<p>From RunsWScissors: “They aren’t ranked super high but they are up there and have really good job placement.”</p>
<p>I’m not a Clarkson grad, so I have no stake in this. One thing I’d point out here is that Clarkson’s ranking on US News really makes no sense because they are miscategorized. They are classified as a national university, which means that they are compared with major research universities such as Ohio State, Iowa, Michigan, et al. I never have figured out the classification criteria (Carnegie something-or-other classifications), but Clarkson is really a technical college with a small grad school, not a major research institution. The criteria they use to compare universities in this category make it impossible for Clarkson to be ranked highly. </p>
<p>It would make more sense to me to compare Clarkson with schools like Rose Hulman, Wentworth, WPI, or Milwaukee School of Engineering.</p>
<p>I can’t tell you what it’s like to be a student at Clarkson, but can say that I really can’t remember meeting a graduate of the school who wasn’t competent/solid, or very good.</p>
<p>It is hard to ignore rankings totally, but they really weren’t the primary criteria when my son was selecting schools to apply to. He basically printed a list of all the schools that offered the majors he was interested in, eliminated schools he was pretty sure he couldn’t get into or knew he didn’t want to go to, mainly for geographic reasons, and then researched the rest. There were other criteria known only to himself. Scientific, huh? lol. More important according to him are regional reputation, job placement, and coop and internship opportunities.</p>
<p>When I got into Clarkson, I didn’t hear back until the 3rd week in March. I will warn you though, Clarkson isn’t all its cracked up to be. I am in the engineering program here and they push 5 years of classes into 4. It is a lot of work, you never sleep, and your eating habits are terrible. Its always cold, and the sun is never out. There is literally nothing to do unless you like to go out but even that gets boring. The only food in town would be the bagelry or pizza. Hardly any professor speaks English. I wish that I had transferred when I had the chance. The only good thing about Clarkson is the financial aid.</p>
<p>Transfer student here, so a bit different situation myself, but I applied as well… still crossing my fingers!</p>
<p>kaythurst13, so negative … it’s coming down between Clarkson, Ithaca College and UMass Amherst for my D. I went to Clarkson a million years ago but couldn’t disagree more with you. I have such great memories. Lots of things to do!</p>