I was wondering how you might weigh these options for a future engineer. My son has been admitted to Boulder for Mech E with a Presidential scholarship, Santa Clara for Mech E with a Dean’s scholarship, and Madison for Engineering Mechanics (different from Mech E in a way we don’t fully understand, but it sure sounds interesting) without a merit award. I understand there is perhaps a higher prestige or ranking factor associated with Madison, but we also know that does not necessarily equate to a better education for an undergrad. It’s also colder and farther from home. Does Madison draw a different kind of student, enough to seriously consider that choice given 15K/year in lower costs at Boulder?
Although in different ways and in different settings, it feels like hands-on opportunities will be available to some extent at all of these schools (student machine shops, clubs, effort at integration into design courses, etc), and also that the (tough) course of study is similar at all of them since they all lead to the same ABET accreditation. I’d like him to have the highest chance of making it through, and in a reasonable time frame. I guess the same that every parent hopes. I also hope he can get connected to an innovative builder space and find some like-minded friends and put his endless energy for building, flying and designing things to work. We do realize that engineering is a highly academic, mostly paper and test taking type of track, though.
Santa Clara has a much higher 4-year graduation rate-- wow. It seems like they put a lot of care into their teaching and program. The student body feels so impressive when you visit, in a pre-professional, slightly serious/ buttoned-down kind of way (not necessarily words I would use to describe my son). It is also much more expensive, but if you think of the same education likely taking 5 years elsewhere, it begins to be less of a cost difference/ harder to compare. It has an amazing location for internships and future employment opportunities, so this certainly shouldn’t be overlooked.
My son is social, athletic, and loves the outdoors-- especially skiing and mountain biking. (I know, I know!) Boulder just feels like such a happy and healthy place to go to college, though I am not naive about the partying. He himself raises the question about whether he will be able to focus and get through the rigors of engineering in the very attractive area with the mountains and social life calling. I am glad he is thinking about that. But it’s not clear that the same distractions would not exist to a very slightly lesser extent at any college.
How should we be prioritizing the academic vs. life style choices for an engineer? I do not want him to have such a great lifestyle that he never becomes an engineer- lol- but want him to be happy and be able to get outdoors and to be with people who like those things too, who he will enjoy. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We know he’s in a fortunate position and can hardly go wrong!
One of my friends just graduated with a MechE degree at Boulder - he had to do it in 4.5 years though he said the classes/pre-requisites just didn’t work out with a 4 year graduation goal. He’s gotten a job in Seattle that he loves pretty quickly after graduation. He was a work-hard play-hard type of person and Boulder seemed to work out well for him!
On average Wisconsin has higher SAT scores than Boulder, so more “smarter” students, but in a big school like that there will be a whole range of students, so I don’t think your son will see much difference between the two - he’ll probably find a similar circle of friends at either one. Given that he loves skiing/mountains, and Boulder is such a great place to be, and it’s $15K/year cheaper, it seems a pretty good option – provided of course he is able to focus and enjoy the surroundings without being too distracted by them. (But honestly, I’m sure there would be plenty of distractions in Madison–it’s a great college town too–so it’s going to take some self-discipline either way.)
Wisconsin does have the higher rankings, but like you said, it doesn’t necessarily translated into better undergrad education or more opportunities. How your son does in college will mean more.
Santa Clara is a whole other matter. There I’d say the questions are whether he would really like to be in a much smaller setting. If he wants to do internships in the Bay area and try to find a job there after graduation, then SC could be worth the extra expense.
Obviously academics are important, but our kids can only go to (undergrad) college once in their lives so we want it to be an enjoyable experience in a nice location too! (Of course whether they’ll take advantage of the location is another matter - my D seldom leaves campus even though I’m always telling her she should get out and enjoy the beautiful surroundings of the state she’s in :S)
If he was planning to major in CS I would vote for Santa Clara. We absolutely loved it when visited. I am not sure their Mechanical Engineering is as strong though. This is my personal opinion and hopefully someone with better knowledge will comment.
What I find, having two engineers (one at SCU), is they quickly discover there is way less time than they think to have all these fun adventures. Engineering isn’t a “destination education” lifestyle. If they are making time for regular weekend adventures, it is likely the studies may not be getting the time they may truly need. They don’t do much other than study those first couple years as they have to get through all that calc and physics, etc. Now of course, if you don’t mind it taking an extra year, I guess you can build in time for more adventures. I know both the programs mine are in have a pretty aggressive track to stay on, but it means easy to graduate with an engineering major and even one or two minors in 4 years (my current CS senior is doing that). Not sure how it works at the bigger publics and if there is a path that has to be closely followed year to year, or if there is play in the schedule.
Mechanical engineering is really solid at SCU, I think it is as strong as CSE there, they are amazingly connected to some great companies in the Bay Area. So there is no question the education would be great there. But it is way different than your other two in terms of ambiance. The big publics are probably more fun in a good way (the more the merrier kind of thing, the recreation he likes close by). Your decision seems more around the public v. private and big v. small school, plus where you want your connections, internships and job when you are done. (Not sure how much $ comes into play here, so disregarding that for this conversation.)
Great choices for fun and education all the way around. We visited CU Boulder this summer - really gorgeous. He just needs to decide which one feels best to him. Your son sounds like a really mature kid that is thinking about all the things that matter, good for him. He will be happy at any of them, I guess the issue is trying not to be too happy.
I really appreciate all of these posts and the time you all took to respond. You have confirmed what I thought, which is that both Colorado and Santa Clara (and Wisconsin for sure as well) have a great deal to offer, and that the course of study is going to be challenging no matter what… so it’s up to him to figure out the setting he will best be able to accomplish this in, hopefully finding a healthy environment/ peers he connects with for both study and fun. I wonder if other parents have any advice on returning for a second visit- does that help clarify this big public/ small private dilemma? And at this point, given you experiences should we wait until April when he is a little bit closer to graduation, and attend the “admitted student” events, or would it be best to take a day off school/ work and take him on a regular Friday? Thank you again for all of your thoughts!
For my S, a second visit was so helpful. His were either for a recruiting weekend, a scholarship weekend, or during an admitted student weekend, so staying in the dorms and spending time without M & D was also helpful for him to get a better feel for the places. His #1 dropped off the list, and his # 5 zoomed to the top during this process. I believe a visit after the entire application process and this far into senior year brings a whole new perspective. Very happy we went through the process - even though it sometimes felt way too busy - of visiting his top choices again. So is he.
