<p>My son is struggling like most high school seniors to make a decision. He has been accepted to UVa, Tufts, U of Delware (honors program), and Lafayette College (Marquis Scholar) and wait listed at Cornell and Duke. He is going in without declaring a major, but his interests are in electrical or systems engineering, physics, and computer science. He is looking for an academic challenge (professors who push the students and students who push each other) and is also concerned about the depth and breadth of programs (a wide enough variety of classes across subjects and within his major in case his interests change).</p>
<p>How do these schools compare for programs as well as social life? Any input to help make this comparison and decision would be great.</p>
<p>What are the finances like, and does it make a difference? Would it be likelier than not that he'd be headed toward a terminal masters degree in engineering?</p>
<p>When my daughter and I visited Tufts, our tour guide was an engineering student. She made the point that Tufts is one of the few universities that graduates more engineers than it enrolls. The engineering program is so attractive and hospitable that more people transfer into engineering than out of it. That's very rare, and I think it speaks well for Tufts.</p>
<p>Tufts is also the only school on your son's list with easy access to a major city. Does he care about that?</p>
<p>In my (probably biased) opinion, a student with the credentials to get into UVa and Tufts probably would not find sufficient challenge at UDel, even in its honors program.</p>
<p>These are four distinct schools, with very different cultures. You might want to visit each to see whether one has the right "feel" to it.</p>
<p>I would agree with Marian about UDel. At our visit to the Honors program (last year), we found that in my daughter's area of interest, many Honors classes seemed to be Honors recitation sessions tacked onto the regular lecture classes. Perhaps that is different in engineering or has changed over the year. </p>
<p>You might also note that UDel has a large "party" population. That said, it is well know for an excellent engineering department.</p>
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In my (probably biased) opinion, a student with the credentials to get into UVa and Tufts probably would not find sufficient challenge at UDel, even in its honors program.
<p>DD is an Honors freshman at UD. She's found her Honors classes challenging, including the ones that were a section of a regular course. She also found that quite a few of her classmates were unable to make the GPA to stay in Honors. Whether or not that could be considered challenging for your son, I don't know.
As for the "party" reputation, my daughter did find that there is a lot of partying but no more that what her friends are experiencing at other schools without that reputation. She's not a partying type and after the first few weeks was able to find plenty of opportunities to have fun and friends without drinking.
Her best friend is a freshman at Tufts and is happy. She hasn't ventured into Boston at all but likes knowing it's there.
I'm a firm believer in making the most of wherever you go. My nephew is partying his way through Cornell. What a waste of $$.</p>
<p>Indeed. Having researched engineering schools pretty thoroughly, U Del is a very decent school. He will certainly be challenged there.</p>
<p>By the way, has he been accepted into the engineering programs at all these schools? I am confused about him going in without declaring a major...</p>
<p>First, let me thank all of you for your help. He has been accepted to Arts and Sciences in these schools since he is not sure he will end up in engineering (maybe some other "hard science.") His plan is to continue on to graduate school and so he wants to be challenged in undergrad and present well to graduate schools. He did not want to go to a school located in a city, but was initially intrigued by Tufts proximity to Boston. His overnight stay though did leave him uneasy. Right now, he appears to be leaning towards UVa, except that he is concerned about the distance from home (about 6-7 hours). At this point it appears that UDe is out of the picture for him, but he is still considering the others. As most parents, I am just trying to give him info to help him make his decision. I certainly welcome any info you can share. Thanks.</p>
<p>Have you visited Lafayette? It is the outlier in size among the choices. Our impression during college visits was that this school is unusually "nurturing." They talked about how you simply cannot get "lost" there; that if a student fails to show up for class, the prof will email - not to "track down" the student, but to make sure that all is well.</p>
<p>Some students would find that a turn-off, I imagine (if it is true). Others would probably find it exactly what they seek.</p>
<p>It can be extremely difficult to transfer into engineering for students that do not start off in that program. Since this is going vary by school you really need to find out from each school what time frame they allow for transfers into the engineering program (i.e. time frame for your son to make up his mind). You also need to ask each school if such transfers can be accomplished without adding to the length of time required to complete the degree program. A lot really depends on whether non-engineering students can take the prerequisite classes required for the engineering degree before transferring into that major.</p>
<p>Marian's statement is definitely true. It's also a testament to how well engineering school at Tufts treats its students -- it has an above-average transfer rate from arts & sciences to engineering!</p>
<p>Lafayette doesn't have different "schools" so transferring wouldn't be an issue. I suggest if your son thinks he might want to be an engineer, he should start out in the engineering curriculum. Engineering is so disciplined about having to take certain courses in a certain order that coming into it late could mean an extra semester or year of school - expensive! If he starts by taking engineering classes, it wouldn't be hard to switch out if he changes his mind and he'd have his quantitative/tech/science electives covered.</p>
<p>Either Lafayette or Tufts would definitely challenge him academically, both the professors and fellow students. </p>
<p>I definitely think you should try to visit all the campuses.</p>