Chemical Engineering at UAH and UA

@momreads and @ThreeKidsMom and anyone else who has UAH experience…
DD will be a senior this year, and she’s interested in UAH for Chemical Engineering. She qualifies for free tuition and is working to raise her ACT in hopes of free housing. Besides the financial aspects, she likes that UAH is a smaller school. We toured it, and she liked the feel…although it was in summer, so there weren’t many students on campus.

One concern I have is that the Chemical Engineering class is so small that in the last two years, all students basically are taking the same classes together. This could be great in terms of being close-knit. But I only found one professor who had good ratings, and several with poor ones. I have a hard time understanding the value of a class in which the professor doesn’t teach well. I realize it helps the student use other resources and prepares them for difficult bosses, but I’d think a lot more highly of a professor who makes the material come alive (so the students can use it rather than just ‘getting through the class’) and of a school that hires such faculty. It doesn’t seem like there is any flexibility to choose different professors or class times. Also, many classes are only offered in either fall or spring. So to co-op, a student would need to take a full year off or only do summer internships.

Can anyone give us some reassurance from first-hand experience?

Along with this question is… How does Chemical Engineering at UAH compare with UA? We did not tour UA because we thought it was too big. But we’ve also heard that you can make a big school a small school… It becomes more intimate once you get into your major classes… So I’m wondering if it could possibly be a fit. Can any ChemE families give some feedback on professors? Class sizes? ChemE Facilities? Hands-on opportunities?

Football and Greek life are not important to DD. She’s more concerned with the academics and feeling at home. She did like UAH, and I may be over-thinking this, but some experienced reassurance would help!

Thank you.

While not a specific answer … the history prof I’ve mentioned elsewhere who was given a battlefield commission by Patton in North Africa, who fought through Sicily and Italy, and who was a military governor of occupied Austria after the war once passed out the reviews and said something like:

“These are worthless. You won’t know if I’ve done a good job for another ten years or more, and that matters to me a whole H of a lot more than whether you like me today.”

FWIW, I think one of last years graduating hockey players was a chem E major. 3.8 or something, so it sounds possible.

@50N40W, I hear ya. But I do still appreciate teachers who can truly teach and have a genuine interest in their students. I’m not protesting the challenge factor. And I do find reviews helpful - not the ones who give a bare rating without words, but those that truly go into thoughtful detail without a gripe or hype bias.

My son has two fraternity brothers who are ChemE majors. Both are carrying GPAs over 3.0. While UAH has a small number of ChemE majors, you know everyone who is in the class. You study with everyone. My son points out, that regardless of the school, you will have one rotten professor. He says that you would rather have that one rotten professor, because he will make every other class you take seem easily. It also challenges you to learn in different ways. My son admits he has had some professors that have not thrilled him, too. But he learned.

My older son went to UA. Two of his former roommates started as ChemE majors, but finished as chemistry majors. One is in med school. The other is working toward his PhD at Stanford. A third roommate got degrees in ChemE and political science. He works in consulting.

Both schools have outstanding programs.

@momreads, I appreciate your feedback. My daughter is not worried - it’s me who’s concerned! She does need to be able to keep her GPA up in order to keep the merit scholarship, because OOS tuition is not an option. Our tour guide said that there are paid tutors who attend every class and who have taken the class before and gotten As or Bs. So that is reassuring - that somehow DD could master the class, even if it’s not because of a professor who teaches well. Being virtual schooled, she’s been used to learning material on her own anyway, so that gives her confidence. She also likes that the students get to know each other and work together well because of it being a small class.