Notre Dame has always been my dream school. I want to go into engineering. I am also applying to purdue, which is a top ranked engineering school, whereas notre dame isnt highly ranked. Do rankings really matter? How is engineering at Notre Dame?
Colleges with lots of graduates will always have a commensurate bump in rankings - do not put too much weight on those numbers. Both have good students and professors. Both would give you the chance for an excellent education.
Here are some other things to consider when looking at engineering:
- Four year graduation rates. The curriculum is rigorous and often takes longer than four years, especially at public universities where classes are impacted. You end up paying one more year of tuition and your career is delayed by a year. Big edge for ND in this case, 90% rate vs. mid-40s for Purdue.
- Job placement in your desired major. I couldn't find the statistics but both have excellent reputations.
- Other majors. The reality is that somewhere around 40% of engineering majors drop out or switch majors. What is available if you find it is not for you?
- Peer group. How would you fit with the other students? How happy are they, and how happy would you be around them? This is a lot bigger than people think. Happy people learn faster and do better. A four year struggle-fest is not recommended. Visit each, talk to students, and decide.
Are you a senior? Already applied?
I am a senior, and will be sending my application in soon. Since I was a kid, Notre Dame has always been my dream school. I have visited, and been to many football games and just love the environment. If I don’t happen to stick with engineering, I would most likely go on the pre-med track or into a business program such as finance.
Good luck to you @mnvb100 . Pre-med and finance at ND are both great programs just in case.
Sorry to hijack the discussion, but how good is premed at Notre Dame? I have had a surprisingly difficult time finding information on this from the Notre Dame site as well as external sources. Thanks
What Magnatron said. The program-specific rankings often relate more to the amount of published work the grad school cranks out than the quality of the undergrad education.
My son is a sophomore mechanical engineering major. He entered as a physics major, but switched after first semester. He loves the engineering program. I have my degree in math, and I am impressed by the rigor of material he is covering. Most importantly, he loves the school and has formed wonderful friendships.
The pre-med program has an exceptional placement record.
@ak9800 even though this is really old it is a very good thread with lots of information. The pre-professional advising is very strong and among the best in the country (reportedly, my son is, right now, a freshman planning on business and his roommate is engineering).
Here is the Notre Dame site: http://preprofessional.nd.edu/prospective-students/
The engineering program is ABET accredited which means that it is rigorous and meets high standards. YOu will not have any trouble finding employment with such a degree.
Hoping my admittedly-biased perspective helps; I’m a sophomore engineering student at ND.
If you haven’t had a chance, come out and visit both campuses. I fell in love with ND as soon as I arrived on campus during my senior year of high school, and have had an amazing experience so far. I didn’t apply to Purdue, but I have had several friends go there. For what it’s worth, two are still at Purdue but dropped out of engineering, one transferred from Purdue to Minnesota, and one is still in their engineering program.
I could list everything that drew me to ND (and if you have more questions, feel free to hit me up), but I have finals on Monday and should be studying - so I’ll sum up two of the most significant.
The professors here are absolutely fantastic; you’ll come to appreciate the quality of instruction in almost every class. Even in the larger classes, there are plenty of opportunities to get personal attention / meet with profs about coursework, research, or pretty much anything. Generally, classes are quite a bit smaller at ND than Purdue, which I found to be a huge benefit. In a freshman engineering course, my prof had previously worked on robotics with NASA on the Mars Rover, and my current physics prof has worked at CERN in Switzerland on several projects. There are some all-star researchers and instructors here in STEM fields - probably in every field, but I’m in mostly technical classes at the moment.
You’ll have opportunities at ND that you won’t get anywhere else - even Purdue. If you’re interested in research, most professors will consider taking you on even as a freshman; I did some research work as a freshman and know many others who did as well (and still do). Internship placement is fantastic; ND’s reputation and the connections you will make give you an advantage in many situations. I managed to get a technical internship for this summer and I have friends who will start internships at Microsoft, Google, Deloitte, GE, and Textron this summer, among many other places.
In terms of rankings, I don’t feel undergrad program rankings are as accurate or important as others may believe. Engineering rankings for undergraduate programs are heavily based on research quantity and quality - which is important, but it tends to reward larger schools (i.e. Purdue, though it’s still a fantastic school) and schools that have highly rated graduate programs. Notre Dame’s graduate engineering isn’t its strength in terms of research output, which (fairly or not) influences Notre Dame’s undergrad engineering ranking as well. For undergrad, there are two things that I think matter than anything else - quality of teaching and reputation. ND’s reputation as a whole is world-class, and though quality of instruction is harder to quantify, I believe the engineering professors are among the best of any program.
Feel free to post any other questions you have - I’d be happy to answer them.
Take this with a grain of salt, as I’m obviously biased toward ND as a current student, but these kinds of perspectives helped me a lot during the college search process, and I’m hoping I can repay the favor.
Facilities and lab/technical resources compared to a purdue?
PM me and I’ll give you my perspective from my daughter’s experience with pre-med at ND. Bottom line~great support and she is a resident now!