<p>Has anyone heard of Cooper Union? I'm looking at their school of engineering. It's a small, selective school and they pay for full tuition to all that go. However, I want to know more about the school in terms of atmosphere and stuff. Are there any current/prospective students out there that can help? =) Thanks.</p>
<p>I've heard of it...it's crazy hard to get in</p>
<p>Hahah, yes the accept rate is around 12 - 13%. Agh, all the people I've asked don't know about it and my parents think it's some second rate, safety school. Err, if anyone has more info about that school, please post.</p>
<p>Oddly enough, I learned just today that my great grandfather went there at some point. </p>
<p>Don't know much more about it though, except that it's really hard to get into...</p>
<p>one of my friends got in last year...he liked it but chose cornell over cooper because he wanted a bigger "name" school</p>
<p>they are definitely up there for engineering though AND it has an awesome location</p>
<p>Not a lot of people know about it, but it's definitely not "second rate" lol</p>
<p>Great school for engineering and art with no tuition cost. Freshmen pay about $16K* for R&B. After freshmen year you will need to find a shared apartment in downtown NYC where you and your roomies will each pay about 20K+ for living space and meals*. </p>
<p>In my day free was allot cheaper. </p>
<p>*And figure on extra fees and books totaling another $3K per/yr.</p>
<p>My brother went to Cooper Union and got an awesome education there. (He went on to UC - Berkeley for his masters in Chemical Engineering). It's a VERY tough school to get into (because the school is basically paying you to go there, with the free tuition). But it is one of the top undergraduate programs in the country for engineering. Academics are first-rate at Cooper Union. The downside is that there is NO "traditonal" college life -- no campus, no Greeks, no sports, very few extracurriculars. And you have to really, really, really like living in NYC.</p>
<p>"Great school for engineering and art"</p>
<p>How good is their Performing Art (specifically the Dance) department?</p>
<p>Yes "free" does seem relative these days. But for that kind of an education, I wouldn't mind paying for room/board/food. It seems like a really good deal.</p>
<p>Worried_Mom, can you please elaborate? No campus or sports? Ah, then are the students "close"? Are they like the "mudders" who band together, because they're part of such a small group? </p>
<p>How do graduate schools view Cooper undergrads? It doesn't really have the prestige of CalTech or MIT, but from the posters here, the education is top-notch.</p>
<p>I think Cooper Union and Olin (similar school) are as prestieges as MIT or Caltech. As a matter of fact, from my schooll (TJ) kids who got into those had higher stats than those of MIT/Caltech...</p>
<p>Cooper Union is a true academic powerhouse. Whether art, engineering or architecture, they are truly a first-rate school. And one of the hardest to get into because unlike harvard and yale and princeton, you don't have as many people with no chance applying because it doesn't have name recognition like other more prestigous schools do. So that 12-13% is a lot harder than it looks. I think you end up paying 20k-25k in terms of room/board, money, books, and all other extras and such, so even though it's cheaper than some of the other prestigous schools- it's not as cheap as it seems.</p>
<p>I've read that the school is in financial trouble. Also, that it is a lot of pressure, mega intensive. Only go if you are 100% committed to one of the few majors they carry. Other than those caveats, a great school.</p>
<p>You make a good point onemom. You have to be 100% sure you won't change your mind, because once you're in a major, you can't change. I don't think there are a lot of students who can honestly say they have not even a shadow of a doubt they'll change their minds.</p>
<p>Cooper Union has only three schools -- architecture, engineering, and art (only visual art -- sorry, no dance, GoBlue81!) -- and all three are very highly regarded by professionals in each respective field (as opposed to "name" schools that may just have good sports teams or big endowments and/or good PR staff). CU notes that over half of their graduating engineering majors got accepted into prestigious graduate programs at CalTech, MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, etc.</p>
<p>The student body is indeed "close" because everyone knows everybody. There are just 900 students -- with half in engineering. The school is so small and so selective and so specialized and so intense, there is the kind of camraderie that develops when you have a "we're all in this together" mindset. The campus consists of a few buildings scattered around a six-block area of NYC's East Village. Extra-curricular activities are pretty much limited to student government, chorus, yearbook, newspaper, and intramural sports.</p>
<p>I have looked at Cooper Union for my daughter who was interested in art and design. Frankly, I was very unimpressed. why
It's a small school: about 600 in total! Everyone knows your business and social scene is almost non-existant</p>
<p>Secondly, Although the tuition is free, there are hefty fees and room and board in NY is outrageous. It almost makes up for the free tuition</p>
<p>Third, facilities aren't that great. The endowment can pay for the teachers and not much else. In fact, as far as I can see, the only thing that it has going for it is that it is in NY ( which is great place for students) and is very, very selective. Personally, if you are that good as to get in there, you are better off going somewhere else.</p>
<p>Cooper Union's architecture school used to be the best in the country, however, for some reasons, it dropped down alot in recent years. Truth be told, there is no EC at Cooper Union, but the dean of department of architecture at Harvard was graduated from there, Toshiko Mori, a Japanese lady.</p>
<p>We also visited Cooper. A lot of art students would die to get in there. A couple of my daughter's friends attended. One thing seems clear: it is not only highly competitive in admissions (about 5% admit rate into the art program), but it is also extremely competitive once you do get in. That is, it's quite dog-eat-dog, cutthroat, whatever you want to call it -- with students vying for attention and trying to make their classmates look bad. A very different atmosphere from RISD, where my daughter attended.</p>
<p>cooper's tops for engineering (no biomed major, though) and architecture.</p>
<p>yeahh.. i've heard it's really tough in cooper, too. 1 alumnus from my school was kicked out, i heard, because he was slacking off and getting Cs. 5-6 people were accepted ED from here, this year.. good luck to them..</p>
<p>its not hard to get in engineering, i know a few dumbasses from my school who got in who had 1200 SAT scores, and 3.5 gpas. if u really want to get in there, try getting in their summer program first, it boosts your chances tremendously. its s suitcase school.</p>