Does size of college matter if in engineering?

[Anonymous]

Make sure the school is big enough to offer other majors he maybe interested in case he changes his mind later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I think you are making this more difficult than it needs to be. Just go to your instate flagship engineering program. The flagships usually offer variety of engineering majors and a lot of different research activities your DC can join. Unlike years ago when many of us were in school, having research experience/internship is a must now days.

In Maryland it is very difficult to get into UMCP-Engineering. DS was not admitted last year to UMCP-Engineering with similar stats to OPs kid (although he was admitted to UMCP letters and sciences). He ended up matriculating at a top 25 university instead. DS's roommate this year ended up being another boy from a MD high school with a perfect unweighted 4.0 who also was not admitted to UMCP-Engineering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I think you are making this more difficult than it needs to be. Just go to your instate flagship engineering program. The flagships usually offer variety of engineering majors and a lot of different research activities your DC can join. Unlike years ago when many of us were in school, having research experience/internship is a must now days.

In Maryland it is very difficult to get into UMCP-Engineering. DS was not admitted last year to UMCP-Engineering with similar stats to OPs kid (although he was admitted to UMCP letters and sciences). He ended up matriculating at a top 25 university instead. DS's roommate this year ended up being another boy from a MD high school with a perfect unweighted 4.0 who also was not admitted to UMCP-Engineering.

But they offer gateway courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Harvey Mudd is one of the best small schools for engineering yet has the four other stellar claremont colleges for a bigger experience and social life

It really is an amazing school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of the schools mentioned here are more than a little difficult to get into. This kid really needs to be an academic superstar to be accepted at CalTech or Harvey Mudd.

OP here. Thank you everyone for the helpful comments so far. I guess based on PP's comment above, I should add that dc is not an academic superstar. Will be sitting for ACT this w/e and has been scoring 34-35 on practice tests, PSAT in 99% from 10th grade, but gpa is a bit lackluster. If this year goes well, it will be 4.1, otherwise somewhere in the 4.0. Will likely have 8-9 APs by end of HS. So "rigorous" but not "very/most rigorous" by public HS standards.

Based on the comments so far, it sounds like larger schools/program may be advantageous. Another question I have is how important is it to show interest in engineering on your application? Dc just decided he may be interested in engineering recently, so there isn't a long history of involvement with robotics and the like to be put on applications. I am thinking about an engineering summer camp this summer but wondering if they are beneficial. By "beneficial," I am referring to both for admissions purposes as well as in helping him determine whether engineering is the right path for him.

There are certainly medium and smaller sized colleges with strong engineering programs. My kids are early hs aged so I may be out of touch with college admit requirements, but those stats seem like your son would be a great candidate at Duke, Rice, Wash U, and probably for merit aid at Carnegie Mellon and Bucknell. All strong engineering programs.

This is OP. I would love to believe this but a weighted 4.0-4.1 gpa from public is pretty low for these schools.

Ah, didn't realize weighted - this is new lingo for me as mine are early hs Well, then given your DC's interest in a smaller school plus engineering, you can use the College Board site to figure out matches and then weed by GPA/ACT scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to Cal Poly SLO and that seemed a good size. There were a lot of engineering students and they definitely stuck together at study time (same with the architecture students)

Excellent undergrad engineering program.

My concern would be that my son went there, discovered he didn't like engineering and then was at SLO for his degree.

I have a business degree from there with a minor in statistics. I've done quite well in my career and think I got a great education there. It was also my dad's first choice recruiting school for grads in information technology and graphic design (his field and why he pushed for me to go there). However, I will concede that it's not as well known outside of California so getting a 1st job outside of CA may be more challenging (my 1st job was in CA and then I moved to DC when hired by one of my clients).

Another important consideration for prospective students is that it is very hard to change majors. Most majors are impacted so they don't take many transfers and since you start your major classes in freshman year, switching can set you back a lot. One of the things that's great about Cal Poly is that, because you start your major freshman year, kids are generally pretty focused on what they want to do but that also means it's not a good place for the undecided student.

Yes, the impacted major... our final decision with SLO and Cal was that we might make a different decision if we paid in-state prices, but at our price, the lack of access to so many majors with a curious but undecided kid made the schools feel overpriced.