<p>Thanks in advance to all who will contribute advices to this thread.</p>
<p>Current choices for my son:</p>
<ol>
<li>UT (Honors with a good scholarship)</li>
<li>Rice (minimum scholarship & grant)</li>
<li>CMU (minimum grant)</li>
</ol>
<p>He declared ChemE as major for UT. With Rice and CMU, he will have more time to think about it. </p>
<p>UT's ChemE rakes #5 (USNWR), higher than Rice and CMU. But, we think private schools can offer more resources & research opportunities, smaller class size, etc. My son is interested in bio-related focus within ChemE and Rice and CMU seems to (I may be wrong) emphasize on this (biomolecular at Rice, biomedical at CMU) more than UT does (I could be wrong too). He intends to go to a good grad school.</p>
<p>So, what, in your opinion, would be a good decision for him considering ranking, resources, research opportunities, concentration within ChemE, preparing for grad school? </p>
<p>Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>Another student asked the same question about UT and Rice Chem E. Here is the thread. UT has INCREDIBLE research opportunities and resources. There is a good reason it is ranked higher. You will note in this thread that even a Rice grad advised the student to go to UT. Please look at this thread and then ask more questions if you have any.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-texas-austin/1124700-rice-vs-ut-austin-chem-mech-engineering-undergrad.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-texas-austin/1124700-rice-vs-ut-austin-chem-mech-engineering-undergrad.html</a></p>
<p>Puzzled indeed. The resources available to engineering students at UT are almost unparalleled. Carnegie Mellon is a great school, but considering the honors scholarships at UT I think you would be crazy not to go there.</p>
<p>He should consider Rice if he wants a liberal arts education at a small school. It’s a great school as well, but UT engineering outperforms Rice engineering.</p>
<p>PuzzledParents, did you get a chance to look at the thread? Do you have any questions?</p>
<p>THANK YOU to Inmotion and MaineLonghorn for your advices. I did go to the other thread to look. Thanks.</p>
<p>For us parents, we’d like our child to go to a good school and have a great undergrad experience and move on to a good grad school, if he is able to perform well. UT, per the ranking plus the scholarship, seems to be the best choice. Here are a few concerns we have:</p>
<ol>
<li>Will he be prepared with a foundation that is solid enough for him to study in a competitive grad school? (This assumes he works diligently in college.)</li>
<li>Does UT ChemE offer good research opportunities (real research work, like some private schools claim their students do)?</li>
<li>I heard UT ChemE is very oil/energy/petroleum-focused? What if my son is more into the bio/science aspect of ChemE? Should he then look at CMU or Rice instead (though their ChemE’s ranking is lower) in this case?</li>
</ol>
<p>I am not sure if these are the right questions to ask here but they are important factors in this decision-making process for us. Your input will be much appreciated.</p>
<p>As someone that was an engineer at CMU and absolutely loved it (and was able to go there for cheaper than their state school) I’d say you’ve got nothing to worry about for your first two questions. I’m not very familiar with the curriculum or research interests of professors at UT, so I can’t comment on that, though.</p>
<p>Each of the three schools has a very different vibe to it, though the education you’ll be able to get at each is superb. The only thing I would say to your son is to look into Materials Science & Engineering if he’s more interested in the science side of ChemE. About half my MSE friends came into CMU planning on doing ChemE but switched when they realized it wasn’t what they wanted.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>a high amount of kids leaving the ChE program in the beginning is common at most colleges - mostly due to the toughness of the ChE curriculum.</p>
<p>Considering the curriculum between MSE and ChemE is identical freshman year I don’t think the difficulty of one major over the other was the main factor.</p>
<p>Sorry it took me a long time to find my thread again. Thank you for your input and suggestions. </p>
<p>I am sure CMU and Rice can offer a great undergrad experience but we have to pay a lot - much more than UT. </p>
<p>RacinReaver, do you think it worths spending that much more to go to CMU while UT is cheaper and offers an equivalent, if not better, academic quality? Other’s input is welcome too.</p>
<p>One concern with Texas is that the state legislature passed a law requiring graduates of Texas public colleges and universities to take 6 credits in American History and 6 credits in American Government. That’s a total of 4 courses! </p>
<p>Unless he already has credit for much of that through AP, ChemE is such a dense major, that I would think that it would be very limiting to have your already pared down liberal arts courses defined so narrowly if you have other interests besides History and Government. </p>
<p>Still for the money UT seems excellent.</p>
<p>Both schools should offer a great education, and the only reason I could see to go to CMU with that much of a price difference is if he really really really loved the campus/community there more than UT.</p>
<p>Great input and reminder! Thank you all so much!</p>
<p>My son does have AP credits (AP US History and soon AP Government), not sure how many credits can be waived from the required 6 for each. Have to look into that.</p>
<p>My son does not know much about CMU’s campus and community except that his cousin went there and from talking to one CMU student (who worked for admission and called him - which was nice - benefit of a smaller school, I guess). He did spend a few days on UT campus (by invitation) last summer and liked it. Many of his good friends are going there. He likes to visit us from college and UT is in-state to us. We are leaning toward UT but still a bit worried if he would miss the good opportunity of going to CMU or Rice. </p>
<p>It’s decision time! Thank you all and Thanks to CC for proving a platform for info exchange, advices, and encouragement.</p>
<p>I’m a Rice parent, and DS will be graduating next month with a degree in CivE, and has an engineering job lined up. His friends at UT are all on the 5-year-plan and hope to graduate next year… He did two years of Chem E at Rice, then moved over to CivE for the Environmental engineering focus. He was offered scholarships and Honors Engineering at UT, but chose Rice instead and has never, ever regretted it! </p>
<p>In terms of flexibility, research opps, resources, community, etc. Rice comes out way ahead. And for a student who decides to refocus or change major (as most students do!) Rice comes out way ahead of UT. I think it is a mistake to look at the rankings as a major criteria - and they are heavily biased towards the strength and size of the graduate programs. Rice offers a rich, close-knit, supportive, and excellent program with tons of research opportunities (and WAY less kids vying for the chance to have them). DS heard some Rice profs give a talk about their research, went up afterwards and said he was interested in that area - one of them prof hired him the next day to work as a research assistant. He was flown to Boston for two weeks of intensive training on the research equipment they used, and gained valuable skills that helped him land his currrent parttime/soon to be fulltime job. At UT, there would have been 40 kids all trying for that job! </p>
<p>Both my kids loved Rice and the close connections to profs and students that they made there. If this was my kid, and I could afford all options, I would say - go to the school where you feel you will grow the most. Go to the place that most attracts you. :)</p>
<p>Well, I can tell you it’s easy for kids to do research at UT, also. My son started in the BME lab in the fall, his first semester at UT. A couple of weeks ago, he emailed two profs about possible internships this summer. He’s already talked to one of them who said she thinks she will be able to find him work by the end of next week. There is SO much research going on at UT that kids can usually find a spot.</p>
<p>Right, if you go to Rice you’re chance of landing an undergrad research role is 1:1, but at UT it’s 40:1. I guess that’s why 39 out of 40 UT engineering grads are unemployed.</p>
<p>By the way, I do think Rice is an amazing choice if you decide to go that route. Really, this is a no lose situation for you. All 3 of those universities are near the top of my list of great schools so I really can’t see how you can make a wrong decision here. The only thing about CMU that I would hate is the cold weather.</p>