Let's talk engineering!
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Anonymous
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So, DH and I, both lawyers, have somehow spawned these STEM kids, two of whom are already in or done with college (math majors), but now #3 (an HS junior) has thrown us another curveball: she wants to study engineering. We are pretty familiar with the college application process generally, but we don't know from engineering. Furthermore, her school doesn't send a lot of kids to engineering programs, so I'm not sure her college counselor will be very helpful.
Where do we start looking? She is a very good student (mostly A's at a DC independent school) and is on track to do well on SATs (possibly around 2300+, based on practice tests). She has participated in programs at UMD for girls interested in engineering, so she can credibly state that she has explored the field and loves it. I'd welcome advice and perspectives from engineers, current engineering students and parents of current engineering students or recent grads. Many TIA! |
Anonymous
| One school for engineering that doesn't get talked about much on this site, but is fantastic for undergrad is Harvey-Mudd. |
Anonymous
| Professional Engineer here. I picked my school based of US news and world report. Selected the discipline (mech, elev, civil, aero, etc..) I was interested in and applied to the top programs (for my year anyway). I ended up in the midwest at an engineering farm. |
Anonymous
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IMHO - the selection of the major is more important than the selection of the school. To make an extreme example, a degree focused on cyber security from UMBC would likely be more marketable than a civil engineering degree from MIT.
Depending on your DD's interests, I'd try to focus on biomedical engineering, electrical engineering or something computer or health related. Stay way from simple civil or mechanical engineering. |
Anonymous
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Georgia Tech alum here- great school!
I ditto 13:44- select the discipline, then look for the rankings. |
Anonymous
| Another less well know school is Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology -ranked the nation’s top undergraduate engineering college for 15 straight years. |
Anonymous
| Also Rice |
Anonymous
I have a friend who went to Rose-Hulman. It's a great school, but just a warning, as a woman in engineering your daughter might care about this: the gender ratio is 80:20 boys:girls. Of the top rated engineering schools, MIT and Harvey Mudd have some of the most even gender ratios. I have a good friend who went to MIT who didn't even apply to Caltech because she thought the social environment would be wrong for her. MIT's gender ratio hovers around 50:50 whereas Caltech is something like 65:35, and she felt this would significantly impact her experience in college. |
Anonymous
| Purdue, Michigan |
Anonymous
| Purdue. |
Anonymous
Isn't that a plus? 
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Anonymous
| Well, you know, the odds are good but the goods are odd :-p |
Anonymous
| Mom of an employed, 2010-undergrad Virginia Tech Aerospace Engineer here. |
Anonymous
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Choose or down select to a discipline. Look at schools with that major being strong. Make sure the school is still a good fit. A friend went to Caltech (guy) and had a horrible college experience outside of class since he didn't fit with the people.
Also, as a woman, declare your major and with good scores she should be able to get some good merit aid (I ended up goin for free to UMD engineering and I wasn't all that well scoring). |
Anonymous
| This is post college but look at jobs at the patent office. Then law school, patent attorney. $$$$$$$$$$ |