<p>My son has been admitted to ND and plans to study electrical or computer engineering. He has also been accepted to Carnegie Mellon and Georgia Tech. He wants to go to ND but is struggling with the fact that Carnegie Mellon and Georgia Tech have more recognized engineering programs. Can someone comment on the ND engineering program? Is the program robust enough and what are the career opportunities for a ND engineer?</p>
<p>Thanks for your comments and feedback.</p>
<p>Am interested in the answer to your question, too , Peter2011, because our S is currently a freshman at ND, intending to major in Elec engineering.......</p>
<p>Based on what freshman aero intent son has told us after attending the fall career engineering fair, there were some very impressive companies on campus recruiting. In fact, a few companies went on ahead and took his resume, even tho he is only a freshman. He was so pumped!! While our family has no engineers and we don't really have a grasp on engineering in general, I can tell you that just the name Notre Dame seems to add a lot to the resume. Son turned down GA Tech for Notre Dame--and even tho he is much farther away, we think he did the right thing. When you mention "more recognized engineering programs", I assume that you are referring to employment ops. As you know, employment ops are a direct function of the school's network of graduates. While Tech and CM surely have broad networks, I doubt if there is a school in the country with a network as large and as strong as Notre Dame's. In terms of quality of campus life, ND, as a true university, is going to trump Tech. Our son thought hard about CM, but decided not to apply simply because he thought ND was a better fit for him. He has already landed an excellent paid summer internship in our local community. I have to wonder if that ND student on his resume helped out a bit! We are glad he decided on ND, and by the way, he made the call to attend ND, despite other offers of admission. ND fits his personality, etc. and he has fit into ND! Best of Luck to you, hope this helps!!</p>
<p>Someone asked me this exact question. I groggily wrote the following response:</p>
<p>Don't worry about the rankings. The Notre Dame engineering program is very good. Freshman year, it takes the incarnation of a large lecture twice a week and a smaller lab-type class once a week. The large lecture should not be off-putting, however, as the lab class is the one in which the majority of learning takes place. And learn you do! The class is fast-paced and challenging. However, it is far from untenable. The lab is open until midnight almost every day, so students can do their homework projects in there any time they want. Also, student assistants are paid to supervise the lab, not as a precaution to prevent wrongdoing, but rather to help students out if they should need it. If the assistant is unable to answer questions, the engineering faculty are more than happy to help. My lab instructor, Kerry Meyers, is one of the best professors I have had so far. She answered all of my emails within about an hour, and if I didn't feel like writing an email, her office was above the Learning Center (which is the official term for that particular engineering lab). I did not memorize her office hours; I did not need to. She made herself available in her office for such a large portion of time (and often past eight at night) that I was able to talk to her pretty much any time I wanted. She is typical of many professors here. Even if the professors were lackluster, the students here are terrific and willing to help. On the eve ere our final programming project was due, dozens of us were gathered in the lab hammering out bugs and making last-minute corrections. No man was an island; when people were finished they would often hang around and help others until they were finished. It was really quite inspiring. This illustrates one aspect of ND that (I believe) is fairly unique: no sense of competition. I have never felt that my success was contingent upon another student's failure and in fact students work together and help each other quite a bit. It really makes huge projects and assignments bearable. If your daughter is worried about the calibre of her engineering peers, she needn't be. For example, we have many transfers from Rose-Hulman, one of the most prestigious undergraduate engineering schools in the country. We also have folks who turned down MIT, the Ivy League, and Caltech to attend Notre Dame. The education here is fantastic.
One of the most critical factors for job placement and graduate school is research, and Notre Dame recognizes that. Students are able to pursue research in any number of fields within Notre Dame</p>
<p>Notre Dame probably has a better eng undergraduate program than GA Tech and CMU. Usually the high rankings for the other schools are for graduate school.</p>
<p>My D. is considering engineering as well Peter, and we met with one of the engineering faculty recently. She told us the same thing--the school is extremely strong and the curriculum is demanding, and graduates do well. </p>
<p>She also mentioned that employers recognize ND grads as having the advantage of strong writing, speaking and presentation skills because of the liberal arts requirements at ND. They are technically proficient, but they have an edge because their communication skills are well developed. </p>
<p>Also don't forget the alumni network--she told us she regularly has more requests for students and/or grads from alums than she has students available.</p>