Can't find the right engineering school..

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>I'm a senior in high school, and I've been applying to colleges. I want to peruse a career in Electrical Engineering, but I can't find a good school for me. I live in New Jersey, so the obvious first thoughts were Rowan, Rutgers, NJIT, and Stevens. There's a few problems though.
Rowan and Rutgers don't offer an electrical engineering degree, they offer a combined computer and electrical engineering degree. This mean that I would have to take way more CE classes than I am interested in. I want a pure EE focus.
Money is an issue, so Stevens gets crossed out there, can't be paying upwards to 60k a year for school.<br>
I've been accepted into NJIT, and am reapplying for the honors program with my new SATs, but I'm kind of skeptical. One it's in Newark, and that's pretty shady on its own, and two I've heard very mixed reviews on the school. </p>

<p>My weighted gpa is 3.85 (freshman year 3.44 sophomore year 4.06 junior year 4.06 first quarter senior year 4.06)
My sat is only an 1800
550 CR
740 math
510 writing
1290 math + cr. </p>

<p>Honors classes taken:
Honors Geometry: Grade 9 (C, class was proof heavy and she didn't teach proofs properly)
Algebra 2: Grade 10 (A)
Chemistry: Grade 10 (A)
Precalc: Grade 11 (A)
US2: Grade 11 (B)
Physics: Grade 11 (A)
Calc: Grade 12 (First quarter A)</p>

<p>Ap classes:
Computer Science: Grade 10 (A, 3 on the exam because we didn't prepare for it)
Physics B: Grade 12 (First quarter A)</p>

<p>(would have taken ap calc and physics c but only physics b is offered and ap calc conflicts with physics sadly)
I am self studying for the calc AB exam and the physics c mechanics exam this year</p>

<p>The school I'm looking for needs to be reasonable in cost, have a good electrical engineering program (not a ECE degree, just EE), and I would prefer a medium size school in a relatively safe neighborhood. </p>

<p>The only other schools I have in mind right now are Virginia Tech (too big to attend probably) and University of Maryland (reach, don't think I have a shot) </p>

<p>Honestly I'm just completely lost. I took an intro to engineering course junior year and when we covered circuits and briefly touched on things like semiconductors, I fell in love. I'm really excited to go to college, but I'm nervous that I won't get the experience I'm hoping for. Academics is my priority, I don't care about a thriving social life. </p>

<p>Btw also a first gen college student, not sure if that helps</p>

2

<p>ECE at Rutgers has an EE option and a CE option. Only four CE/CS courses are required for the EE option, and it is unlikely that other EE degree programs have significantly fewer, as any engineering degree program these days will include a course or two of computing for engineers.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.ece.rutgers.edu/files/undergraduate/ECE-curricula-with-info.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ece.rutgers.edu/files/undergraduate/ECE-curricula-with-info.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Take a look at the actual degree requirements before writing off an ECE or EECS degree program.</p>

3

<p>Solely an EE degree here at NC State (we have a separate CE too):
[Electrical</a> Engineering Curriculum - Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering](<a href=“http://www.ece.ncsu.edu/undergraduate/ee_curriculum]Electrical”>http://www.ece.ncsu.edu/undergraduate/ee_curriculum)</p>

<p>A little about Ncsu.
[Why</a> NC State? - Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering](<a href=“http://www.ece.ncsu.edu/undergraduate/top10]Why”>http://www.ece.ncsu.edu/undergraduate/top10)</p>

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<p>Ucbalumnus, look at this quote
“We have two options, Electrical Engineering option and Computer Engineering option. Both options lead to the same degree, BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering.”
Off the same link you posted. I did do my research. I’m not saying Rutgers has a bad program at all, it is well ranked and I’ve heard from friends that Rutgers engineering is great. What I’m saying I that the program isn’t for me. I’m alright with taking some CS classes as I like CS, but CE doesn’t really interest me, and as is shown on the rutger curriculum CE and EE options only have a difference of like 4 classes, and that’s not what I’m looking for</p>

5

<p>Why do you think you don’t like CE? To be honest, CE is really just a subset of EE with more programming and less signals and systems. Try reading the course descriptions, I think they’ll be fairly similar.</p>

6

<p>I am going to go to USA to study EE next year.
I intend to go to CSU “Cleveland State University”,
CSUOHIO.edu go to the website and check it , it’s awesome plus you will have the Big City experience. :D</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>Each curriculum has at least 6 technical electives, so the difference cannot be just 4 courses (which looks like the difference in just the specified courses). You can use the 6 technical electives to take more EE courses, while those in the CE option will likely take more CE/CS courses.</p>

<p>NCSU’s EE curriculum looks like it has 3 CE/CS type courses in it.</p>

8

<p>Have you considered Colorado school of mines? All of my friends that are engineers are going there! It’s a great program. Also MSU in Bozeman MT has great engineering programs! And the college life is great! My brother goes there for civil engineering and LOVES IT!</p>

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<p>szimmy666 “The only other schools I have in mind right now are Virginia Tech (too big to attend probably) and University of Maryland (reach, don’t think I have a shot)”</p>

<p>UMD College Park and VT would both qualify as large rather than medium sized universities. I definitely don’t think UMD would be more of a reach than VT. The math portion of your SAT is probably the most important of the SAT scores and yours is very good. The only thing that I can see hurting your chances is that you’ve taken few AP courses. How much it hurts is going to depend upon whether your HS had many AP courses available (but you chose not to challenge yourself). My suggestion would be to apply to both schools and see what happens. Make sure to visit if you are accepted.</p>

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<p>It isn’t that I don’t find CE interesting, I do. I love programming, it’s just the classes like computer architecture that put me off from CE, and in general I don’t find CE electives too interesting. I wouldn’t mind taking some programming classes (actually I would love it) it’s just that I’m not interested in the higher level CE courses, I’m fine with the concept, I just don’t particularly like that sub branch of EE</p>

<p>As for everyone else thanks for your suggestions, I’ll be sure to check them out</p>

<p>And to the person who asked about my lack of ap’s (on the mobile app, can’t see your name right now) it’s not that I didn’t try and challenge myself, it’s that most of the ap’s didn’t interest me.
I’m not a fan of history or literature, so there goes 11th grade lit, apush, apeuro, and 12 grade lit, there’s ap psych and enviromental science which didn’t interest me. I didn’t like bio, so that was out. I would have taken ap chem along with physics, but they are in the same slot (terrible scheduling by my school, physics calc 1 and chem in the same slot). The only other ap’s are art (I can barely draw a free body diagram), the foreign languages (my middle school didn’t offer languages, so I started at Italian 1 freshman year), stat (which conflicted with my 12th grade language requirement to graduate) and computer science, which I took. </p>

<p>Looking back I wish that I had doubled up on math freshman year so I would be in calc 2 right now, but that’s in the past.</p>

11

<p>Will you be qualifying for FA? You might find your out-of-pocket cost is much lower than the sticker price.</p>

12

<p>How about TCNJ</p>

<p>[Electrical</a> Engineering (BSEE) :: School of Engineering :: The College of New Jersey](<a href=“http://www.tcnj.edu/~engsci/electrical_computer/elec_curriculum.html]Electrical”>Electrical and Computer Engineering | Electrical and Computer Engineering)</p>

13

<p>What are your cost constraints? OOS tuition for state schools can sometimes be pricey.</p>

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<p>Don’t rule out any school based on cost. Even if you don’t get FA, you may get significant merit scholarships. I know Steven’s and Rowan both give good merit scholarships. Also, you must visit each school if you haven’t already done so. You will gain a wealth of knowledge about the academics, as well as the “feel” of the campus. Even if you don’t care about social life, the school must be a good fit for you all around, or you won’t thrive academically.</p>

15

<p>Have you checked out SUNY programs? OOS tuition at SUNYs is not terrible, Dtr attends Buffalo as ChemE major, her boyfriend is EE major(current Jrs). Both have done well re internships/REUs ect</p>

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<p>Busybeemom raises a very good point - don’t rule out a school because of its sticker price. As Busybeemom said, Stevens gives out signficant grants and scholarships (in the form of both financial aid and merit scholarships):</p>

<p>Below, is Stevens net price by income level. Net Price is the cost of attendance minus scholarships and grants:</p>

<p>Average Net Price by Income Level
(2010-11 Academic Year)</p>

<p>$0-$30,000 $17,046
$30,001-$48,000 $20,927
$48,001-$75,000 $24,134
$75,001-$110,000 $29,126
$110,001+ $32,801</p>