Academics at Missouri S&T

Colleges and Universities A-Z Missouri University of Science and Technology
1

<p>Please share any insight on the admission and academic situation at Missouri University of Science and Technology.</p>

<p>**************.com shows a double humped admissions skew - something I've never seen before. The average SAT is high, but do they also admit a lot of lower end students? And then flunk the out? or support them to become successful engineers?</p>

<p>Is the curriculum set up as a weed out school? (like Georgia Tech or FIT)</p>

<p>Is the engineering program focused on hands on, like Cal tech, or an old school, sit in a classroom and do problem sets for two years. </p>

<p>Internships/coops? do they really happen?</p>

<p>Do the professors speak English? are they available to the students?</p>

<p>What is the attitude of the general engineering student body towards members of the arts, global or business residential colleges who are majoring in engineering?</p>

<p>Forbes puts Mo S&T in the top 10 state Engineering schools for starting salaries. Is this due to super-salaries for a few specialties (nuclear/petroleum) are high across the board?</p>

<p>Any other insight would be welcome</p>

2

<p>To answer a few of your questions off the top of my head and without asking my son who is in his fourth semester there:</p>

<p>I don’t believe they admit many low end students, it is a tough engineering school and has a great reputation here in the mid-west. Many top high school students with high ACT/SAT scores are in for an eye opener when they begin their classes at Missouri S & T.</p>

<p>There are many lab intensive courses and programs that call for a hands-on approach to engineering. I am sure it depends on the field that you are in…I know they have a shop set up for their solar cars that they build every year.</p>

<p>My son has several friends that have already done the co-op route. I think he is going to try that between his junior and senior year. We have been told that virtually anyone who wants this will get something (it might not be their first choice though and again depends on the field of study).</p>

<p>Not sure about professors other than some do have heavy accents but just a few. My son has liked most of his professors but I don’t believe he has ever really asked any of them to be available so not sure about that.</p>

<p>Can’t speak to the attitude of the student body other than I know they believe that their school is a top school and can’t be fairly compared to any other University here in Missouri as their school is tougher in their eyes.</p>

<p>Salaries…I have only seen what Missouri S & T has put out which looks pretty good across the whole spectrum of engineering.</p>

<p>Overall, my son is having a wonderful time there. He has made some great friends and has been challenged in several of his classes. He had never been challenged in high school so this is very different for him. He has many academic scholarships which he is still holding on to! He finds the Gen Eds quite easy but the Calc and Physics the most challenging of his classes (of course, his high school did not offer either of these classes so that might be part of the trouble) but like I said he is still doing well!</p>

<p>Hope this helps!</p>

3

<p>From Graceandpeace, with permission</p>

<p>Toadstool, here is what I know. You can post if you want or not.</p>

<p>It is primarily an engineering school BS, MS and PHD and has 65 degree programs. Along with EE & ME and Civil and Aerospace it has Metallurgical, Ceramic, Petroleum, Mining, Geological, Biomedical, Mining, Nuclear and other engineering programs.</p>

<p>However, it also has a fair number of the basic Humanities and business majors.</p>

<p>It used to be a weed out school. It is less so now because it hurts their rankings, so retention rather than weed out is now their focus. </p>

<p>There is lots of hands on there, labs right away, but the hands one increases in Junior year.</p>

<p>They have A LOT of interdisciplinary teams (they are usually winners or top 3 in Solar Cars and Human Powered vehicle races). They have the only college Mining Rescue teams (the others are all professional).</p>

<p>So few woman because 90 percent of their undergrads are in Engineering and Sciences.
It is a very focused Engineering school. It is not as bad as it used to be. In the 80s it was 4 to 5 guys for every girl.</p>

<p>I don’t know about the residential colleges. That is new to me. There are dorms or Greek or off-campus houses and apartments.</p>

<p>I don’t know about gaming. I imagine that like D&D was in the 80s some students let it take over their lives and other students keep a balance.</p>

<p>Basically good grades (especially in Math and Sci) and good ACT (30 or higher) and you’re in. If you have a few points lower, then, likely in.</p>

<p>Interesting statistic is:</p>

<h1>No. 1 in the Midwest – and 12th in the nation – among public colleges for “getting rich” (Forbes.com, August 2008).</h1>

<h1>Best starting salaries in the Midwest and top 25 in the nation, according to PayScale Inc.’s survey of highest average starting salaries for graduates (PayScale.com, July 2008).</h1>

<p>Again, this has to do with their extreme focus on Engineering and high reputation in industry.</p>

<p>The type of student that goes there and succeeds is usually not just an academic nerd, but is quiet, focused, hard worker, strong work-ethic, and practical & hands-on.</p>

4

<p>The school itself is quite easy to get in. I got a 29 on the ACT and was accepted 3 days after I applied. The school also offered me the Trustees’ scholarship ($4000). But, the students are typically smart (you’ll see a dumb kid here and there) and nerdy (but friendly).</p>

<p>MS&T only has a couple of downfalls. The campus is not really attractive and the food is pretty bad. <– Part of the reason why if I choose to attend there, I’m going to stay at home (I live in Rolla).</p>

5

<p>from Dontpanic1; posted with Permission; edited by topic and personal references removed.</p>

<p>"Hello toadstool!</p>

<p>The S&T culture is pretty hard-core engineering and rather geeky. … very active and successful academic competition teams (solar car/cement boat designs, that sort of thing) …</p>

<p>You won’t find a big arts scene, esp. for someone used to the east coast. From my mid-west perspective, most colleges seem to be 100 miles from anywhere. S&T does offer a minimum number of art classes, tho they don’t count as electives for an engineering major.</p>

<p>S&T has a great reputation with major regional employers and graduates get great paying jobs. Hope this helps! – DontPanic"</p>

6

<p>Its been mentioned that some schools “weed” out students. What is that? Im a high school junior looking into both missourri S&T and georgia tech…so “weeding” sounds pretty bad/scary. Can someone elaborate more on that?</p>

7

<p>A lot of people say that Georgia Tech and Missouri are weed-out schools, but they’re not really that way anymore. I visited MS&T a couple weeks ago and they seem to have a good strategy at keeping kids in through their freshman engineering program. They give each kid an advisor who helps them decide their major, have a couple freshman engineering classes, and have unique learning communities that force the students to study with each other. Like any other top engineering school I’ve visited, during my visit all the students were studying all over campus, and it seemed to be the thing to do even though there were some participating in the St. Patty’s day celebrations. Every student I met seemed nice, intelligent, and relatively well-socialized. </p>

<p>To be honest I was amazed at my visit. The school catered to me and the ten others who were visiting on “Miner Day” perfectly. They had the department head of the mechanical and aero programs guide me around their mechanical/aero building, which is entirely brand new, state-of-the-art and one of the most impressive buildings I have seen. The campus was beautiful and well-kept. I ate at the student center, and it could’ve been one of those things where the food is better on visitors day, but the food was pretty good. </p>

<p>As for the weed-out thing, Georgia Tech is probably somewhat of a weeder school, but really it is more like a five-year program where most students fail a class or two and stay on a year. I have a friend who goes there and although she is spectacular, she knows many students who have failed classes. Over 85 percent graduate though.</p>

<p>Missouri has some statistic where they are graduating 87 percent. That is pretty respectable for an engineering school.</p>

8

<p>Missouri S&T used to be a weed out school in the 80s. I know, I went there then and I almost got weeded out. My first EE class (taken in Sophomore year) started with 36 people and after the first test had 18 people, a 50% drop.</p>

<p>Since then, US News rankings start coming out and the weed out hurt S&T (then UM-Rolla) because one of the factors is student retention. So for that reason and many other reasons (including trying to keep enrollment up) S&T really started working on helping students succeed rather than weeding them out. I think it is a good change. The school is still very hard, but if you are willing to work they will help you succeed.</p>

9

<p>bump 10 char</p>

10

<p>bump**** 1o char</p>

11

<p>Time to bump MST. What’s new? Other than Ameren and perhaps Garmin, which of the other top employers recruit there for EE or Comp E? Anyone know?</p>

<p><a href=“http://career.mst.edu/documents/COC_Services_Stats.pdf[/url]”>http://career.mst.edu/documents/COC_Services_Stats.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;