maybe that pays off in the long-run), my son had a better experience at Virginia Tech. I can see where it makes sense for some students to go to a less intense engineering program (and Virginia Tech is plenty tough) but I wonder if most engineering programs aren't intense given the nature of the engineering curriculum and ABET requirements (chemistry, physics, calculus, etc. before you get into the major).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son graduated from Virginia Tech engineering. Its was tough and a lot of work. But he was able to manage it. Had a great friend group, went to football games, lots of school spirit. He got onto a great project team. The recruiting was very impressive. He is now a software engineer at Google.

My daughter is currently in Cornell engineering. Her experience has been pretty miserable. Really intense workload. Hard to get access to professors. Very much sink or swim. My son feels they cover material faster, and in fewer courses, than what he saw at Virginia Tech. It seems pretty difficult to get onto a project team or to do undergraduate research (might vary by major?). She finds it hard to find time for a football game. So far, I've not been impressed by the on-campus recruiting, which is also too Wall-street heavy for what my daughter wants.

So, while you can argue that Cornell is more prestigious (and maybe that pays off in the long-run), my son had a better experience at Virginia Tech. I can see where it makes sense for some students to go to a less intense engineering program (and Virginia Tech is plenty tough) but I wonder if most engineering programs aren't intense given the nature of the engineering curriculum and ABET requirements (chemistry, physics, calculus, etc. before you get into the major).

+1 My niece dropped out of engineering at Cornell and entering the college of Arts and Sciences there. She had a miserable freshman year. Says kids at Cornell are mean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:P.S. His friends in the school of business are always trying to get him to party on weeknights. Luckily he has the fortitude to decline their invitations.

Depends on the school.

What depends on the school?

[Anonymous]

Cornell engineering is known for its difficulty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cornell engineering is known for its difficulty.

+1

Cornell STEM programs are known to be very tough.

[Anonymous]

OLIN, RIP

[Anonymous]

Case western
Lafayette