<p>Well, I haven't seen Dartmouth ranked anywhere near reputable in any engineering listings. I want to study Electrical Engineering, but I want a good social life. So, the option between going to Georgia Tech, and facing droves of nerds/computer geeks/ 3:1 guy/girl ratio vs. Going to Dartmouth and giving up a place in the 6th ranked EE school in the nation.</p>
<p>My question is that will Dartmouth still give me a good oppurtinity in the Career World for engineering. Will I be guaranteed a starting salary of at least 50k? Will I have to go for the 5 year Bachelors of Engineering Degree to have any weight to my undergrad years? Is Dartmouth an acredited engineering school?</p>
<p>Posting a ranking is useless here because Dartmouth's engineering program is different from traditional ones. Basically, there are two majors (or there were when I applied) - Engineering Sciences and Engineering Physics. These are both Bacelor of Arts degrees. Engineering Sciences is more of a general and interdisciplinary program where you take a few courses in your area of specialty (e.g. mechanical or electrical). Engineering Physics is, well alot of math and physics; it's more theoretical. Instead of studying a something specific like mechanics or E&M you touch on these areas from a more general/conceptual/theoretical/less practical viewpoint.</p>
<p>In both of these programs you take the traditional arts classes (e.g. 3 semesters of language). This is what makes Dartmouth engineering different from traditional programs (e.g. Cornell which is core math/science/engineering distributions the first two years, then specialty engineering classes, and only ~ 6 humanities classes).</p>
<p>The advantage of the Dartmouth approach is it leaves you alot of options after graduation. You could more easily go outside engineering altogether, so if you aren't sure about being an engineering major, or if you like thinking abstractly/solving problems but don't want to be a practicing engineer this is advatageous. The downside to Dartmouth is that if you want a real engineering job you need to get Dartmouth's "Bachelor of Engineering" degree, which is a fifth year of study. This degree is ABET acredited (which puts you on the same engineering-level as a program like Cornell's B.S), but the A.B engineering sciences degree is not. This is a downside if you want to be an engineering professional and/or go to graduate school for engineering.</p>
<p>Many engineers end up going into business, but if you actually want to be an engineer and don't want to spend the fifth year Dartmouth might not be the best choice. Princeton is a relatively similar school with the advantage of a B.S.</p>
<p>I'm a Dartmouth 05 and I did EE. I'm now at Stanford doing MS in EE.
If you are sure you want to be an electrical engineer, don't go to Dartmouth. Dartmouth EE education is rather weak, because they don't offer courses often enough for you to have a flexible schedule. I did my bach. of engineering in four years but compared to my peers at Stanford I feel that undergrad EE was a bit less. That's because of broad Dartmouth program.. I took courses in thermodynamics or bioengineering, and they count toward my EE major! I wish instead I'd taken VLSI or ...what!? There aren't enough EE courses! And many courses are offered alternate years, so you don't actually have choices.<br>
Also, not many engineering companies recruit at Dartmouth, because Dartmouth's reputation in engineering is... low. And to be honest, in today's world, you need at least a master's to do an exciting engineering job. That is why so many engineers go into business... because they have no choice.<br>
No, you will not be 'guaranteed' a salary of 50K, although the Dartmouth engineering starting salary is right at 50K.<br>
Personally I had a choice of going to UIUC and just in terms of EE education, I wish I had gone there. In terms of people... I will never know.....</p>
<p>I was going to say what they did. It depends on your engineering needs. I don't think Dart is the best choice for someone who knows they want engineering and wants to be an engineer, not just use it to spring into business, etc. There are so many other, better engineering programs out there for the serious prospective engineer, and I wouldn't recommend dart for someone who sees engineering as their future career. (I'm not highlighting on the strenghts of having a non-traditional engineering program, though there are many)</p>
<p>Well, what would be a good engineering school with the social life that Dartmouth offers (I just don't want to go to a school full of 'nerds' who play computer games in their spare time. I don't mind studying my ass off, but on the days that I can relax, I want to go to parties or concerts or do other stuff then play Warcraft. That is the reputation the GTech has. I was thinking maybe Cornell?)</p>
<p>So you actually want to be an engineer? I recommend Princeton (if you can get in), Cornell, Northwestern, and rice as the closest to Dartmouth's social life with strong engineering (not as good though lol!) Most of my Dartmouth engineering friends either went to top grad schools afterwards or went into business, very few went straight to firms. If you want a graduate degree after school Dartmouth will be great, but if you think you just want the 4 yr degree then want to jump into the workforce at a place like Boeing I would go to one of those I mentioned.</p>
<p>but there are alot of these so-called "nerds" in any engineering program. I'm sure there are some at Dartmouth too. Of course, not everyone in the engineering college is a nerd.</p>
<p>Based on your fear of nerds, I recommend against applying to a school with a narrow tech focus (e.g. MIT, Caltech, RIT, RPI, WPI, Georgia Tech, etc). Go to a university where engineers are just one ingredient in the mixture (e.g. Cornell, Stanford, Berkeley, Michigan, UIUC). Princeton is a great university, and it may be Dartmouth-like, but it doesn't quite have the engineering reputation of the others. Still, I'll venture that they have strong corporate recruiting and plenty to keep you occupied.</p>
<p>Above all you need to visit each school. I can see how Cornell is Dartmouth-like many ways, but it has a VERY different academic atmosphere in the College of Engineering (less coddling). At least that was my impression.</p>
<p>Edit: Don't be worried about giving up a place in the "6th ranked school." For undergraduates there's almost no difference between the top 10 schools (or top 20 for that matter), and reputation-wise schools 2-10 could all be tied.</p>
<p>I think Stanford would be a better school for you. Engineers here tend to be cool and non-nerdy. You wouldn't be able to tell them for engineers unless you ask. As for academics, Dartmouth doesn't have a strong engineering program. Stanford has a more rigorous, more quantitative program that results in a B.S. degree. However, Stanford is more selective so if things don't turn out well, Dartmouth should be just fine.</p>