Engineering schools that won’t crush my child’s soul

[Anonymous]

Mine chose Rice engineering for exactly this reason. Had the stats and ECs for anywhere, but really wanted a collaborative environment for engineering.

[Anonymous]

You can just have a degree and call yourself an engineer (feel good) and work as engineering admin kinda a position or tough it out if you have it. It s up to you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mine chose Rice engineering for exactly this reason. Had the stats and ECs for anywhere, but really wanted a collaborative environment for engineering.

I've heard Rice is great as well! OP, if your kid does go for Rice, demonstrated interest is important, and ED helps a lot — the most recent CDS shows an RD admit rate of 7.1%, but an ED admit rate of 16.8%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mine chose Rice engineering for exactly this reason. Had the stats and ECs for anywhere, but really wanted a collaborative environment for engineering.

I've heard Rice is great as well! OP, if your kid does go for Rice, demonstrated interest is important, and ED helps a lot — the most recent CDS shows an RD admit rate of 7.1%, but an ED admit rate of 16.8%.

Ugh...I hate being in the donut hole. Rice would be a great fit for my kid. I just can't afford $90K OOP for 4 years

[Anonymous]

Bucknell

Harvey Mudd

These are programs really known for good undergraduate engineering instruction.

[Anonymous]

Bucknell engineers are known for building pipelines and Streets.

(Sorry, having a day and couldn't resist.)

[Anonymous]

Purdue

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do not consider Virginia Tech. As a parent, I had the rudest responses from them. I asked if it was possible -to just- plan for 5 years to complete the program. Plan from the beginning, plan to take a lighter load. Instead of explaining why not or just saying a simple no, they were insulting, berated what they thought were my DD's qualifications - based on nothing. They did not know, die not know her stellar qualifications.

That’s worrisome to hear this about Virginia tech. Anyone else have experience with Virginia tech?

My senior engineering Hokie is living her best life in Blacksburg. Has had good classes and profs, lots of friends, involved on campus, paid internships every summer, 2 years of research with a faculty member, and multiple job offers for post grad (one of which she's taken). She went to Nationals the last 2 years with her design team, and that bunch does a lot together socially, as does the small group of kids in a sport she's involved with. Serves as an ambassador for her major, as well. It's one of the smaller engineering majors so she knows a lot of her classmates. Has had no trouble getting the classes she's wanted, even in her first year. She loves the outdoorsy stuff, the off the charts school spirit, goes to football and basketball games. Her advising has been good, and it was 100% the right choice for her. She turned down some great schools including Purdue and a T10 and has zero regrets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Purdue

I’ve heard they way they structure FYE basically competing with all other FYE for specific placement to certain engineering fields after first year is not a great environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD went to Cornell (MechE) and I would not recommend it if you are concerned about this. She had a good experience overall and is now employed with lifelong college friends, but it was ROUGH and I think the experience permanently affected her self esteem. Still, if asked, she'd probably say that she would make the same choice if she had a do over...
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I will second this. My DD graduated from Cornell Engineering in 2024. They seem to take a perverse pride in the program being a grind. Was not impressed by the availability of the professors. It was good training and my daughter enjoyed other parts of Cornell but it was not fun. I think this is true at many of the top engineering programs.

A friend's kid with a 1600 SAT is at Cornell and I also hear reports from him that it's an enormous amount of work.

[Anonymous]

Easiest thing to do is to find out what the average test score is for engineering students. Then send your student somewhere where he is 90th percentile or above.

[Anonymous]

Syracuse. Totally underrated engineering program

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Easiest thing to do is to find out what the average test score is for engineering students. Then send your student somewhere where he is 90th percentile or above.

My kid is basically in this situation and it’s still kind of a grind. Not like get weeded out but it’s just a lot of work, time consuming labs, etc.

[Anonymous]

URI

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WPI seemed almost joyful when we visited, although with the fast paced quarters, kids still work hard. Rose Hulman has small classes, even freshman year, which helps foster relationships with professors, which is protective against stress.

Yeah, but the kids at WPI and Rose seemed weird. High percentage of neurodivergent

No recent graduates of either have been neurodivergent in my workplace. I am skeptical of the claim.