DS22 (junior) looking at engineering colleges. Kid has multiple interests - languages, social justice policies, robotics. Taking rigorous coursework- AP/honors, 3.95 UW GPA, 1500SAT. Current list is Rutgers (NJ resident), UMD, UDel, GATech (reach - the only tech school in the list. Kid’s dream school - but we think it’s a high reach and told him so).
We are looking for any feedback re: BU Engineering or Univ of Rochester engineering. DH and I are both grads of large public U’s and not as familiar with these private universities. I am in academia and can evaluate a program’s academic merits, but I am looking for any “extras” that would make the extra $$$$ worthwhile. Thanks!
One of my kids went to UR, but not for engineering. The draw for him was the size and the open curriculum, as well as scholarship money. He got a good education and found his “people”. My youngest was admitted to BU, but the cost was too high for any perceived value and he ended up at Pitt. He was in a smallish major there and got a good education. My middle kid went to Rugers, where he got a good education, but found the advising and support he needed to be less than ideal. We picked Pitt as it was smaller than Rutgers and U Maryland and had better offerings in his area of interest than UDel. Many NJ kids go to Penn State, but he was not interested.
BU is not much smaller (if at all) then some publics, but certainly much smaller than Rutgers. It is hard to comment on “extras” without knowing what you are looking to compare. At a smaller school there are less kids in each major so it may be easier to get into classes or to get attention. Conversely, there may be fewer professors looking for student researchers and fewer class offerings.
If you have some more specific questions, you may get more responses.
I can say the exact same about one of my boys. I can’t compare to BU or the others though. My guy’s second choice ended up being Pitt. At UR he loved that most students were involved in some sort of research (high percentage compared to other schools), but also had a love of various musical things. A home-made sign he saw while touring one of the dorms back in our visiting stage spoke volumes:
“We’re not nerds, we’re intellectual bad___es.”
Plus, my guy wasn’t into sports at all - still isn’t. So many other schools had students endlessly discussing sports during visits. It turned him off.
Besides all the academic/research things he did there he got involved in ASL, dance, and juggling. He hadn’t done any of the three before college. Now he’s pretty fluent in ASL, juggles fire and knives, and still enjoys all sorts of dancing when we go places. Oh, and he’s finishing med school.
BU has a top notch bio medical engineering program if that is something that interests him. Many other programs are highly regarded too. They used to give national merit finalist awards of 25k per year (based on PSAT), but not sure if will in the future since none of the peer institutions give that. They also have presidential awards for the same amount based on overall profile, academics, test scores, extra curricular, recommendations and the whole nine yards. But is very competitive.
Location wise Boston is the best place considering the amount of activity and energy around. Lot of institutions and companies involved in cutting edge research and development and should be relatively easier to get internships.
Overall acceptance rate this past cycle was less than 19%. May be lower for engineering, based on the field of study.
Thanks @mom2and and @Creekland for your perspectives on UR. It’s popular with many of the top students at his HS. I think my kid would appreciate the intellectual vibe there.
Thanks @rk2017 re: BU BME. I think BU Engrg would be more competitive to get in. Although his HS has about a 33% acceptance rate for BU, it’s hard to know about the engineering acceptance. I have asked my son to give both these universities a serious look.
He may want to give another one or two shots at SAT to bring it up to 1550 range, so may not only get into engineering but also be a presidential scholar. Good luck.
@rk2017 Thanks! He plans to retake the SATs. He has a perfect math score , and needs to work on the reading part of the verbal score. The last-minute cancellations from covid-19 have not made that task any easier
I know it’s attracted the attention of residency interviewers for small talk and it made his med school’s profile for his class year when they talked about things students had done. It’s definitely fun to watch. He’s said he used some of his juggling skills to soften up scared kids, but I doubt he did it with knives or fire.
On the other hand, kids might actually really like to see knives and fire. They do when he performs (outside for fire for obvious reasons). I wonder if it would soften up adults too?
