Best hands-on civil eng. schools?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>My daughter is applying to schools for next fall. She has high stats (#1 in class, 4.25 GPA, 34 ACT and lots of community service) but has to work harder than the average student because of a slight learning disability. (Homework takes her longer time than most to get done.) She has enough drive and motivation to make up for any shortcomings though!</p>

<p>We've looked at all the stats but haven't had a chance to visit all the schools and I know some things come from "seeing and experiencing." So wondering if you'all could help.</p>

<p>Geographic location - not so important</p>

<p>Size of the school - would prefer smaller - but knows that if she ends up at a larger school she'll just have to get plugged in with a smaller group/club.</p>

<p>Most important - she wants to be hands on from the beginning. Fewer lectures and more "doing" is high on her wish list. </p>

<p>Also important is study abroad - but I think you can get that with most any school.</p>

<p>And she doesn't want a party school/atmosphere. She prefers old fashioned clean fun and definitely wants to be at a residential school that has lots of activities to get involved in on weekends.</p>

<p>At the moment she is leaning toward Univ. of Michigan and Michigan Tech - but those are the only two schools she's visited. She won't qualify for need based aid so she's going to have to get a really good merit scholarship if she is going to attend one of the pricier schools. </p>

<p>She's applying to a lot of schools: MI Tech, UM, Duke, Stanford, Case Western, Valparaiso, Vanderbilt, Calvin, Rose-Hulman, Colorado School of Mines, LeTourneau, Geneva, Cedarville (don't have civil so she'd have to major in mechanical instead), Messiah, Stevens, and UIUC. Also looking into maybe applying to Rice and Northwestern.</p>

<p>I know the list is long... we are just hoping that a few of them will offer her some decent merit scholarships.</p>

<p>Any advice - particularly about hands on programs? Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Why would she have Cedarville on her list if they donā€™t offer the program sheā€™s interested in? If sheā€™s not really sure what she wants to do she might be better off at a school with more options. Bucknell has a good Civil Engineering program, is a smaller school with a fairly conservative student population. I donā€™t know that it would be more hands on that any other.</p>

1 Like
3

<p>Well if you want hands on then Cal Poly SLO is your school. Their motto is learn by doing and they mean it. I just started there this year in computer engineering and within two weeks we were programming robots and games in groups. The school moves really fast though since it is 10 weeks quarters. Donā€™t get behind or you will die.</p>

4

<p>I am a little amused that places like Michigan, UIUC and Stanford are on her list if she is looking for a small school with no major party atmosphere and almost 100% hands-on. That pretty much describes the opposite of those three schools (and maybe others, I am less familiar with others on the list you provided). They are all large, have a ton of partying that goes on (though it is certainly possible to not party at those schools) and have at the very least a very healthy dose of theory to go along with the hands-on stuff.</p>

<p>As a general caveat, you wonā€™t likely find any true engineering programs that are hands-on from day one. There simply isnā€™t a good way to do that for the core classes like calculus and differential equations (abstract by nature) or physics (where all the hands-on stuff just seems forced and lame).</p>

<p>That said, I would look into places like Cal Poly-SLO, which is known as a good engineering school, is medium-sized (18,000) and is known for being fairly hands-on. Thats about the only one I am familiar with but maybe others can throw some out there. I have heard pretty good things about Bucknell as mentioned previously, but I donā€™t know how hands-on it would be.</p>

<p>The bottom line is, engineering has a pretty fair bit of theory and there is no way around that unless she wanted to do engineering technology, which is related but not exactly the same thing as engineering.</p>

5

<p>Info about engineering technology (from FAQ thread):</p>

<p>Hereā€™s a brief description of engineering technology programs. In sum, these programs require less calculus and more labs.</p>

<p>A BS in Engineering Technology (BSET) is a more hands-on and less theoretical course of study than is a BS in Engineering (BSE). These programs require less math than do BSE programs (typical BSET programs require two semesters of applied calculus, and may or may not require an applied version of differential equations). The physics required is non-calculus-based. These programs require more labs.</p>

<p>Graduates of these programs primarily get more hands-on jobs, such as test engineers, field engineers, applications engineers, manufacturing engineers or jobs in manufacturing management. They are far less likely to become design engineers.</p>

<p>There is some controversy about whether engineering technologists are engineers or not. Some call them engineering-lite programs. Two-thirds of the states will license them as PEā€™s with a couple more years of work experience than a BSE grad needs, but a small number of states will not license them regardless of their number of years of experience.</p>

<p>If you choose a BSET program, bear in mind that you may be limiting your options somewhat, compared with the options a graduate of a BSE in Engineering program will have.</p>

6

<p>Cal Poly is a huge party party schoolā€¦ It is ā€˜hands-onā€™ (whatever that really means), but students there, in general, are very active and social. </p>

<p>Granted, Iā€™m sure she could find a niche group to hang out with there and be perfectly happy. But if she is vehemently opposed to any party atmosphere, it might not be the best choice. I suggest she finds a smaller (< 5000 students) liberal arts type college with an engineering program. Harvey mudd would be a great choice, and with her stats, she would probably have no problem getting in. I canā€™t speak for the level of theory taught hereā€¦ but as others have already said, engineering, real engineering, is very much founded in theory.</p>

7

<p>To be fair, if she is vehemently opposed to any party atmosphere, college is going to be rough unless she commutes from home. There are very, very few colleges without some degree of party scene.</p>

8

<p>Take a look at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, CA. It is a very small school, and very intense. All of the students work hard, and are very supportive of each other. Mudd only has a general engineering degree, but its students succeed in the full range of engineering disciplines because of the breadth of training. It is hands-on with design projects early in the curriculum. There is a machine shop course to make some tools. All seniors work on an engineering clinic project for a outside sponsor in their senior year. Harvey Mudd has made a great effort to attract qualified women students, so the gender ratio is closer to even than most engineering-oriented schools.</p>

9

<p>There is always some amount of initial coursework needed before getting into engineering courses. However, our engineering students (Illinois Tech) get a relatively practical, hands-on introduction to engineering in their first semester. This is really to make sure they know what their chosen major is all about. Outside of classes there are always opportunities for hands on activities such as the robotics club. i suspect that this is the case in most schools.</p>

<p>As for a party atmosphere, tech schools such the [Association</a> of Independent Technological Universities: AITU](<a href=ā€œhttp://theaitu.org%5DAssociationā€>http://theaitu.org) universities tend not to have as much of that going on merely because of the workload required to be successful.</p>

<p>Finally, there is likely more merit aid from private schools but the tuition starting point is also higher than your in-state public university. Look for special scholarship programs at your target schools and make sure you are being considered.</p>

1 Like
10

<p>My DD enoyed her small cohort (13 students) at USC Viterbi School of Engineering. She was in the Civil Engineering-Building Science program, a joint program with the School of Architecture. Your daughter would be a good candidate for a major merit scholarship there.
There are a lot of hands on opportunities in ECs: Engineers without Borders, Concrete Canoe, etc. This school attracts a number of extremely unique and interesting women students. There is also an excellent humanities honors program (Thematic Option) for those students who are seeking small classes with other top students. My DD liked the combination of humanities and engineering.</p>

11

<p>Thanks for all the responses - very helpful! We havenā€™t looked at Harvey Mudd so weā€™ll need to do that. My daughter isnā€™t opposed to partying - she just doesnā€™t want to be in that group or go to a school where that is their major reputation. (i.e. in Michigan - Ferris State is considered the REAL party school.)</p>

<p>Sheā€™s only considering the larger schools because with size comes opportunities and cool labs!</p>

<p>From reading the boards my daughterā€™s beginning to get concerned that there wonā€™t be good job opportunities in civil so sheā€™s thinking sheā€™d better find a school that has civil and biomedical engineering so that she has some options if she changes her mind. She absolutely loves math and is dual enrolled this year. Sheā€™ll have 29 credits from our community college - hopefully theyā€™ll transfer somewhere! Included in those are Calculus 1 through 3. Sheā€™s also taking Physics for Engineers, Statics and Strengths (which probably wonā€™t transfer), Eng. Composition, History and Macroeconomics.</p>

<p>Tough choices for a 17 year old! Her main goals in life - use her brain for something challenging in math or science and work overseas and travel. Sheā€™s hoping that engineering might help her do that - although part of her is worried that overseas sheā€™ll be discriminated against since sheā€™s female. Sheā€™s also very interested in forensicsā€¦ but that might have to be grad school.</p>

12

<p>Forensics engineering would be a good field to go into. Insurance companies use forensics engineers a lot to investigate claims. Nelson Architectural Engineers, close to Dallas, has done VERY well in this area. Sometimes itā€™s not the most exciting work (measuring deflections, moisture, etc. in the field), but itā€™s steady.</p>

13

<p>Forensic engineering sounds like an interesting field. One year I had a highly capable Mech Eng co-op that went on to work for a big corporation. He got tired of pushing paperwork and writing quality reports. He is much happier now at a small forensics firm.</p>

<p>Harvey Mudd is a great school for the right kid, but I donā€™t see it as a good fit for a student wanting a lot of hands on. It has really intense academics. </p>

<p>One of my friends had a son that started as a civil engineer major. He later switched to construction management and likes that a lot more. It sounds like OPā€™s daughter is looking for more pure engineering, but Iā€™m mentioning it because these threads get a variety of readers.</p>

14

<p>Iowa State University, a ranked engineering school, offers great merit aid for out of state students and engineering specific study abroad opportunities.</p>

<p>I have a daughter at Colorado School of Mines but cannot recommend it for yours. The workload is very heavy and can be difficult to manage. The social life revolves around the Greek houses and binge drinking is a problem.</p>

15

<p>Iā€™m about to graduate as a civil and most of the hands on experience came during senior year:</p>

<ul>
<li>Reinforced concrete fabrication (making concrete beams and cylinders and breaking it under stress)</li>
<li>Water treatment (using different tools to measure water quality)</li>
<li>Hydraulics (basically hand measuring head of water flows for different pipe/channel configurations)</li>
<li>Soil mechanics (measuring different soil properties)</li>
<li>Transportation (speed surveys)</li>
<li>Surveying (going outside and doing land surveys)</li>
<li>Material science (yielding materials under stress, looking at microscopic structure of different materials, making things rust)</li>
</ul>

<p>I think I got a decent hands on experience for civil and it was structured perfectly for passing the EIT. It was math heavy/problem solving in the beginning, then some writing with oral presentations, then technical writing heavy + hands on experience. What our school really pushed was being able to write, which is what industry lacked from prospective students. I really donā€™t think a civil program can be very hands on straight off the bat though. Mechanical or electrical/computer engineering maybe a different storyā€¦but I think for all engineering programs, itā€™s math/number crunching heavy in the beginning so you get the fundamentals to be able to understand/do the hand-on stuff better.</p>

<p>Forgot to mention, a lot of universities are heavily research based. So you have professors that arenā€™t in the civil industry or havenā€™t been. Theyā€™re all researchers that wonā€™t be doing any hands on activities for studentsā€¦so I would do some research on that. Iā€™m at a state college so most of the professors are in the industry or have been.</p>

16

<p>CO School of Mines is a tough school. Iā€™m not aware of the greek emphasis or drinking more than other schools, but they did recently rank lowest on one survey for ā€œsex lifeā€ (there is high % males, no other schools nearby).</p>

17

<p>Take a look at Olin and visit, if possible.</p>

18

<p>Yes, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering is a really good college for engineering , also the girls are around 50%. It is also considered as the ā€œnew ivyā€</p>

19

<p>ā€œSheā€™s applying to a lot of schools: MI Tech, UM, Duke, Stanford, Case Western, Valparaiso, Vanderbilt, Calvin, Rose-Hulman, Colorado School of Mines, LeTourneau, Geneva, Cedarville (donā€™t have civil so sheā€™d have to major in mechanical instead), Messiah, Stevens, and UIUC. Also looking into maybe applying to Rice and Northwestern. I know the list is longā€¦ we are just hoping that a few of them will offer her some decent merit scholarships.ā€</p>

<p>Rose-Hulman is definitely a small school that puts an emphasis on hands-on projects while also teaching the necessary theory. RH also offers signficant merit aid. My son really liked the school but in the end decided against it because of its location. The Michigan schools are obviously well known for their quality engineering education but are also very very large institutions. Iā€™ll plug Va Tech (very large but not as large as UM) that is known for ā€œhands on - minds onā€ approach to education. They have a lot of cool labs; students are required to work on projects; and they have a living learning community for female engineers. I think your daughter would get some merit aid but not sure how much.</p>

<p>Most large state universities will have co-op internships and study abroad. So, look for any differences that might be of special interest to your daughter. For example, do they have special mentoring opportunities for female engineers? </p>

<p>Some of the schools on your list (e.g., Duke, Stanford) are prestigious but quite expensive even with likely aid and may not offer any advantage in civil engineering. Since your daughter hasnā€™t started yet it may be wise to go with a university that offers a complete range of engineering majors.</p>

20

<p>ā€œSheā€™s only considering the larger schools because with size comes opportunities and cool labs!ā€</p>

<p>Olin is small, highly selective, and there are so many amazing research opportunities and cool labs for all students just because of the size. Donā€™t let the ā€˜sizeā€™ limit your daughter. Itā€™s best to visit Olin to see if itā€™s a good fit but seeing the a school with an actual gender balance in engineering is refreshing.</p>

<p>Olin does not offer Civil Engineering but itā€™s probably a good idea as an undergraduate to go with general engineering, mechanical, or electrical and computer engineering degree and focus on a specialized type of engineering in grad school.</p>