<p>Any one have any thoughts about the relative merits of attending either school? I am going into ChemE and will probably go for a PhD after graduation.</p>
<p>well no one has ever heard of rose hulman and case-western is supposed to have the 2nd hardest work load in any US college (1st being MIT). and case also has the some of the most least happy students according to a princeton review list. base don these two things and since rose-hulman seems nice i would go there.</p>
<p>i live in cleveland and the case campus is kind of lame if that makes a difference to you.</p>
<p>Never heard of Rose??? In the industry they are a very well known school. In fact please talk to some people in Engineering and you will find most know about this school and have excellent comments about the school. </p>
<p>I am also looking at Rose and have talked to several people in the industry about 15 (CEOs, Vice Presidents, Managers) and all know Rose and have high regards. </p>
<p>You may want to do a search on the forum and see other discussions about Rose.</p>
<p>I cannot comment on Case but I've been to Rose twice and really like it. It is a school worth looking at.</p>
<p>my bad, i guess my comment was unwarranted. listen to whiz.</p>
<p>but the case stuff is true</p>
<p>I'm a junior (in biomedical engineering) at Case and my brother graduated from Rose (computer engineering) two years ago, so I have a pretty good feel for the differences between the schools. I was also accepted to Rose, but ended up choosing Case.</p>
<p>First of all, a major difference is the feel of campus. Case is in a city. You can take public transportation to get anywhere and do whatever you want. Rose is much more secluded, on a beautiful campus a ways out of town. In my brother's experience, people were always willing to share rides into town. I'm not going to go into a comparison of Cleveland versus Terre Haute...while that was definitely a factor for me, it's also a matter of personal preference. (I thought I would attend a secluded school like Rose, but I love the atmosphere of going to college in a city). Keep in mind that both schools are somewhat "nerdy" schools...weekends at either school are probably not going to be beer fests...</p>
<p>I would also suggest that you think long and hard about whether chem engineering is really going to be what you want to study for the next 4 years of your life. Rose offers almost exclusively engineering majors, while Case offers a wide range of majors. I have known several people at Case that have decided that engineering isn't what they thought it would be, and they have been happy to switch to management or a pure science. If biomedical engineering interests you at all, I would suggest looking more closely at Case (Case offers several specializations, while Rose has a much more general program.) Both schools will give you an incredible engineering education, and both will also be difficult.</p>
<p>If you have any specific questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them, but I think I have covered a few of the main points about the relative merits of each school.</p>
<p>^^ Thanks for your response.
All other factors aside, would you say that Case is the better option for getting into grad school? I think (don't quote me on this), that percentage-wise, Case has about twice as many students going to grad school after graduation than does Rose.
Also, what's your take on the Princeton Review statistic that Case's students are among the least-happy? Is it just that the sun never shines in Cleveland during the winter, or are there other factors as well? I assume the workload does play into the statistic, but is it really that bad?</p>
<p>For going to grad school, it probably doesn't matter. Rose has a lot of industry connections, and that probably helps draw engineers into industry instead of going to grad school.</p>
<p>I think you would have a fair shot at getting into grad school from either school. Although Case has many professors doing research, it is up to each student to hunt down undergrad research positions that are very important to getting into grad school - and that can sometimes be a challenge. Rose has less faculty doing academic research but the opportunities to get involved do seem to be present. From a purely academic standpoint in grad admissions, I would say that the two schools are very comparable.
As jdhutchin said, Rose does have excellent industry connections, and a fair number of students there go into industry for a few years before continuing on to grad school.</p>
<p>As far as the least-happy student ranking, I don't necessarily agree with it. Case has a lot of opportunities for fun and intellectual stimulation. If cheap 2nd run movies, 200 person poker tournaments, orchestra concerts, laser tag, ski trips, etc are your type of things to do, Case is a fun place to be. And if you can't find enough to do on campus, you have a bus pass that gets you anywhere in Cleveland. I can't even begin to name the various lecture series on campus that are open to everyone. There will be homework to do on weekends. There will be a few overnighters and Fridays that you do homework. You'll sometimes study for days and still end up with a 50% on your exam. If you know how to balance your social and academic lives, Case can be an excellent place...if you don't, well it can be bad.<br>
Overall, I would say the biggest factors in that ranking are: the lack of typical college parties, tough academics, bad windy and/or rainy weather (walking a mile in -30 windchills is not fun), and a lack of motivation to get out and find fun things to do.</p>
<p>Thanks for everyone's help (especially Ctheflute's). I figured the weather had something to do with the Case ranking (I'm an OH native) :D.</p>
<p>Both are great schools. Are they the same price for you?</p>
<p>My house is about 15 miles from Case and I know dozens of people who go there (most end up not getting into their reaches and high matches). A lot of them are not exactly thrilled about being at Case. The weather, campus, and social life aren't that great. </p>
<p>And yes I have been there quite a few times so I know what I'm talking about with regards to those non-academic things.</p>
<p>Go to Rose. It's better for undergraduate education.</p>
<p>I'm contemplating this same question. thanks for the responses (even if they weren't directed at me)</p>
<p>Weenie, I'm thinking that the two schools will probably work out to be about the same financially - still waiting on Rose's letter</p>
<p>What are the problems with Case's campus? Especially for being in the middle of a large city, it looked very nice and I felt safe walking around campus alone on the experience Case day I went to.</p>
<p>atomicfusion, what makes you say that rose's education is better? - just curious</p>
<p>Lol I went to visit Case last year for a weekend trip (free to students with the scholarship which they offered me) and I had fun. The people I met up there seemed friendly and certainly didnt seem as unhappy as the surveys convey. Overall I came close to Case; it was my top choice until I also went to visit Penn State. I would say that getting a feel for Case and seeing if you like the atmosphere is seems to have is important.</p>
<p>"weekends at either school are probably not going to be beer fests..."</p>
<p>I don't know about your brother's experience here Ctheflute, but I would contest that statement with regards to Rose. If that's your scene, you don't ever have to go far to find people who drink at Rose. Heck, there were only a handful of guys on the floor below me last night, but they were all drunk last night, even though we just got back from our Winter break yesterday (Saturday). The school takes a very hands-off policy with regards to alcohol and depends on the students to be responsible for their actions. I think the difference between drinking and partying at Rose-Hulman and at bigger, "party" schools is that at Rose-Hulman you'll never have people driving their cars through the welcome sign or being really destructive (I was about to say something about people not streaking about campus here at Rose, but caught myself, as that has definitely happened. Related story: We have a foosball table in the lobby of our dorm. If you get shutout at foosball you have to make a naked run around the dorm. Very strictly enforced tradition)</p>
<p>Anyways, yeah, we have fun at Rose, but we also work ourselves to death during the week, every week for 10 weeks of the quarter.</p>
<p>And weather in Terre Haute is no better I'm sure than it is in Cleveland. It oscillates between very cold, windy, to semi-nice days, then back to cold, then before you know it, it's 90 degrees in the shade every day. Unless you like grey weather, it's not exactly a meteorological paradise.</p>
<p>I agree with all the above statements regarding campus environment. Visit each campus and see how you like it. Pay attention to your tour guide and how enthused they seem. Also see how people interact on campus, that's very important. In the end, both schools will get you far in life if you apply yourself and are successful in the academics, so it's more about where you think you will enjoy yourself and where you think you will be a better fit.</p>
<p>I certainly didn't mean that either campus was very dry (Case has 3 on-campus bars and numerous others very close to campus). What I was attempting to convey is that there are other things to do besides drink all weekend every weekend if that's what you're into. If you want to drink all weekend every weekend, well, you can probably find people to do that with almost anywhere.</p>
<p>And I'm thankful that Case doesn't have the same foosball tradition...brrrr :-)</p>
<p>nic767, I'd have to disagree with you on the weather part. Cleveland's worse (I know from experience) - Terre Haute has <em>some</em> sun during the winter :D.
However, I'm starting to lean towards Case right now.</p>