Engineering(?), a New School

<p>To ALL it may concern, and that might help me out:</p>

<p>First thank you in advance for any and all help you give. I truly appreciate it.</p>

<p>I am currently a student at Stevens Institute of Technology studying Biomedical Engineering. I am in my 3rd of 5 years and am involved in a co-op program; I work, as of now, at an engineering firm, Datascope Corp., and will continue to until the end of this summer. Yet this is where the surety ends and the confusion and uncertainly begin.</p>

<p>Had I no desire for anything other than that which is Stevens, I might conceivably be very happy at the school and continue my education there. I'd go back to school in the fall and complete my last 4 semesters of college in sequence, stopping only to work over next summer at another engineering company. This, however, is not the case.</p>

<p>(BTW: Let me interject here that it feels good to be saying this. I feel like I've been trying to make myself like Stevens Inst. since I started.)</p>

<p>First let me tell you in brief a bit about why I'm tired of Stevens, and then I'd like to get everyone's advice on a few things.</p>

<p>Stevens is a tech school. Not to bash it. But it sucks. It's not even like its an MIT or a CAL or CAL tech for that matter. It's a ****ty engineering school. It's private, its over priced, and furthermore, I feel like they tricked me by giving me a rather large grant my freshman year and then arbitrarily revoking it the following year. I now pay, after all is said and done around $35K a year for an INSTATE school. This, in my humble opinion, is absurd. Originally I was choosing between Stevens and Rutgers, and though Stevens was only SLIGHTLY more expensive, my dad told me it was alright to attend, providing I work hard. (I am lucky enough to have my parents paying for my undergraduate schooling.) Now let me be emphatically clear here. Rutgers only cost 17K a year back when I was deciding. Stevens was only a bit more. And now I</p>

<p>And now I</p>

<p>’m paying 35K a year at Stevens. Distgusting. The grant wasn’t need based or merit based either (my thinking is that it was advertising based…). </p>

<p>But I digress, the price tag isn’t the real reason why I’m seriously considering transferring. The real reasons include things like the fact that Stevens has almost no girls there. Albeit I do have a girlfriend right now, but still, I want a school with a more close to even distribution than 30% - 40% women. Furthermore, I don’t like the professors at my school, hardly any of them are English speaking natives and most have such a thick accent that its almost impossible to understand them. Although the classes are small, I feel like I’m getting ripped by the fact that many of the teachers seem to not give a ***** about anything school related. It’s almost like a lot of them are just there for the paycheck. The last big point I’d like to mention is that Stevens is in such an urban environment. I’ve been thinking more and more lately that I want something rural, I love looking up at the stars at night and actually seeing them; or breathing air that doesn’t seem so polluted, or walking around and not smelling the awful smell of Hoboken (which occasionally whips by your nose). All this not even mentioning the fact that there is practically no campus and the size of school population is at a pitiful 1700 total undergraduates.</p>

<p>(PAUSE...Thanks for bearing with me guys... :) )</p>

<p>SO on to what I'm looking for in a new school. Well,......everything Stevens isn't. Something rural, something for the same or preferably less money (but that is, more importantly, worth the money), a bigger school (10K+(?)), a real college campus, a better girl to guy ratio, better professors, and most of all a better school.</p>

<p>Stevens is only ranked 89 according to US News and World report's top engineering schools. I couldn't believe this when I recently looked this up after being repeatedly told by a number of people that it was right up there, just under MIT or the like. Hence, I'd preferably want a higher ranked school.</p>

<p>Surprisingly, at least to me, UMass Amherst is ranked much higher, at place #55, a full 34 places above Stevens. And I have to say, I like the looks of this school. My sister recently graduated from there and my cousin is currently attending. I visited them and loved the large campus many people and social atmosphere. But I need to know, how does the academics measure up? How are the classes? do they offer a biomedical engineering major? if not, what other similar majors? would I like it there? will I be able to live off campus and keep a car there as soon as I'd start in the fall? Will all of my credits transfer, or more importantly will most of them and could I graduate in just 2 years? Will I get a scholarship with the 3.3 GPA I have now from a tough engineering school to help offset the 29K price tag? </p>

<p>Although I realize you might not be able to help me with some of these questions, maybe point me in the right direction about finding answers, but some of them maybe you could help with and if so great, if not maybe you could offer some general advice. I'd certainly be willing to consider other schools; suggestions anyone? Also, I'd like to be close to somewhere I can snowboard in the winter. and preferably not ULTRA far from my home in New Jersey, although being somewhat (a good couple hours) far is OK.</p>

<p>Lastly I might just mention that I don't even really have my heart set on engineering and most probably will only work for a year or two in the field before going to graduate school for medicine, psychology, law, or teaching (even if I do graduate as an engineer).</p>

<p>Thank you again for reading all of this and in advance for your any and all advice.</p>

<p>My name is Tom and I'm trying to do my best to have a full and happy life. Basically, I want a real college experience, at a 'normal' college. I didn't find that at Stevens and that why I'm being proactive and looking.</p>

<p>PS - What is the typical deadline at school for fall transfers?</p>

<p>wow seem like u really hate it
but I've never heard of stevens inst of tech ... You should have done more research before going there. But if you want u can always transfer somehwer else and you might end up loving engineering :D 35k / year is not worth it and u can easily going to a state school with far better engineering programs for twice or 3 times cheaper. a 3.3 and above 60 credits is good enough to transfer to any state school (not necessary top) but wellknown engineering programs.</p>

<p>some reasonable ones on the east coast are UMass, Pitts, Penn State, Maryland, Virginia tech, georgia tech ...</p>

<p>
[quote]
PS - What is the typical deadline at school for fall transfers?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>look up online for each school, they have different deadlines. For transfers, it's much later than freshmen deadlines.</p>

<p>There are not too many rural engineering schools, especially in the Northeast.
consider transferring to Rutgers. I think that is your best bet.
maybe Bucknell, Penn State, Cornell, RPI, Maryland, Duke, UVA, Lehigh.</p>

<p>THANKS CHAOSES AND COLLEGEHELP! </p>

<p>Yea, well, I definitely don't want to transfer anywhere in state, but I agree, I'm definitely getting ripped off. What about the scholarship for my GPA? Would I have any luck? And also I don't necessarily need to be going to an engineering school, in fact, I kind of don't want to go to one. I'd rather be at a more normal college, that's one of the main reasons I'd be transferring. Thanks for the suggestions though!</p>

<p>(Also, I think schools in the south or breadbasket area would be out too, I want to be able to be somewhere where there is a nice winter. Sorry for being a bit picky but I'm trying to make a better more thought out choice this time.)</p>

<p>How about Virginia Tech? It's in the rural mountains (think winter weather) of southwestern Va. Has a well-known engineering school. Has a beautiful campus and lots of school spirit.</p>

<p>THANKS PACKMOM!</p>

<p>I really appreciate your suggestion. However, I don't really want to be down south. When I say good winter weather, I think the Northeast (or possibly somewhere near the rockies, although I'd be very tentative about being that far from home, I have a good relationship with my parents and family which all live on the east coast.) But at your suggestion I looked into ski slopes in Virginia. They're not half bad. Yet even so, I don't think I want to be down south but thanks again for your input!</p>

<p>UMich is great, but still expensive. Basically any state school would be a good choice.</p>

<p>I recieved emails from stevens and could have applied for free, but when I looked at the princeton review rankings and saw it ranked #1 for some of the bad categories, I realized that it was not somewhere I wanted to be.</p>

<p>speak of the devil, I just got an email from Stevens!</p>

<p>THANKS UNGST!</p>

<p>UMich is a good suguestion. It's a bit far from my home in New Jersey but I really appreciate your input. Any thoughts on UMass Amherst? (I think that I'm seriously considering this school.)</p>

<p>Puff-o-smoke, farther north and colder weather, West Virginia University.</p>

<p>Drexel is a great engineering school---not super cheap, but probably less than Stevens. It is urban (Philly) but also has a super co-op program.</p>

<p>THANKS PACKMOM (AGAIN) AND JOLYNNE SMYTH!</p>

<p>I appreciate your help and advice. West Virginia University is a possibility I'll check them out a bit, yet I'm still a bit tenative; I'm thinking more and more I want somewhere that's in the Northeast. But I'll definitely check them out and the snowboarding around there too ;) . As far as Drexel goes, it sounds alot like Stevens. Great co-op program (which Stevens DEFINITELY has) and urban. I want something that's rural, but thanks for the suggestion. Anybody have anything to say about UMass Amherst?</p>

<p>Also, puff, I'd suggest posting a form of your question on the parents' forum (here on CC). They have a wealth of information, there!</p>

<p>Thanks for the tip Jolynne Smyth!</p>