co-op engineering schools with a common first year for engineers?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>So many engineering programs ask the students to commit to their engineering major from day one. I am interested in learning about schools that have a common first year for all engineering students (or close enough that it is easy to transfer between engineering majors in the middle or end of freshman year). </p>

<p>Other criteria:
a formal co-op program that almost everyone participates in (like Northeastern or Waterloo)
within a day's drive of southern Vermont
willing to admit a kid with excellent stats but minimal ECs and community service
likely to offer good merit aid to such a kid, or meets full need, or low price
Canada is OK, and the kid has Canadian citizenship (making the prices more reasonable)</p>

2

<p>At most schools, the first year courses include math, physics, English composition, and H/SS breadth electives.</p>

<p>Differences would typically be:</p>

<p>Chemistry: more for chemical engineering, and may be a harder version
Computing: may be a different course for computer science and engineering majors (usually a MATLAB based course for others)</p>

3

<p>Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering has one of the oldest and most well-established co-op programs in the country. You can have as many as six quarters of co-op before graduation and it doesn’t include the first summer. About 1/3 of the students participate in co-op. The typical schedule looks like this:
<a href=“Programs Overview | Engineering Career Development | Northwestern Engineering”>Programs Overview | Engineering Career Development | Northwestern Engineering;

<p>Unlike most other schools where freshmen just take first-year math, phsyics and/or chemistry, Northwestern has the Engineering First curriculum for all first-year engineering students:
[About</a> Engineering First ® | McCormick School of Engineering | Northwestern University](<a href=“Undergraduate Study | Academics | Northwestern Engineering”>Undergraduate Study | Academics | Northwestern Engineering)
Students can wait until later part of their sophomore year to declare their majors; switching from one to another is also very easy.</p>

4

<p>Thanks Sam; that’s they kind of Engineering first year we are looking for, though it is a bit far for us (kiddo prefers to be closer to home – this is not necessarily a deal-breaker, but a factor – there are so many schools in the northeast that it seems like he “should” be able to find some good fits closer to home)</p>

5

<p>Anyone know how flexible/general the engineering first year is at RIT, Drexel, Northeastern or Waterloo? We’ll look them all up of course but wondering if anyone here has some firsthand experience they could share on the engineering programs at these schools.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

6

<p>My S studied chem eng’g at Northeastern (just graduated this past May but I don’t think their engineering program has changed that much…). My recollection is that the first yr was very general and most students take prerequisites required of all engineering students: chemistry, physics, math, an introductory engineering design course, plus English and other core requirements/electives (but I think you will find a similar general curriculum at many schools). During the first semester all engineering students also took an Intro to engineering seminar course that met once a week, where students were introduced to the different engineering disciplines, heard different speakers etc to help them decide on a specific major.<br>
Students on a 5 yr/3 co-op plan typically begin co-op spring semester during their soph yr thru mid-summer (Jan-June) or mid-summer after their soph yr thru fall semester of middler (third) yr (July-Dec). The semester before they begin co-op they take an Intro to Eng’g Co-op course where they meet with their co-op advisor, write resumes, practice interviewing and apply for co-op jobs. </p>

<p>From their website:</p>

<p>

[College</a> of Engineering > Student Services > First-Year Curriculum](<a href=“http://www.coe.neu.edu/coe/undergraduate/studentservices/firstyearcurriculum.html]College”>http://www.coe.neu.edu/coe/undergraduate/studentservices/firstyearcurriculum.html)</p>

<p>Also, Northeastern offers decent merit aid to students with high stats but generally does not meet full need.</p>

7

<p>Thanks for all the details scansmom. I think he has about a 50/50 chance of making NMF and Northeastern gives full tuition for NMF status, so that would be a very good financial option if that works out.</p>

8

<p>[Engineering</a> Home](<a href=“http://www.union.edu/academic_depts/engineering/]Engineering”>http://www.union.edu/academic_depts/engineering/)</p>

<p>Take a look at Union College in Schenectady, NY, see if anything there would be of interest…</p>

9

<p>You may want to consider Michigan Tech in Houghton, MI.</p>

10

<p>Also interested in honors colleges or other programs offering honors/enriched versions of core classes so a kid with an 800 Math SAT (predicted) will be challenged and find his intellectual peers.</p>

11

<p>If finances are an issue, he would likely receive a large scholarship (full tuition scholarship + $2500 Engg scholarship + even more if NMF) and have incredible opportunities available to him through the honors college at the University of Alabama.
<a href=“http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/nms.html[/url]”>http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/nms.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out_of_state.html[/url]”>http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out_of_state.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

12

<p>Drexel seems to give out some big merit scholarships. Check the forum for this year. It is on a quarter system though.</p>

13

<p>Why “though” about the quarter system?</p>

14

<p>I was thinking you might be interested in transfer credits to other schools. Its a bit different for kids going from quarter systems to two semester programs.</p>

<p>If he stays within Drexel it wouldn’t matter. If your sons stats are that good I could see him getting full tuition at Drexel. However he may want to be at a higher ranked school.</p>

15

<p>Drexel also offers full tuition for NMFs. It was my older son’s financial safety and we did like a lot about it when we visited, but ultimately he was worried about finding his intellectual peers and academic challenge.</p>

16

<p>I attended Drexel about a million years ago. D1 was accepted with a significant merit scholarship, but did not attend. I am pretty sure that the freshman year is the same for all engineering students.</p>

17

<p>gsmomma, why did your D decide not to attend?</p>

18

<p>What about Olin?</p>

19

<p>Olin is on the list – it seems unique enough that we’d really need to visit to see if it’s a good fit, and also I don’t know if he has a shot with minimal ECs and community service. And I don’t know if we can really afford it unless they go back to full tuition scholarships, which I’m guessing won’t happen. They do have need-based as well but we’re iffy on the need-based depending on the school’s determination of our “need”.</p>

20

<p>Don’t forget RPI - alot of students do co-ops there.</p>

<p>187 engineering majors did co-ops in 2009-2010:</p>

<p><a href=“Recruit at Rensselaer | Career and Professional Development”>Recruit at Rensselaer | Career and Professional Development;